Aoyama Shinji
AOYAMA Shinji (1964–2022) was a Japanese film director, screenwriter, composer, film critic and novelist. He studied at Rikkyo University, and attended classes on cinema taught by Hasumi Shigehiko, Japan’s most important film critic in the 1980s. After graduating from Rikkyo in 1989, Aoyama started working as an assistant director on a number of films and television programmes. He made his debut as a director in 1995 with It’s Not in the Textbook!. Aoyama is widely respected as a key figure in the Japanese film revival. Aoyama won two awards at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for his film Eureka (2000).
Filmography
Kyokasho ni nai!/It’s Not in the Textbook! (1995), Helpless (1996), 1/5 (1996, short), Waga mune ni kyoki ni ari/A Weapon in My Heart (1996), Chinpira/Two Punks (1996), Wild Life (1997), Tsumetai chi/An Obsession (1997), Shady Groove (1999), EM/Embalming (1999), June 12 1998 (1999, doc), Eureka (2000), To the Alley (2001, doc), Tsuki no sabaku/Desert Moon (2002), Song of Ajima (2002, doc), Shusei tabi nikki/Days in the Shade (2003, short), Reikusaido mada kesu/Lakeside Murder Case (2004), Eri Eri rema sabakutani/My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me? (2005), Kôrogi/Crickets (2006), Saddo bakeshon/Sad Vacation (2007), Le Petit Chaperon Rouge(2008), Down(2010), Tokyo Park(2011), The Backwater (2013), Living in the Sky (2020)
Aoyama Shinji op IFFR
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A Weapon in My Heart
Aoyama Shinji | 92' | Japan | No premiere
An archetypal action movie with surreal touches and cinematic references, from the director of Eureka. -
Sad Vacation
Aoyama Shinji | 136' | Japan | None
Asano Tadanobu, the Japanese actor with the beautiful long hair, plays a man with a fairly complicated past. He was once deserted by his mother… -
Eureka
Aoyama Shinji | 217' | Japan | -
Two children and the driver are the only survivors of a violent bus hijacking. Several years later, they go on a journey together, in this… -
Roji-E
Aoyama Shinji | 64' | Japan | -
Alongside the impressive Eureka, Aoyama this year also made this requiem for writer Nakagami Kenji, which is also a portrait of his birthplace, the co -
Haruneko
Hokimoto Sora | 85' | Japan | International premiere
Those who seek to die find refuge in a mysterious café. In this feverish musical dream that recalls Terayama Shuji, the forest is a place… -
Chinpira
Aoyama Shinji | 101' | Japan | -
Realistic and subdued Yakuza film about ageing gangster and his young colleague whose explosive character causes problems. -