
Katsuhito Ishii
Directing
Biography
Katsuhito Ishii is a Japanese film director. After graduating from Musashino Art University, Katsuhito Ishii got a job at Tohokushinsha Film and began directing commercials in 1992, receiving numerous awards in this field. His first short film The Promise of August, shot in 1995, went on to receive the Japanese Film Grand Prix in the Fantastic Video Section of the 1995 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. He made his feature debut with Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl, based on the visual novel by cult manga artist Minetaro Mochizuki and starring regular collaborator Tadanobu Asano. Ishii quickly followed his success with another box office hit, Party 7 (2000), which featured Masatoshi Nagase, Yoshio Harada and Tadanobu Asano among others. Between the years 2001 and 2002, he created a series of short films including the 3D animated dialogue piece Hal & Bons and the 2D animated space opera Trava Fist Planet. Among other commercials and select TV projects including the short Black Room which starred Takuya Kimura, and Music Power Go Go!, He collaborated with Production I.G for the animation sequence of Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill: Volume 1. In 2004, his fourth feature film The Taste of Tea won Best Feature Film at the Hawaii International Film Festival. In 2006, he co-directed the feature film Funky Forest with fellow Japanese film makers and old school friends Shunichiro Miki and ANIKI. He founded his own production company, Nice Rainbow, in October 2006.
Known For

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Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari Tokubetsuhen

An assassin is shot by her ruthless employer, Bill, and other members of their assassination circle – but she lives to plot her vengeance.
Kill Bill: Vol. 1

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SHORT PEACE

A daredevil driver is determined to compete in Redline, the most popular race in the galaxy. The race only occurs every five years, but in order to participate he must overcome the mafia, the government and even love.
Redline

A spell of time in the life of the five-piece Haruno family in rural Tochigi Prefecture. Yoshiko is not an ordinary housewife, instead working on an animated film project. Uncle Ayano, a successful music producer, is looking to get his head together after living in Tokyo. Meanwhile, Sachiko is concerned with why she seems to be followed by a giant version of herself. As the lazy days pass by, each member of the family is followed in a series of episodic vignettes.
The Taste of Tea

After fending off a series of skilled assassins, gentleman thief Lupin III and his band of allies follow a strange invitation to an uncharted island. When their plane is shot down, the gang is stranded and soon hunted by the island’s inhabitants, past enemies, and a monstrous immortal being known as Muom, who threatens to destroy Lupin's legacy. As a deadly toxic fog settles over them, Lupin must confront his greatest enemy in his most daring escapade yet.
LUPIN THE IIIRD: The Movie - The Immortal Bloodline

Ace pilot Trava and his personal mechanic buddy Shinkai, on their way to mark an out-of-the-way planet, pick up Mikuru, a girl with no memory. The three are about to discover that the planet is more than it seems.
Trava: Fist Planet

A traveler is confronted by spirits in an abandoned shrine; a story of honor and firefighting in ancient Japan; a white bear defends the royal family from a monstrous red demon; ragtag soldiers battle a robotic force in futuristic Japan.
Short Peace

When Honey's uncle gets kidnapped by the evil criminal gang known as "Panther Claw," she must use her magical powers of transformation to save him. Meanwhile the same crime group has been responsible for a number of other crime sprees across Tokyo. In the process, Honey teams up with the seemingly cold police woman Natsuko Aki and hot shot journalist Seiji Hayami as well as battle the four "claws" of the Panther Claw gang to save her uncle and the rest of the city.
Cutie Honey

A battle between a creature who’s been killing members of a royal Japanese family, and a mysterious white bear who protects them.
GAMBO

In dreamlike mountain scenery, Toshiko makes a daring escape from her sexually warped Uncle Sonezaki. Fortunately, she met Samehada as she runs for her life, which is also escaping from some slayers. What follows is a wild chase that leads the audience into a comically violent world.
Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl

Inspector Zenigata pursues Lupin as the prime suspect behind a terrorist attack. But when he manages to confront the famous thief, he quickly deduces that the bomber is a second, fake Lupin. Now, it's up to Zenigata to capture both Lupins and solve the mystery behind the bombing.
LUPIN THE IIIRD: Zenigata and the Two Lupins

An outrageous collection of surreal, short attention span non-sequiturs largely revolving around Guitar Brother, his randy older sibling, and the pair's portly Caucasian brother.
Funky Forest: The First Contact

To pay off his loan shark, failed actor Ryōsuke Kinuta is forced to smuggle dead bodies – and one live elite assassin – in the middle of the night.
Smuggler

In the mountain hot springs of Izu, Japan, a love triangle is waiting to happen. It is the late 1930s when the paths of a stunning woman fleeing Tokyo, a handsome bachelor and a blind masseur cross.
My Darling of the Mountains

Hal and Bons are a pair of beer-drinking slacker dogs. They are joined on their sofa by an anthropomorphic rice cake by the name of Mochi, who first interviews them and then decides to give up being an interviewer and move in with them instead.
Hal & Bons

An elementary student named Junichi is having trouble returning an eraser he borrowed from his secret crush, Maeda. With the support and encouragement of rookie teacher Anna, Junichi gets over his shyness and starts a band with his classmates.
Hello! Junichi

Drama Legend Special Yo nimo Kimyou na Monogatari SMAP Special is a 2001's rerun version, consisting of 5 stories: 1. Extra Synopsis: A man decides to go against a society whose every action and exchange of dialogue has already been prewritten in the screenplay of life. 2. 13-banme no Kyaku (Guest no. 13) Synopsis: A short-tempered man gets his hair cut at a strange barber shop only to find that he cannot leave before going through a certain process. 3. Black Room Synopsis: A son returns home from America to find his hometown shrouded in black and his parents behaving very strangely. 4. Boku wa Tabi o Suru (I'm Taking a Trip) Synopsis: A man’s older sister goes on a trip without realizing the terrifying truth. 5. Otona Juken (Adult Test) Synopsis: A young man must prove that he is truly an adult through a series of real life scenario tests.
Tales of the Bizarre: SMAP Special

Seven characters, introduced at the start of the film, get thrown together into the same hotel room: a thief who's stolen a suitcase of money from the mob, his ex-girlfriend, her obsessive boyfriend, the mob soldier sent to retrieve the briefcase, another mobster sent to kill them, master voyeur Captain Banana and his new apprentice, The Mister Yellow. Who will end up with the money?
Party 7

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