FEEL IT.STREAM
Mitsutoshi Tanaka

Mitsutoshi Tanaka

Directing

Biography

Born 1958 in Urakawa, Hokkaido, Mitsutoshi Tanaka (田中光敏) is a Japanese film and commercial director. He has been President and CEO of Osaka-based film production firm Creators' Union since 1984, a Professor of Film and Media Studies with the Osaka University of Arts since 2014 and a Visiting Fellow with the Wakayama University Center for Tourism Research since 2017. He is widely known for award-winning feature films such as «Godai - The Wunderkind» (2020), «125 Years Memory» (2015), «Blossoms Bloom» (2014), «Ask this of Rikyu» (2013) and «Castle Under Fiery Skies» (2009). He has received numerous awards, including the 94th Kinema Junpo Readers' Choice Award as Best Director for his film «Godai - The Wunderkind», the 39th Japan Academy Film Prize as Excellent Director for «125 Years Memory» and the Best Director Award at the 1st Asia International Film Festival in Taipei for «Blossoms Bloom».

Known For

125 Years Memory
7.8

Two historical incidents that deepened the friendship between Japan and Turkey are connected in this story of friendship and compassion: In the night of 16 September 1890 the Turkish frigate Ertuğrul is caught up in a typhoon and sinks off the Japanese coast. Risking their own lives, local villagers are able to rescue 69 Turkish sailors. Although being very poor and having hardly to eat, the villagers share what little they have with strangers from a country 9,000 kilometers away. 95 years later, during the Iran-Iraq War, more than 300 Japanese are stranded in Tehran. In the morning of 19 March 1985 a Turkish Airlines aircraft takes off for Tehran to evacuate the Japanese. But the remaining Turks at Tehran Mehrabad Airport still need to be convinced that they won't be able to board their own country's rescue flight.

125 Years Memory

2015Movie
Ask This of Rikyu
7.3

Sen no Rikyu (Ebizo Ichikawa) is the son of a fish shop owner. Sen no Rikyu then studies tea and eventually becomes one of the primary influences upon the Japanese tea ceremony. With his elegant esthetics, Sen no Rikyu is favored by the most powerful man in Japan Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Nao Omori) and becomes one of his closest advisors. Due to conflicts, Toyotomi Hideyoshi then orders Sen no Rikyu to commit seppuku (suicide). Director Mitsutoshi Tanaka's adaptation of Kenichi Yamamoto's award-winning novel of the same name received the Best Artistic Contribution Award at the 37th Montréal World Film Festival, the Best Director Award at the 2014 Osaka Cinema Festival, the 30th Fumiko Yamaji Cultural Award and the 37th Japan Academy Film Prize in nine categories, including Best Art Direction, Excellent Film and Excellent Actor.

Ask This of Rikyu

2013Movie