
Kenzo Horikoshi
Production
Biography
After graduating from Waseda University Kenzo Horikoshi went into entrepreneurship founding Europe-Japan Society travel agency which was later sold to Japan Airlines. During his travels associated with this venture, Horikoshi became interested with the New German Cinema of Wim Wenders and Rainer Werner Fassbinder and upon his return to Japan in 1977, he organised the German New Film Festival to help introduce the movement. In 1982 as a pioneer of the boom, Horikoshi opened the Euro Space micro-cinema in Shibuya where he helped produce and distribute films for renowned independent filmmakers such as Isao Yamada, Gakuryû Ishii, as well as sponsored western directors like Charles Musser and Frank Henenlotter to come and present their work in Japan. After this Horikoshi, through Euro Space, would become a key figure in both the production of independent films at home in Japan working with directors such as Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Makoto Sato, Shinji Aoyama, Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takashi Shimizu, and in helping directors from the West produce films in Japan such as with Matthias X. Oberg's Stratosphere Girl and Abbas Kiarostami's highly acclaimed Like Someone in Love. Throughout this period Euro Space also maintained it's position as a vital distributor of mainland European films into Japan, importing works from the likes of Lars von Trier, François Ozon, Aki Kaurismäki and Ulrich Seidl. But most notably was the regular collabration with Leos Carax, all of whoms films from The Lovers on the Bridge onward were distributed by Euro Space, which Horikoshi first took a more hands-on approach with by taking on a producer role for Carax's contribution to the Tokyo! omnibus film, and then again later with a producer role in the Cannes 2021 opening film, Annette.
Known For

A writer leaves his upper-class life and journeys with a woman claiming to be his sister, and her two friends.
Pola X

Writer Paul Benjamin is nearly hit by a bus when he leaves Auggie Wren's smoke shop. Stranger Rashid Cole saves his life, and soon middle-aged Paul tells homeless Rashid that he wouldn't mind a short-term housemate. Still grieving over his wife's murder, Paul is moved by both Rashid's quest to reconnect with his father and Auggie's discovery that a woman who might be his daughter is about to give birth.
Smoke

Three distinct tales unfold in the bustling city of Tokyo. Merde, a bizarre sewer-dweller, emerges from a manhole and begins terrorizing pedestrians. After his arrest, he stands trial and lashes out at a hostile courtroom. A man who has resigned himself to a life of solitude reconsiders after meeting a charming pizza delivery woman. And finally, a happy young couple find themselves undergoing a series of frightening metamorphoses.
Tokyo!

In 1970s Germany, Léopold, a 50-year-old businessman, picks up and seduces 20-year-old Franz, who swiftly moves into his apartment. The dynamic between them intensifies with the sudden arrival of their ex-girlfriends.
Water Drops on Burning Rocks

In present-day Los Angeles, controversial stand-up comedian Henry McHenry and internationally renowned opera singer Ann Defrasnoux form the façade of a happy couple in the spotlight. Ann gives birth to a baby girl named Annette, who possesses an exceptional gift that will change all of their lives forever.
Annette

An old man and a young woman meet in Tokyo. She knows nothing about him, he thinks he knows her. He welcomes her into his home, she offers him her body. But the web that is woven between them in the space of twenty four hours bears no relation to the circumstances of their encounter.
Like Someone in Love

Pierre ou, Les ambiguïtés (Pierre or, The Ambiguities) is a 2001 three-part French miniseries created and written by Leos Carax, an alternate, extended version of his 1999 film Pola X ('Pola' is the acronym of 'Pierre ou les ambiguïtés'.). Both entities are based on Herman Melville's 1852 Gothic novel of the same name. A writer leaves his upper-class life and journeys with a woman claiming to be his sister, and her two friends.
Pierre or, The Ambiguities

The image of a mysterious, solitary filmmaker - a cineaste maudit - who flees from both the media and the public, is unrelentingly bound to the figure of Leos Carax, in France. Elsewhere, the real focus is on his films and he is considered to be an icon of world cinema. Mr.X dives into the poetic and visionary world of an artist who was already a cult figure from his very first film. Punctuated by interviews and unseen footage, this documentary is most of all a fine-tuned exploration of the poetic and visionary world of Leos Carax, alias "Mr.X".
Mr. X

The police are tracking a man who shoots at people. But the young sister of a detective finds that he's not the mad vigilante portrayed in newspapers.
Tokyo Eyes

In Japanese theater, women's roles are traditionally played by men. The man playing the woman's role, the Onnagata, does not imitate the woman, as in the West, but tries to capture her significance. He need not stick close to his model, but draws far more from his own identity - a shift of value takes place, which is nonetheless not a step beyond. THE WRITTEN FACE is an attempt to offer an insight into the Japanese Kabuki star Tamasaburo Bando, one of the last defenders of this ancient and disappearing performing tradition.
The Written Face

Amélie, a young Belgian woman, having spent her childhood in Japan, decides to return to live there and tries to integrate in the Japanese society. She is determined to be a "real Japanese" before her year contract runs out, though it precisely this determination that is incompatable with Japanese humility. Though she is hired for a choice position as a translator at an import/export firm, her inability to understand Japanese cultural norms results in increasingly humiliating demotions. Though Amelie secretly adulates her, her immediate supervisor takes sadistic pleasure in belittling her all along. She finally manages to break Amelie's will by making her the bathroom attendant, and is delighted when Amelie tells her the she will not renew her contract. Amelie realizes that she is finally a real Japanese when she enters the company president's office "with fear and trembling," which could only be possible because her determination was broken by Miss Fubuki's systematic torture.
Fear and Trembling

Every Monday, a young woman is murdered in the subway, leading psychiatrist Setsuko Suma to investigate Dr. Rei Aku's deprogramming of former sect members.
Angel Dust

Being addicted to alcohol, single mother Anna had to give her son to foster parents, but they would "sell" him back if she offers enough money. When she gets to know Pete, the mentally handicapped son of a wealthy author, his father asks her to marry his son for one million dollar.
Bridget

In a near future where allergies have become an epidemic, music producer Haru half-heartedly dates post office clerk and mail thief Michi. He searches for violent ways to reactivate his life, she dreams of escaping abroad; both volunteer to test a new drug which may provide a cure.
Barren Illusion

I (Ken MItsuishi), documentary video maker, saw a guy named YUDA (Kazuma Honda) in middle of Tokyo. I was curious about Yuda and begun following him around, but one day he disappeared with my video camera. A couple months later, a lady name Michi Nakamura (Yukiko Okamoto) came to my office. She had the strap of my video camera that Yuda stole from me, and said she saw the address that was on the strap, so she came here. I asked her about Yuda, and she told me that he was dead. Right after she left my office, she was hit by a car, I visited her in hospital and she begins to tell me about the mysterious story of her and Yuda.
Secret Journey

The unborn child of Mamlakat is telling her story. She is 17, beautiful and vivacious, and dreaming secretly of becoming an actress. She lives with her father and brother in a small village in Central Asia. One night she is seduced by an actor from a travelling troupe, who poses as a friend of Tom Cruise, and gets her pregnant. She tries to abort, but her father and brother become determined to find the seducer, setting in motion a cascade of comic adventures.
Luna Papa

Oosumi, a dummy artist, makes the figure of Mari who is the wife of a gangster called Kurokin. Oosumi decides to run away with Mari, but Mari disappears. One night, Kaako, a musician's wife, meets a ghost cat and she is possessed by Mari's spirit.
Tsukineko Ni Mitsu No Tama

Bad things happen when innocent blood is shed. In the early 1700s, Lord Sodom Ichibei is happily celebrating his wedding day when his wife-to-be suddenly dies. In his search for an explanation, he kills any and every suspect he comes across. When Lord Ichibei tortures and kills two innocent girls, their death brings about a curse on the Sodom family. Three hundred years later, one of Sodom's descendents, Ichiro, is also set to be married. But one of the innocent victims has been reincarnated as Ichiro's sister and she kills everyone at the wedding. This transforms Ichiro into the evil and vengeful "Sodom The Killer", a cursed man hell-bent on slaughter and the world's destruction...
Sodom the Killer

A porn fanatic, a drifter, a jobless man and a magic-mushroom farmer are drawn together at an orgy.
Love Kill Kill

Angela is a French art student living in Germany who loves to draw comics and creates elaborate tales drawn in a soft and romantic style. One night, Angela meets Yamamoto, a club DJ from Japan, who invites her to come to Tokyo with him. Infatuated with Yamamoto, Angela impulsively agrees, and is soon sharing an apartment with a handful of Western expatriates who work at a nightclub where Japanese businessmen drink, sing karaoke, and date the "hostesses" for a fee.