kiyoshi kurosawa

Kiyoshi Kurosawa was born on July 19, 1955, in Kobe, Japan. He developed an interest in filmmaking early, creating films about his life in high school. Kurosawa pursued his education at Rikkyo University in Tokyo, where he studied under the film critic Shigehiko Hasumi. During his university years, he began producing 8mm films, laying the groundwork for his future career in cinema. Kurosawa is not related to the filmmaker Akira Kurosawa.

Kurosawa started his professional directing career in the 1980s, initially working on pink films and low-budget V-Cinema productions, including yakuza films. In 1981, his 8mm film “Shigarami Gakuen” received a nomination for the Oshima Prize at the Pia Film Festival. His first feature film, “Kandagawa Pervert Wars,” was released in 1983. He gained recognition with “The Excitement of the Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girl” in 1985 and “The Guard from Underground” in 1992. In the early 1990s, Kurosawa was awarded a scholarship to the Sundance Institute, which provided him the opportunity to study filmmaking in the United States.

Kurosawa gained international recognition with his 1997 crime thriller “Cure.” This success was followed by “Serpent’s Path” and “Eyes of the Spider” in 1998. In 1999, the Hong Kong International Film Festival held a retrospective of his work, featuring five of his films. He continued to direct notable films such as “Pulse” (2001), “Tokyo Sonata” (2008), for which he received the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival, and “Journey to the Shore” (2015), earning him the Best Director award at the 2015 Cannes Film Festival. In 2020, Kurosawa won the Silver Lion for Best Direction at the 77th Venice International Film Festival for his film “Wife of a Spy.” He was also honored with the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2021 and named The Asian Filmmaker of the Year at the 29th Busan International Film Festival in 2024. Kurosawa served as a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts from 2005 to 2023.