Aoyama Shinji is one of the most outstanding contemporary directors, known for the versatility of his work whether digitally produced ("Shady Grove") or in black and white cinemascope ("Eureka"), whether manipulating the codes of cinematic genres in works of fantasy ("Embalming") or revisiting yakusa (Japanese organized crime) films ("Two Punks") and thematically dealing with alienation and the death and rebirth of the human spirit through traumatic experiences.
Born on 13th of July 1964 in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, he started filming in Super 8 while studying film at the University of Rikkyo, where he was profoundly influenced by the classes of the cinema critic Hasumi Shigehiko. Music was a former passion, dating back to his schooldays when he started a band called "Up Beat Underground". His first professional cinema work was in the props department, as a sound assistant and assistant director (with, for example, Kurosawa Kiyoshi on "Guard from the Underground" in 1992, Fredrik Thor Fridriksson on "Cold Fever" in 1995 and Daniel Schmid on "The Written Face" in 1960). At the same time he also contributed to Japanese cinema magazines as a writer and critic.
His directing debut was in 1995 with "It Is Not in the Textbook", filmed in video, followed by "Helpless" which received the major Japanese cinema award in 1996. "Eureka", in 2000, the film with which he gained international visibility.
Feature Films
Crickets
Desert Moon
Eli, Eli, Lema Sabachtani?
Embalming
Eureka
Helpless
June 12m 1998 / At The Edge Of Chaos
Lakeside Murder Case
Mike Yokohama - A Forest With No Name
An Obsession
Shady Grove
To The Alley
Two Punks
Wild Life
