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Shinya Tsukamoto (塚本 晋也, Tsukamoto Shin'ya, born January 1, 1960) is a Japanese filmmaker, film producer, screenwriter, editor, director, cinematographer, art director, production designer and actor.

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Shinya Tsukamoto
塚本晋也
Tsukamoto at the 2009 Venice Film Festival
Born	(1960-01-01) January 1, 1960 (age 62) Tokyo, Japan
Occupation	Actor, film director, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, producer, production designer/art director
Years active	1974–present
Movement	Japanese Cyberpunk
Website	塚本晋也 Official Website

With a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad, Tsukamoto is best known for his body horror/cyberpunk film Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), which is considered the defining film of the Japanese Cyberpunk movement,[1] as well as for its companion pieces Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) and Tetsuo: The Bullet Man (2009).

His other films include Tokyo Fist (1995), Bullet Ballet (1998), A Snake of June (2002), Vital (2004), Kotoko (2011) and Killing (2018).

In addition to starring in almost all his films, Tsukamoto has also appeared as an actor in films by other directors, including Martin Scorsese, Takashi Miike and Hideaki Anno. He has been cited as an influence on popular western filmmakers such as Quentin Tarantino, David Fincher, Darren Aronofsky and The Wachowskis.[2][3][4]

Biography

Tsukamoto began making films at age 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. His cinematic influences include David Lynch,[5] David Cronenberg,[6] and Akira Kurosawa.[7] He made a number of films, ranging from 10-minute shorts to 2-hour features, until his first year at college when he temporarily lost interest in filmmaking. Tsukamoto then started up a theatre group, which soon included Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka and Tomorowo Taguchi, all of whom would continue to work with Tsukamoto up through the filming of Tetsuo: The Iron Man.[8] One of their theatre productions at this time was The Adventures of Electric Rod Boy. At the end of production, Tsukamoto did not want to waste all the effort they had put into building the set, so he decided to shoot a film version.[9]

Tsukamoto's early films, The Phantom of Regular Size (1986) and The Adventures Of Electric Rod Boy (1987), were short subject science fiction films shot on color 8 mm film that led to his black & white 16 mm feature Tetsuo: The Iron Man. Tsukamoto has stated he has a love-hate relationship with Tokyo, and in the end the characters (Tsukamoto and Taguchi) set out to destroy it. Tetsuo is considered one of the prime examples of Japanese cyberpunk.[10]

Tsukamoto's next film, Hiruko the Goblin, was a more conventional horror film, about demons being unleashed from the gates of hell. He then created a follow-up to Tetsuo, Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992), which revisited many of the same themes as the first but with a bigger budget and shot in color on 35 mm film. As a result, the film is often interpreted more as a companion piece than a true sequel.[11] In Body Hammer, the son of a salaryman (Taguchi) is kidnapped by a group of thugs, who then force the man's nascent rage to make him mutate into a gigantic human weapon. Tokyo Fist (1995) again dealt with the idea of rage as a transformative force (similar to David Cronenberg's The Brood [1979]). Here, a meek insurance salesman (Tsukamoto) discovers that an old friend of his, now a semi-professional boxer, may be having an affair with his fiancée. The salesman then enters into a rigorous and self-destructive boxing training program to get even.

In Bullet Ballet (1998), a man (Tsukamoto) discovers that his longtime girlfriend committed suicide with a gun, and becomes obsessed with getting a gun just like that one. His single minded behavior causes him to run afoul of a gang of thugs, especially when he shows interest in the young girl who is one of their compatriots. Gemini (1999) was an adaptation of an Edogawa Rampo story, in which a country doctor with pretensions of superiority has his life torn apart when another man who appears to be his exact duplicate enters his life. Things are complicated further by the twin taking control of his wife, an amnesiac with a criminal background. A Snake of June (2002) once again found Tsukamoto employing the formula of two men in competition for one woman, as a young lady is blackmailed into perverse sexual behavior against her husband's will—until her husband finds that he enjoys the blackmail more than the blackmailer does.

Vital (2004) again features a love triangle, this time consisting of two women and one man. The story concerns a young man whose girlfriend is killed in a car crash whilst being driven by him. He is a medical student and is given her body to dissect in class (whether by coincidence or intentionally is not clear). Tsukamoto also acted in and directed the short film Haze in 2005. In 2006, Tsukamoto directed the horror thriller Nightmare Detective (2006). The film centers around a vagrant with the supernatural ability to enter the dreams of others and a police officer who pleads with him to help her solve a series of bizarre murders committed by a serial killer (Tsukamoto) with a similar ability.

Tsukamoto acts in nearly all of his films, with the exception of those that he worked on as a "director for hire" (namely Hiruko the Goblin and Gemini). Tsukamoto has appeared in many other directors' films as well, such as Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive 2: Birds (2000), and Ichi the Killer (2001), as well as Teruo Ishii's Blind Beast vs. Dwarf (2001). He was the lead actor in Takashi Shimizu's Marebito (2004), and appeared more recently in Welcome to the Quiet Room (2007), Hideaki Anno's Shin Godzilla (2016) and Martin Scorsese's Silence (2016).

He is also a successful voiceover artist for TV advertising in Japan. He also provided the Japanese voice of Vamp in the 2008 PlayStation 3 game Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Tsukamoto was originally set to play the character in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (after Hideo Kojima's first choice, Kaneto Shiozawa, died before casting began) but was unavailable due to scheduling conflicts, so Ryōtarō Okiayu was assigned the role instead.[12]

Tsukamoto was a member of the jury at the Venice International Film Festival in 1997 and 2019.

Awards

As per references:[8]

• The Adventures of Electric Rod Boy – PIA Film Fest (Japan) – Grand Prize
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man – Fantafestival (Italy) – Grand Prize
• Tetsuo: The Iron Man – Sweden Fantastic Film Festival – Audience Award Best Feature
• Hiruko the Goblin – Fantasporto – Best Film
• Tetsuo II: Body Hammer – Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film – Silver Raven
• Tetsuo II: Body Hammer – Fantasporto – International Fantasy Film Special Jury Award
• Tetsuo II: Body Hammer – 3rd Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival (1992)[13]
• Tokyo Fist – Sundance (Tokyo) – Grand Prize
• Bullet Ballet – Sweden Fantastic Film Festival – Jury Grand Prize
• Gemini – Neuchatel International Fantasy Film Festival – Best International Film
• A Snake of June – Venice Film Festival – Kinematrix Film Award Feature Films
• A Snake of June – Venice Film Festival – San Marco Special Jury Award
• Vital – Brussels International Festival of Fantasy Film – Silver Raven
• Vital – Sitges – Catalan International Film Festival – New Visions Award
• Vital – Fantasporto – Orient Express Section Special Jury Award
• Kotoko – The Orizzonti prize at the 68th Venice International Film Festival (2011)

Filmography

Director

Year	English title	Japanese title	Romaji	Notes
1974	Genshi-san	原始さん	Genshi-san	Early Super-8 short (10 min).
1975	Story of a Giant Cockroach	巨大ゴキブリ物語	Kyodai Gokiburi Monogatari	Super-8 (50 min).
1975	Wings	翼	Tsubasa	Super-8 (25 min).
1976	Cloudy	曇天	Donten	B&W Super-8 (60 min).
1977	It flew in hell	地獄町小便小僧にて飛んだよ	Jigoku Machi Shouben Kozou ni te Tobenda yo	Super-8 (120 min).
1978	New Wings	新・翼	Shin: Tsubasa	Super-8 (40 min).
1979	Flying Lotus Flower	蓮の花飛べ	Hasu no Hana Tobe	Super-8 (90 min).
1986	The Phantom of Regular Size	普通サイズの怪人	Futsu Saizu no Kaijin	Super-8 (18 min).
1987	The Adventures of Electric Rod Boy	電柱小僧の冒険	Denchu Kozou no Boken	Super-8 (47 min).
1989	Tetsuo: The Iron Man	鉄男　ＴＥＴＳＵＯ	Tetsuo	16mm B&W[14] (67 min)
1991	Hiruko The Goblin	ヒルコ　妖怪ハンター	Hiruko Youkai Hanta	35mm[9] (89 min)
1992	Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	鉄男 II　ＢＯＤＹ　ＨＡＭＭＥＲ	Tetsuo II: Body Hammer	35mm[9] (83 min)
1995	Tokyo Fist	ＴＯＫＹＯ　ＦＩＳＴ	Tokyo Fist	16mm[15] (87 min)
1998	Bullet Ballet	BULLET BALLET　バレット・バレエ	Bullet Ballet	16mm B&W[16] (87 min)
1999	Gemini	双生児-GEMINI-	Sōseiji	35mm (83 min)
2002	A Snake of June	六月の蛇	Rokugatsu no Hebi	16mm (77 min)
2004	Vital	ヴィタール	Vital	35mm[17] (86 min)
2005	Haze	ＨＡＺＥ	Haze	DV (49 min)
2005	Female	female フィーメイル	Fīmeiru	Segment: Tamamushi.
2006	Nightmare Detective	悪夢探偵	Akumu Tantei
2008	Nightmare Detective 2	悪夢探偵2	Akumu Tantei 2
2010	Tetsuo: The Bullet Man	鉄男 THE BULLET MAN	Tetsuo: The Bullet Man
2011	Kotoko	KOTOKO	Kotoko
2014	Fires on the Plain	野火	Nobi
2018	Killing	斬、	Zan

Actor

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes	Ref(s)
1989	Tetsuo: The Iron Man	Metal Fetishist	Himself
1995	Tokyo Fist	Tsuda Yoshiharu	Himself		[18]
1997	Tōkyō Biyori		Naoto Takenaka
1998	Wait and See		Shinji Sōmai
2000	Dead or Alive 2: Birds		Takashi Miike
2001	Ichi the Killer	Jijii	Takashi Miike
2002	Blind Beast vs. Dwarf		Teruo Ishii
2004	Marebito		Takashi Shimizu	Lead role
	Otakus in Love		Suzuki Matsuo
2007	Welcome to the Quiet Room		Suzuki Matsuo
2014	Fires on the Plain	Tamura	Himself	Also produced / wrote.
2016	Shin Godzilla	Kunio Hazama	Hideaki Anno/Shinji Higuchi
	Silence	Mokichi	Martin Scorsese	American film
	Scoop!	Taga	Hitoshi Ōne
2021	Kiba: The Fangs of Fiction	Tamio Takano	Daihachi Yoshida
	DIVOC-12	Manager	Shin'ichiro Ueda		[19]
2023	Shin Kamen Rider		Hideaki Anno		[20]

Television

Year	Title	Role	Network	Notes	Ref(s)
2007	Sexy Voice and Robo		NTV
2009–2011	Saka no ue no kumo	Akashi Motojiro	NHK
2010	GeGeGe no Nyōbō		NHK	Asadora
2012	Carnation	Takeshi Haraguchi	NHK	Asadora
2016	Tokyo Trial	Michio Takeyama	NHK, Netflix
2018	Hanbun, Aoi	Prof. Usakawa	NHK	Asadora
2019	Idaten	Michimasa Soejima	NHK	Taiga drama
2021	Welcome Home, Monet	Tomohisa "Tom-san" Tanaka	NHK	Asadora	[21]
2022	Lost Man Found	Himself	Disney+, NHK		[22]

See also

• Shozin Fukui
• Sogo Ishii

References

External links

• Shinya Tsukamoto director profile at subtitledonline.com
• Shinya Tsukamoto at IMDb
• Sato, Kuriko (October 23, 2002). "Shinya Tsukamoto: Interview". midnighteye.com. Retrieved January 15, 2008.

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