Akio Jissoji

Directing

Akio Jissoji

Born 1937-03-29 · Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

Akio Jissoji was a Japanese television and film director best known outside Japan for the 1960s TV series Ultraman and Ultra Seven, as well as for his auteur erotic ATG-produced Buddhist trilogy Mujō (無常), Mandala (曼陀羅), and Uta (哥). He was also known for his film adaptations of Japanese horror author Rampo Edogawa. Jissoji possessed a very distinctive visual style that was notable even in Japanese cinema which is known internationally for its visual style. Every project he directed, from children's action shows to the most disturbing adult films had an uncompromising approach to cinematic story telling. His episodes of the Ultraman TV shows are unique and quite unusual for children's television. His career is also unusual in that he went back and forth from children's television to film projects that were sexually provocative in some way or another. It is perhaps this aspect of his work that has prevented wider distribution of his films. Sadomasochistic and non-consensual sexual practices are featured in many of his film works with women receiving the brunt of the abuse. Another recurring theme was to pull the camera back and reveal the set his actors were working on.

Acting credits

Behind the camera

Rampo Noir poster
5.7

An anthology film consisting of four segments based on literary works by Edogawa Ranpo.

Rampo Noir

2005

Blue Lake Girl poster
6.5

Nagare, a painter who wanted to commit a lover’s suicide with Mizue, the wife of his friend and patron Takigawa. Growing afraid at the last moment, he doesn’t go through with it – but Mizue sinks to the bottom of Blue Lake. Some time later, Nagare follows an invitation by Takigawa, who claims to have forgiven everything. To Nagare’s shock, Takigawa’s new wife, Ameko, looks exactly like Mizue. While staying as Takigawa’s guest, Nagare becomes haunted by Mizue’s ghost, who wants to be reunited with him at the bottom of Blue Lake.

Blue Lake Girl

1986

Marquis de Sade’s Prosperities of Vice poster
4.6

A decadent count in 1920′s Japan becomes obsessed with the life and works of the Marquis de Sade. He creates a theatre to show plays adapted from the notorious writer’s novels and recruits thieves, prostitutes and low lives to act out his fantasies on stage for the delectation of his rich, jaded friends. In search of new sensations the nobleman orders one of the actors, on pain of death, to make love to the nobleman’s wife while he watches. Unfortunately, this incursion of real life into his fantasy world will have dire consequences for the count and his divinely decadent coterie.

Marquis de Sade’s Prosperities of Vice

1988

Utamaro's World poster
5.6

Utamaro was an artist who lived in Edo (which was later to become modern-day Tokyo) in the late 18th century. This film, which has a complex and wide-ranging storyline, recreates the world of that time, as it appeared in Utamaro's paintings.

Utamaro's World

1977

Mandala poster
5.9

Two university students from Kyoto decide to swap partners and spend the night in an isolated motel. However, one of the couples is attacked. Desperate for answers, they search for the attackers and come across a cult that promotes sexual freedom.

Mandala

1971

Akio Jissoji's Ultraman poster
8.0

Akio Jissoji's Ultraman is a 1979 Japanese tokusatsu kaiju film directed by Akio Jissoji. It is a compilation film made up of scenes from Jissoji's episodes of the original Ultraman TV series.

Akio Jissoji's Ultraman

1979

La Valse poster
3.8

A rape incident has occurred. The victim was a woman named Yumiko Kawamura, a dental hygienist. However, the statements of the victim Yumiko and the suspect Saburo Kubo were completely incompatible. Adachi, a national lawyer who took on the defense of the suspect, will begin a personal investigation of Yumiko to find out the truth of the case.

La Valse

1990

La Valse poster
3.8

A rape incident has occurred. The victim was a woman named Yumiko Kawamura, a dental hygienist. However, the statements of the victim Yumiko and the suspect Saburo Kubo were completely incompatible. Adachi, a national lawyer who took on the defense of the suspect, will begin a personal investigation of Yumiko to find out the truth of the case.

La Valse

1990

I Want to Buy Kyoto poster
NR

Buddhist statues are disappearing from temples in Kyoto. Maki pays a visit to Professor Fujimori, an archaeological authority, and encounters his assistant Miyako. At night in a disco hall, Miyako hands out flyers with the words “Please sell me Kyoto”. Made for "Operation: Mystery".

I Want to Buy Kyoto

1969

Akio Jissoji's Wonder Museum 1 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Akio Jissoji's Wonder Museum 1

1992

Akio Jissoji's Wonder Museum 1 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Akio Jissoji's Wonder Museum 1

1992

A Watcher in the Attic poster
4.8

Tokyo 1923, one of the residents of a boarding house discovers a way to spy on the other tenants, leading to dramatic consequences.

A Watcher in the Attic

1994

Murder on D Street poster
7.0

Detective Kogoro Akechi is faced with a peculiar murder case involving forgeries of classic pornographic artworks.

Murder on D Street

1998

When Twilight Draws Near poster
6.4

Bored by the emptiness of everyday life, four students gather to play dangerous games in an apartment.

When Twilight Draws Near

1969

Ten Nights of Dreams poster
6.3

Based on renowned Japanese writer Natsume Soseki's same-titled short story collection, Ten Nights of Dreams brings ten fantastical dream sequences to film with great visual and psychological panache. Representing the combined efforts of eleven directors, this outstanding anthology delves into the surreal subconscious with ten madly imaginative, reality-subverting visions that range from wonderfully wacky to nightmarishly unsettling.

Ten Nights of Dreams

2007

Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis poster
6.2

A demonic reincarnation of a Japanese general from the 10th century appears in the early 20th century Tokyo with a mission to destroy the blooming city.

Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis

1988

Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis poster
6.2

A demonic reincarnation of a Japanese general from the 10th century appears in the early 20th century Tokyo with a mission to destroy the blooming city.

Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis

1988

Summer of Ubume poster
7.4

Kyogokudo is a used book seller who doubles as an onmyouji, or Heian style occultist. His friend Sekiguchi brings him the story of a woman who has been pregnant for twenty months. Sekiguchi investigates further with the help of his friend Enokizu, a detective with the unusual ability to see people's memories. They are hired by the impossibly pregnant woman's sister to find the woman's missing husband and lay this whole matter to rest. In the end, they need the help of Kyogokudo to exorcise the family curse.

Summer of Ubume

2005

Lanterns on Blue Waters poster
5.8

The story of a Japanese man who as a 16-year-old went to Maui to work in the sugar cane fields in order to support his family back in Japan. Now 89 and still living in Hawaii he is visited by his granddaughter who brings him a letter from his disinherited and recently dead son. This brings back memories of his life with his wife and family following the attack on Pearl Harbor, in particular of his son who had gone off to join the war for the Americans.

Lanterns on Blue Waters

1983

No artwork available
NR

Anthology of three stories adapted from the manga "The Rapeman". Akio Jissoji directed the second story.

The Rapeman: Nerawareta Onna-tachi

1987

This Transient Life poster
7.4

Near a remote Buddhist monastery, a young man falls in love with his sister and gets her pregnant. After a monk finds out, the young man becomes an assistant to a master sculptor, only to proceed to complicate matters with his affairs.

This Transient Life

1970

Akio Jissoji's Mystery File 3 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Akio Jissoji's Mystery File 3

1997

Akio Jissoji's Mystery File 2 poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Akio Jissoji's Mystery File 2

1997

Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars poster
8.0

A series of serial murders occurred in a historic ruins where a TV crew is shooting a documentary.

Ultra Q The Movie: Legend of the Stars

1990