Sang-il Lee

Directing

Sang-il Lee

Born

1974-01-06 (52)

Place of birth

Niigata, Japan

Known for

Directing

Credits

23 titles

Sang-il Lee is a Korean film director and screenwriter who works in Japan. His first film, “Chong,” was a short film about the lives of third generation Zainichi Koreans living in Japan. “Hula Girls” was declared best Japanese film of 2006 by Kinema Junpo, and Lee won the Best Director and Best Screenplay prizes at the 2007 Japanese Academy Awards for the film. His film “Unforgiven” was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

Known for

Kokuho poster
7.9

Nagasaki, 1964: Following the death of his Yakuza father, 15-year-old Kikuo is taken under the wings of a famous Kabuki actor. Alongside Shunsuke, the actor’s only son, he decides to dedicate himself to this traditional form of theatre. For decades, the two young men grow and evolve together – and one will become the greatest Japanese master of the art of Kabuki.

Kokuho

2025

Hula Girls poster
6.8

Young women in a small Japanese town look to revive their home's declining fortunes by building a Hawaiian village tourist attraction.

Hula Girls

2006

Villain poster
6.8

Shimizu Yuichi is a shy and lonely day laborer looking for love. He aimlessly spends time corresponding with girls via telephone dating services and going on random encounters with girls looking for spending cash. His world is shattered one day when he is involved in the murder of one of his former encounters, the sweet-faced Ishibashi Yoshino who, after being jilted by playboy Masuo Keijo, berates and mocks the troubled loner.

Villain

2010

Unforgiven poster
7.0

An old swordsman, his former comrade and a young braggart are hired by prostitutes to track down bandits who mutilated one of the women.

Unforgiven

2013

69 poster
6.5

Hoping to catch a girl's attention, high school students Ken and Adama cook up an ambitious plan. They plan a festival that combines film, theater, and rock music, and develop their project into a school road block. This plan however catches the attention of television stations and newspapers, and soon even the cops became involved in this teenage adventure.

69

2004

The Wandering Moon poster
6.6

In a park on a rainy evening, a 19-year-old university student, Fumi, offers an umbrella to a soaking wet 10-year-old girl, Sarasa. Realizing her reluctance to go home, Fumi lets her stay in his place, where she spends the next two months in peace.

The Wandering Moon

2022

Behind the camera

Kokuho poster
7.9

Nagasaki, 1964: Following the death of his Yakuza father, 15-year-old Kikuo is taken under the wings of a famous Kabuki actor. Alongside Shunsuke, the actor’s only son, he decides to dedicate himself to this traditional form of theatre. For decades, the two young men grow and evolve together – and one will become the greatest Japanese master of the art of Kabuki.

Kokuho

2025

Hula Girls poster
6.8

Young women in a small Japanese town look to revive their home's declining fortunes by building a Hawaiian village tourist attraction.

Hula Girls

2006

Hula Girls poster
6.8

Young women in a small Japanese town look to revive their home's declining fortunes by building a Hawaiian village tourist attraction.

Hula Girls

2006

Villain poster
6.8

Shimizu Yuichi is a shy and lonely day laborer looking for love. He aimlessly spends time corresponding with girls via telephone dating services and going on random encounters with girls looking for spending cash. His world is shattered one day when he is involved in the murder of one of his former encounters, the sweet-faced Ishibashi Yoshino who, after being jilted by playboy Masuo Keijo, berates and mocks the troubled loner.

Villain

2010

Villain poster
6.8

Shimizu Yuichi is a shy and lonely day laborer looking for love. He aimlessly spends time corresponding with girls via telephone dating services and going on random encounters with girls looking for spending cash. His world is shattered one day when he is involved in the murder of one of his former encounters, the sweet-faced Ishibashi Yoshino who, after being jilted by playboy Masuo Keijo, berates and mocks the troubled loner.

Villain

2010

Unforgiven poster
7.0

An old swordsman, his former comrade and a young braggart are hired by prostitutes to track down bandits who mutilated one of the women.

Unforgiven

2013

Unforgiven poster
7.0

An old swordsman, his former comrade and a young braggart are hired by prostitutes to track down bandits who mutilated one of the women.

Unforgiven

2013

69 poster
6.5

Hoping to catch a girl's attention, high school students Ken and Adama cook up an ambitious plan. They plan a festival that combines film, theater, and rock music, and develop their project into a school road block. This plan however catches the attention of television stations and newspapers, and soon even the cops became involved in this teenage adventure.

69

2004

The Wandering Moon poster
6.6

In a park on a rainy evening, a 19-year-old university student, Fumi, offers an umbrella to a soaking wet 10-year-old girl, Sarasa. Realizing her reluctance to go home, Fumi lets her stay in his place, where she spends the next two months in peace.

The Wandering Moon

2022

The Wandering Moon poster
6.6

In a park on a rainy evening, a 19-year-old university student, Fumi, offers an umbrella to a soaking wet 10-year-old girl, Sarasa. Realizing her reluctance to go home, Fumi lets her stay in his place, where she spends the next two months in peace.

The Wandering Moon

2022

Rage poster
6.9

A man brutally murders a married couple and leaves the word “ikari” (“rage”) written with their blood. The killer undergoes plastic surgery and flees. At three different locations in Japan, a male stranger appears. People suspect that the stranger might be the murderer.

Rage

2016

Rage poster
6.9

A man brutally murders a married couple and leaves the word “ikari” (“rage”) written with their blood. The killer undergoes plastic surgery and flees. At three different locations in Japan, a male stranger appears. People suspect that the stranger might be the murderer.

Rage

2016

The Blue Hearts poster
5.0

Six directors picked a favorite song by Japanese punk rock band "The Blue Hearts" and made a short film inspired by the song.

The Blue Hearts

2017

Kaidan Horror Classics poster
7.0

Four short films based on ghost stories written by award winning modern Japanese writers.

Kaidan Horror Classics

2010

Scrap Heaven poster
7.6

The lives of a young cop, a sanitation worker and a brooding pharmacist violently intersect on a bus that's hijacked by a suicidal political flunky, then cross paths again months later.

Scrap Heaven

2005

Scrap Heaven poster
7.6

The lives of a young cop, a sanitation worker and a brooding pharmacist violently intersect on a bus that's hijacked by a suicidal political flunky, then cross paths again months later.

Scrap Heaven

2005

Blue – Chong poster
10.0

A spirited and brave fiction debut by Lee Sang-il, a Korean-Japanese filmmaker, that explores the taboo subject of the relations between Korean immigrants and Japanese in Japan.

Blue – Chong

2000

Blue – Chong poster
10.0

A spirited and brave fiction debut by Lee Sang-il, a Korean-Japanese filmmaker, that explores the taboo subject of the relations between Korean immigrants and Japanese in Japan.

Blue – Chong

2000

The Short Films: We Were All Once Children poster
NR

A dream collaboration between five directors who represent the modern Japanese film industry! An omnibus work composed of five short films has been created. "The Short Films: We Were All Once Children." The theme that runs through the five short films is "children." The styles vary from period dramas to contemporary daily life scenes, but all of the works highlight the dreams of children, who are entrusted with Japan's future, as well as the issues facing the social system surrounding children. ©ABC Television

The Short Films: We Were All Once Children

2008

Border Line poster
5.2

Three storylines interweave in Border Line. Kurosawa (Murakami Jun) finds himself driving a taciturn young man named Matsuda (Sawaki Tetsu) halfway to Hokkaido, after accidentally knocking him off his bike; their fragile bond can last only so long. The housewife Aikawa Misa (Aso Yumi) tries desperately to hold her family together when her husband gets laid off and her son is so frightened of bullies at school that he throws up in the car; she’s reduced to taking a McJob in a convenience store. And Miyaji (Mitsuishi Ken), who collects debts for a yakuza gang, gets into trouble when his partner Kitajima puts personal need above duty.

Border Line

2003

Border Line poster
5.2

Three storylines interweave in Border Line. Kurosawa (Murakami Jun) finds himself driving a taciturn young man named Matsuda (Sawaki Tetsu) halfway to Hokkaido, after accidentally knocking him off his bike; their fragile bond can last only so long. The housewife Aikawa Misa (Aso Yumi) tries desperately to hold her family together when her husband gets laid off and her son is so frightened of bullies at school that he throws up in the car; she’s reduced to taking a McJob in a convenience store. And Miyaji (Mitsuishi Ken), who collects debts for a yakuza gang, gets into trouble when his partner Kitajima puts personal need above duty.

Border Line

2003

No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Tagatame

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No artwork available
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Tagatame

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