Kenji Onishi

Directing

Kenji Onishi

Born

1973-04-13 (53)

Place of birth

Mie Prefecture, Japan

Known for

Directing

Credits

65 titles

A central figure on the Tokyo experimental film scene and already a veteran of the international festival circuit, Kenji Onishi has made nearly 200 films since 1990, ranging from Super-8 studies of light to full-length features filled with drugs and violence. His filmmaking output spans many genres, and he has become known for a distinctive personal style that melds structural concerns with overtly sensationalist subject matter.

Known for

Film credits

2010s · 8 titles

Film Pilgrimage in Niigata: Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial poster
NR

Experimental film by Minai Kyoko.

Film Pilgrimage in Niigata: Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial

2013

Coming Future poster
NR

Nakagawa shot “Coming Future” on the nights of December 24 and 25, 2009, in Shibuya, making it his location for an idealized Bohemia in the heart of Tokyo. Interesting interviews/discussions with Kenji Murakami, Nobuhiro Yamashita, Kenji Onishi, Tetsuaki Matsue and more... By far the most interesting sequence is with Kenji Onishi (“A Burning Star”). Wielding a super-8 camera, Onishi documents his own interview, taking random shots of street-life and buildings. He leavens his monologue with statements bordering between cliché and outré. “A movie that aims to make a message is boring.”

Coming Future

2010

Buchou to UFO-gokko poster
NR

‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎

Buchou to UFO-gokko

2010

Associations of Silverpencils poster
NR

This is a film about a medium approaching extinction, an 8mm documentary film about a vanishing 8mm cinema. Blending two genres, the science film and the personal film, and benefiting from the participation of multiple generations of cineastes, it is a reflection upon the original cinematic experience.

Associations of Silverpencils

2011

SPRITE poster
NR

‎The film heritage of Yukiyasu Shimada.

SPRITE

2013

A Chinese Fisherman poster
NR

A very rare, Super 8 film by Fujiwara Sho (pen name Fujiwara Dragon), that was screened only one time. Some scenes were later reused in one of Kenji Onishi versions of Edge Cutters and altered. There were many versions of Edge Cutters and Kenji Onishi altered them for different screenings.

A Chinese Fisherman

2010

Yasuda Satoru World Trip vol.3 poster
NR

Yasuda Satoru, 8mm. Singing, children, sea, mountains, travel, friends. Archive and diary like footage repeated and distorted multiple times - in the end it became like a "ghost diary". R-1/3~3/3

Yasuda Satoru World Trip vol.3

2016

MISS JUPITER & MR CLITORIS poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenichi Kataoka.

MISS JUPITER & MR CLITORIS

2010

2000s · 5 titles

1990s · 12 titles

Blue Max poster
NR

Blue Max (1997) shows a woman looking out of a window, but also working with extreme close-ups: The street, her neck, the window, her knees, the floor and her toes, brought together by the sound of a passing train. Her ears, her mouth, the wall and the door. The sparkling glass of a window and the young woman on top of a naked young man and later the shadows on the wall of both of them. A telephone is ringing and the clouds in the blue sky are travelling by while it all turns into a rape. And the calmness of both of them is quite irritating when they later watch TV together. (www.desistfilm.com)

Blue Max

1997

Hardcandy poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Hardcandy

1998

The Aquarium City poster
NR

A woman spends her days with a sadistic man and decadent eyes. The man, with eyes drowning in drugs, constantly demands abnormal sexual acts from the woman. Eventually, after the man commits murder, the woman tries to escape this wrong way of life. The film depicts a world adorned with sex and violence. In the corners of the city, an exclusive individual builds their own colony. Imperfect human relationships, born from incomplete communication, unfold under the slow passage of time. The shadow-based imagery envelops the entire film more than necessary, in order to highlight the dark side of the human heart.

The Aquarium City

1996

Out of Frame poster
NR

Focusing on a woman addicted to sex and drugs in a corner of the city, this film depicts an exclusive and cold world on a monochrome screen. Attempting to fuse experimental film and dramatic film, this work exposes raw violence and eliminates explanatory expressions. It depicts the weight of the distance between a man and a woman that deepens after a small incident.

Out of Frame

1996

The Aquarium City (Short Version) poster
NR

A woman spends her days with a sadistic man and decadent eyes. The man, with eyes drowning in drugs, constantly demands abnormal sexual acts from the woman. Eventually, after the man commits murder, the woman tries to escape this wrong way of life.. The film depicts a world adorned with sex and violence. In the corners of the city, an exclusive individual builds their own colony. Imperfect human relationships, born from incomplete communication, unfold under the slow passage of time. The shadow-based imagery envelops the entire film more than necessary, in order to highlight the dark side of the human heart.

The Aquarium City (Short Version)

1996

Zetcho: The Acme poster
NR

The man was seeking pleasure beyond sex. And the ultimate ecstasy he sought was pace poles and the death throes of a person. The man drags his friend Shinichi and his girlfriend Akiko into his world of madness, gradually corrupting their relationship and manipulating them. Then, he murders Shinichi in front of Akiko. Akiko's mind and body collapse from the shock, and the man toys with her for his own pleasure. However, Akiko's mind gradually becomes abnormal, and she enters a world where madness can be sanity.

Zetcho: The Acme

1997

Squareworld (Short Version) poster
NR

An ordinary, everyday scene is transported to the scene of a bizarre, gruesome murder. An unreal world infiltrates the corners of everyday life. That eye, that man, kidnapped a woman, imprisoned and restrained her, assaulted and murdered her, and dismembered her body. But for the man, it was nothing more than an ordinary, unremarkable moment.

Squareworld (Short Version)

1995

Zetcho: The Acme (Short Version) poster
NR

The man was seeking pleasure beyond sex. And the ultimate ecstasy he sought was pace poles and the death throes of a person. The man drags his friend Shinichi and his girlfriend Akiko into his world of madness, gradually corrupting their relationship and manipulating them. Then, he murders Shinichi in front of Akiko. Akiko's mind and body collapse from the shock, and the man toys with her for his own pleasure. However, Akiko's mind gradually becomes abnormal, and she enters a world where madness can be sanity.

Zetcho: The Acme (Short Version)

1997

Squareworld poster
4.0

An ordinary, everyday scene is transported to the scene of a bizarre, gruesome murder. An unreal world infiltrates the corners of everyday life. That eye, that man, kidnapped a woman, imprisoned and restrained her, assaulted and murdered her, and dismembered her body. But for the man, it was nothing more than an ordinary, unremarkable moment.

Squareworld

1995

The Underground Water (Short Version) poster
NR

With a curious eye, he saw a UFO passing over the neighbor's roof, and strange things began to happen around him. The taste of the tap water changed, his clock kept getting wrong, his lover's behavior was strange, acquaintances and friends were acting oddly, and people in town started giving him strange looks. There must be something going on, he thought, and he became paranoid about the events happening unseen. Had the stress built up inside him diminished his ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality?

The Underground Water (Short Version)

1996

The Underground Water poster
NR

With a curious eye, he saw a UFO passing over the neighbor's roof, and strange things began to happen around him. The taste of the tap water changed, his clock kept getting wrong, his lover's behavior was strange, acquaintances and friends were acting oddly, and people in town started giving him strange looks. There must be something going on, he thought, and he became paranoid about the events happening unseen. Had the stress built up inside him diminished his ability to distinguish between fantasy and reality?

The Underground Water

1996

Sketch of Kanahama, the Repair Worker poster
NR

Experimental film by Kenji Onishi.

Sketch of Kanahama, the Repair Worker

1995

Behind the camera

SUICIDE BOX poster
NR

An improvised film study starring Kumiko Watanuki's solo play in an empty room.

SUICIDE BOX

1997

THRASHGIRLS poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

THRASHGIRLS

1998

MAKING OF SHIROYASHA poster
NR

A behind the scenes documentary of Kenji Onishi's never completed 35mm feature film "Shiroyasha", shot between 2002 and 2004.

MAKING OF SHIROYASHA

2004

NOTHING GOSE poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

NOTHING GOSE

2000

Alley Child poster
NR

A girl and a boy, a chance encounter with the camera. She invites the photographer to her room. Once inside, the woman takes off her clothers and provokes the man. An unblemished composition of umblemished eroticism. Kenji Onishi's entry in the "Roji no ko" series.

Alley Child

1998

Light Point poster
6.0

"The clouds are rushing by, and the architecture of men fit so well in that movement. The bricks. The light is harsh and blue. But in the night it is different, you walk down the street and the sun turns into a light bulb again, the houses are asleep. It feels like thunder and the houses seemed to be dipped into blue and turquoise colours. And then it all turns blue again."

Light Point

1996

N poster
5.5

“N” as in Nurse. A man wandering in an abandoned hospital ward, reflections on Lost Time, Violence and traces of Nostalgia. 16mm film by Kenji Onishi.

N

1996

East End poster
NR

White and grey, a big screen with noises and voices: we hear a man suffering. The film follows the hardscrabble day-to-day exploits of a nameless hero as he is trying to survive amidst violent, desperate men and desolate landscapes. Later we will watch them all again building a metal construction out in the desert. So these men here will find an Asian guy, almost dead: “You have got a point!” The Promised Land? No, and it is someone else who will die in the end. Or will simply end up in hallucinations.

East End

2001

SMOKING HIGH poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

SMOKING HIGH

1997

START! poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

START!

1997

EDGE CUTTERS poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

EDGE CUTTERS

2010

TRIANGLE⊿SLANT poster
NR

An 8mm film drama. Written by Fusako Kumagai and directed by Kenji Onishi.

TRIANGLE⊿SLANT

1997

TRIANGLE⊿SLANT poster
NR

An 8mm film drama. Written by Fusako Kumagai and directed by Kenji Onishi.

TRIANGLE⊿SLANT

1997

Blue Max poster
NR

Blue Max (1997) shows a woman looking out of a window, but also working with extreme close-ups: The street, her neck, the window, her knees, the floor and her toes, brought together by the sound of a passing train. Her ears, her mouth, the wall and the door. The sparkling glass of a window and the young woman on top of a naked young man and later the shadows on the wall of both of them. A telephone is ringing and the clouds in the blue sky are travelling by while it all turns into a rape. And the calmness of both of them is quite irritating when they later watch TV together. (www.desistfilm.com)

Blue Max

1997

Hardcandy poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Hardcandy

1998

STORNS poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

STORNS

1995

Rabbit Hunting poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Rabbit Hunting

1998

EKTADIARY: NIGHT COLOURS poster
NR

An experimental 8mm night film made of handheld urban fragments.

EKTADIARY: NIGHT COLOURS

2000

CAT & CURTAIN poster
5.0

Short super8 film by Kenji Onishi.

CAT & CURTAIN

1995

Curtain poster
NR

Early work by Kenji Onishi.

Curtain

1993

Garden Green poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

Garden Green

2005

UFO Flying Course poster
NR

The director films his friends and an UFO at Chichibu.

UFO Flying Course

2010

Light of Darkness (Summer Sketch) poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

Light of Darkness (Summer Sketch)

1996

RAPE BOY poster
NR

Music clip by Kenji Onishi.

RAPE BOY

2007

VIDA poster
NR

VIDA, starring AV actress Hotaru Hazuki, is an erotic work aiming directly at the Hypothalamus. DEATH is an event that makes life emerge in a different language. The film was entirely self-developed at home

VIDA

2008

Summertime Landscape poster
NR

Everyday events illuminated by the summer sun, seemingly insignificant observations, are brought to life by an 8mm camera. The changing sky, the trajectory of the sun, captured using stop-motion; the camera is a machine that collects light as if cutting out the air itself.

Summertime Landscape

1994

The Aquarium City poster
NR

A woman spends her days with a sadistic man and decadent eyes. The man, with eyes drowning in drugs, constantly demands abnormal sexual acts from the woman. Eventually, after the man commits murder, the woman tries to escape this wrong way of life. The film depicts a world adorned with sex and violence. In the corners of the city, an exclusive individual builds their own colony. Imperfect human relationships, born from incomplete communication, unfold under the slow passage of time. The shadow-based imagery envelops the entire film more than necessary, in order to highlight the dark side of the human heart.

The Aquarium City

1996

Crazy Exposure poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Crazy Exposure

2007

SONG poster
NR

I filmed the sunrise on January the 1st, 1995. This short was originally meant to be a test roll for a feature film I was going to shoot. I really like its feverish yellow – and I then scratched onto it the title, "SONG". As it was a silent film, I dared to call it that way.

SONG

1995

功夫 GIRL poster
NR

8mm film portrait of Fusako Kumagai.

功夫 GIRL

1997

Canvas (Short Version) poster
NR

A breath of light, a film poem by in-camera editing that is more sensory than experimental.

Canvas (Short Version)

1995

EDGE CUTTERS poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

EDGE CUTTERS

2011

車窓 -WINDOW- poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

車窓 -WINDOW-

1998

The Air-Conditioning System poster
NR

The Air-Conditioning System (1997) introduces us to a young man in his flat, and the ways of communication with his girlfriend. The sky is blue and skirts are put on the balcony for drying. The wind will carry everything away, just like the noise and music or the porn we watch with him later on TV (he prefers to look at western blonde women). What will happen when the young woman in her flat will have found out soon that he is looking at her (and listening to her) via the air-conditioning system?

The Air-Conditioning System

1997

SWEET VOICE poster
7.0

A private film from the Nagoya era. Single-8 lens fetishism photographing Nozomi Horikawa.

SWEET VOICE

1994

View poster
NR

Experimental Super 8 short by Kenji Onishi.

View

1996

BRUCE poster
NR

A girl named Fuchyako (Kumagai Fusako) is smoking a cigarette and singing to the background music of a blues song. Waterdrops.

BRUCE

1997

Nightshift poster
NR

Experimental short by Kenji Onishi.

Nightshift

1993

WHITE poster
NR

Early work by Kenji Onishi.

WHITE

1992

PORNOGRIFFITH poster
NR

Digital Video, Kanahama Natsuyo model.

PORNOGRIFFITH

2004