Masashi Yamamoto

Directing

Masashi Yamamoto

Born 1956-01-24 · Oita Prefecture, Japan

Born in Ōita Prefecture, Yamamoto attended Meiji University but left early to concentrate on making independent 8mm films. His Carnival in the Night was screened at the 1983 Berlin Film Festival, and Robinson's Garden was given the Zitty Award at the 1987 edition of the Berlinale. The latter film also earned him the Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Award. In 1998 he was given a research fellowship from Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs to study in New York, during which time he set up screenings of his film Junk Food in America. Often filming those living on the margins of Japanese society, his film Limousine Drive was actually filmed in the United States. He has also acted in some films.

Acting credits

The Stairway to the Distant Past poster
7.2

Broke, with his vintage Nash convertible repossessed, private eye Mike Hama is reduced to combing the mean streets of the Yokohama waterfront on a borrowed bicycle. But when Lily, a beautiful stripper from out of Hama's past, returns to town, the fuse is lit on a criminal powder keg set to blow the lid off the Yokohama underworld.

The Stairway to the Distant Past

1995

March Comes In Like a Lion poster
6.6

Set in Tokyo, Ice brings her amnesiac older brother Haruo home from the hospital to care for him. He is reluctant to go, until Ice tells him that she is his lover. Since he has no memory of his sister Ice, he obliges her. How long until his memory returns?

March Comes In Like a Lion

1991

Mike Yokohama: A Forest with No Name poster
5.5

A private detective takes on an assignment to return a girl, who is set to marry into a prestigious family, from a mysterious commune in the forest.

Mike Yokohama: A Forest with No Name

2003

The Whispering of the Gods poster
5.3

Rou has returned to the monastery he was raised in. As he listens to the whispering of the Gods through his germanium radio, Rou defies God in every which way and puts religion to the test.

The Whispering of the Gods

2005

A Crowd of Three poster
4.9

A Crowd of Three tells the story of two men, Kenta & Jun, who grew up as almost brothers at a children's facility. Kenta & Jun now works as part of a demolition crew but become fed up with their jobs. The friends then decide to take a road trip up north to visit Kenta's brother at the Abashiri prison.

A Crowd of Three

2010

The Brand New Legend of the Stardust Brothers poster
2.0

A sequel to the 1980 movie The Legend of the Stardust Brothers. As well as being a rock musical comedy, it also borrows elements from other genres such as road movies, westerns, and meta fiction.

The Brand New Legend of the Stardust Brothers

2018

Behind the camera

Man, Woman & the Wall poster
6.3

When Ryo, a young magazine reporter, moves into a new apartment he is greeted by the passionate sounds of his astonishingly beautiful neighbor Satsuki. Realizing the wall dividing their apartments is paper thin, the captivated journalist begins to eavesdrop on every detail of the girl next door's life: her conversations, her bubble baths... her breathless cries.

Man, Woman & the Wall

2006

Man, Woman & the Wall poster
6.3

When Ryo, a young magazine reporter, moves into a new apartment he is greeted by the passionate sounds of his astonishingly beautiful neighbor Satsuki. Realizing the wall dividing their apartments is paper thin, the captivated journalist begins to eavesdrop on every detail of the girl next door's life: her conversations, her bubble baths... her breathless cries.

Man, Woman & the Wall

2006

Kumagusu poster
NR

Unfinished film based on the life of biologist Minakata Kumagusu.

Kumagusu

1991

Carnival in the Night poster
5.5

The newly divorced singer Kumi is not too enthusiastic about life as a single mother. She drops her son to her ex-husband, leaving her band and embarks on a crazy tour of Tokyo's shadowy side.

Carnival in the Night

1981

Carnival in the Night poster
5.5

The newly divorced singer Kumi is not too enthusiastic about life as a single mother. She drops her son to her ex-husband, leaving her band and embarks on a crazy tour of Tokyo's shadowy side.

Carnival in the Night

1981

Carnival in the Night poster
5.5

The newly divorced singer Kumi is not too enthusiastic about life as a single mother. She drops her son to her ex-husband, leaving her band and embarks on a crazy tour of Tokyo's shadowy side.

Carnival in the Night

1981

What's Up Connection poster
7.0

When a Hong Kong teenager from a poor family wins a trip to Japan, he unleashes a chain of events that will soon bring him from his secluded fishing village to Tokyo. On the way, he connects with a barely competent tour guide and a gender-fluid pickpocket. Upon returning home with this merry band of schemers, he and his family of counterfeiters discover that a multinational conglomerate led by a ruthless Japanese developer has found the village, and is determined to raze it to build the new center of world trade.

What's Up Connection

1990

What's Up Connection poster
7.0

When a Hong Kong teenager from a poor family wins a trip to Japan, he unleashes a chain of events that will soon bring him from his secluded fishing village to Tokyo. On the way, he connects with a barely competent tour guide and a gender-fluid pickpocket. Upon returning home with this merry band of schemers, he and his family of counterfeiters discover that a multinational conglomerate led by a ruthless Japanese developer has found the village, and is determined to raze it to build the new center of world trade.

What's Up Connection

1990

What's Up Connection poster
7.0

When a Hong Kong teenager from a poor family wins a trip to Japan, he unleashes a chain of events that will soon bring him from his secluded fishing village to Tokyo. On the way, he connects with a barely competent tour guide and a gender-fluid pickpocket. Upon returning home with this merry band of schemers, he and his family of counterfeiters discover that a multinational conglomerate led by a ruthless Japanese developer has found the village, and is determined to raze it to build the new center of world trade.

What's Up Connection

1990

No artwork available
5.5

"Atlanta Boogie" centers around a mock track meet between the "normal" and "good" citizens of Yokohama and those they want to expel from the neighborhood: the illegal foreign workers, the deadbeats, the juvenile delinquents, and elderly.

Atlanta Boogie

1996

No artwork available
5.5

"Atlanta Boogie" centers around a mock track meet between the "normal" and "good" citizens of Yokohama and those they want to expel from the neighborhood: the illegal foreign workers, the deadbeats, the juvenile delinquents, and elderly.

Atlanta Boogie

1996

Robinson's Garden poster
6.4

Kumi lives a hippie-like life in Tokyo's outskirts. One night while drunk she stumbles into an abandoned industrial site, except in addition to deserted factories, it is full of forests and greenery. She decides to move there, even further away from the civilization she had already left.

Robinson's Garden

1987

Robinson's Garden poster
6.4

Kumi lives a hippie-like life in Tokyo's outskirts. One night while drunk she stumbles into an abandoned industrial site, except in addition to deserted factories, it is full of forests and greenery. She decides to move there, even further away from the civilization she had already left.

Robinson's Garden

1987

Wonderful Paradise poster
6.7

In consequence of his professional mistakes and declining career, Shuji and his family, the Sasaya’s, are forced to leave the wealthy suburb of Tokyo. The move is slow, long and heartbreaking, and the two Sasaya children, an old teenager and a young adult, unwittingly turn the grieving process into an exuberant and unpredictable farewell party!

Wonderful Paradise

2020

Wonderful Paradise poster
6.7

In consequence of his professional mistakes and declining career, Shuji and his family, the Sasaya’s, are forced to leave the wealthy suburb of Tokyo. The move is slow, long and heartbreaking, and the two Sasaya children, an old teenager and a young adult, unwittingly turn the grieving process into an exuberant and unpredictable farewell party!

Wonderful Paradise

2020

The Voice of Water poster
6.0

A sect is threatened to fall apart, when its leader, a young Korean woman, develops doubts regarding her alleged psychic powers.

The Voice of Water

2014

The Voice of Water poster
6.0

A sect is threatened to fall apart, when its leader, a young Korean woman, develops doubts regarding her alleged psychic powers.

The Voice of Water

2014

Junk Food poster
4.9

Junk Food consists of four intertwining stories. The first and fourth sections show the morning routine of an blind, old Japanese woman, waking up, buying bread and milk, praying at the family altar; however, it is the second segment where the true story begins.

Junk Food

1997

Junk Food poster
4.9

Junk Food consists of four intertwining stories. The first and fourth sections show the morning routine of an blind, old Japanese woman, waking up, buying bread and milk, praying at the family altar; however, it is the second segment where the true story begins.

Junk Food

1997

Tokyo of the Dead - 3 days poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Tokyo of the Dead - 3 days

2006

Tokyo of the Dead - 3 days poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

Tokyo of the Dead - 3 days

2006

DUDE poster
NR

a newly commissioned short film directed by Masashi Yamamoto

DUDE

2026

Three☆Points poster
5.7

Three stories, depicted in three different styles, unfold in three locations: "Kyoto", a lyrical improvised drama based on documentar y footage following local rappers, which is blended with fiction; "Okinawa", a documentary about intriguing characters who Yamamoto met by chance; and " Tokyo", an otherworldly love story about a man dealing with loss who drifts through life, and a woman who pretends to be his deceased wife.

Three☆Points

2011

Three☆Points poster
5.7

Three stories, depicted in three different styles, unfold in three locations: "Kyoto", a lyrical improvised drama based on documentar y footage following local rappers, which is blended with fiction; "Okinawa", a documentary about intriguing characters who Yamamoto met by chance; and " Tokyo", an otherworldly love story about a man dealing with loss who drifts through life, and a woman who pretends to be his deceased wife.

Three☆Points

2011