Yōichi Sai

Directing

Yōichi Sai

Born 1949-07-06 · Nagano, Japan

Yōichi Sai (born 6 July 1949 in Nagano Prefecture, Japan) was a Japanese film director. His mother is Japanese, His father is zainichi Korean. His 2004 film Chi to hone won four Japanese Academy Awards, including two for Sai himself, for Best Director and Best Screenplay. He had previously received two nominations in the same categories for Tsuki wa dotchi ni dete iru. In 1999 he shot Buta no mukui (The Pig's Retribution), a film set in the lavish natural scenery of Okinawa, inspired by the 1996 Akutagawa Prize-winning eponymous novel by Eiki Matayoshi. The film won the Don Quixote prize at Locarno International Film Festival in 1999. He won the award for Best Screenplay at the 11th Yokohama Film Festival for A Sign Days. As an actor, he appeared in Nagisa Oshima's 1999 film Taboo. He is the current president of the Directors Guild of Japan.   

Acting credits

Taboo poster
6.6

Set during Japan's Shogun era, this film looks at life in a samurai compound where young warriors are trained in swordfighting. A number of interpersonal conflicts are brewing in the training room, all centering on a handsome young samurai named Sozaburo Kano. The school's stern master can choose to intervene, or to let Kano decide his own path.

Taboo

1999

All Under the Moon poster
6.9

A Korean taxi-driver interacts both humorously and tragically with his customers and employers in '90s Tokyo.

All Under the Moon

1993

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

Route 225 poster
6.0

Two kids, fourteen-year-old Eriko and her thirteen-year-old brother Daigo, suddenly find themselves trapped in a parallel universe. Most things are the same as in their own world, but their parents are missing from home and are only contactable when using one particular phonecard.

Route 225

2006

No artwork available
7.0

Omnibus film, set in a fictional town at 45゜N latitude: Wonder Rubbish; Pao-san to no fukushu; Jonetsu no koya; Kaze wa, dotchi ni fuite iru

N45゜

1994

No artwork available
NR

Interview with members of the crew on the making of the 1978 film "Empire of Passion."

Empire of Passion: On the Set

In the Realm of the Senses: Recalling the Film poster
NR

Documentary about the making of Nagisa Oshima's 1976 film.

In the Realm of the Senses: Recalling the Film

2003

Behind the camera

Blood and Bones poster
6.6

In 1923, teenager Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees.

Blood and Bones

2004

Blood and Bones poster
6.6

In 1923, teenager Kim Shun-Pei moves from Cheju Island, in South Korea, to Osaka, in Japan. Along the years, he becomes a cruel, greedy and violent man and builds a factory of kamaboko, processed seafood products, in his poor Korean-Japanese community exploiting his employees.

Blood and Bones

2004

All Under the Moon poster
6.9

A Korean taxi-driver interacts both humorously and tragically with his customers and employers in '90s Tokyo.

All Under the Moon

1993

All Under the Moon poster
6.9

A Korean taxi-driver interacts both humorously and tragically with his customers and employers in '90s Tokyo.

All Under the Moon

1993

Burning Dog poster
7.0

A gang of thieves plot to rob a US military base in Okinawa, but rising tensions in the group threaten to put the plan in jeopardy.

Burning Dog

1991

Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog poster
7.0

A Labrador retriever named Quill begins specialized training as a guide dog from an early age, then the canine is paired with a blind man who is initially reluctant to rely on his new partner.

Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog

2004

Kamui poster
6.1

A rebellious ninja in 17th century Japan takes refuge with a fisherman and his family.

Kamui

2009

Kamui poster
6.1

A rebellious ninja in 17th century Japan takes refuge with a fisherman and his family.

Kamui

2009

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

Doing Time poster
5.6

A man serving a sentence in a minimum-security prison. Life in the jail is rigid and organized, eventually leading all of the cell-mates to abandon their individuality.

Doing Time

2002

Doing Time poster
5.6

A man serving a sentence in a minimum-security prison. Life in the jail is rigid and organized, eventually leading all of the cell-mates to abandon their individuality.

Doing Time

2002

MARKS poster
6.0

Assistant police inspector Aida is assigned to investigate the murder of a former gang member. When a justice ministry official is killed days later in a similar manner, he begins to suspect that something bigger is going on...

MARKS

1995

MARKS poster
6.0

Assistant police inspector Aida is assigned to investigate the murder of a former gang member. When a justice ministry official is killed days later in a similar manner, he begins to suspect that something bigger is going on...

MARKS

1995

The Lady in a Black Dress poster
6.5

A retired yakuza-connected bar master is pulled back into a dangerous underworld when a mysterious woman claiming to be a relative's acquaintance arrives to work at his bar, only for him to discover a hidden handgun in her luggage.

The Lady in a Black Dress

1987

The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor poster
6.6

A lower-middle-class policeman lives decadently, chasing cheap beer and girls at the same time he's running from loan sharks and his personal expectations.

The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor

1983

The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor poster
6.6

A lower-middle-class policeman lives decadently, chasing cheap beer and girls at the same time he's running from loan sharks and his personal expectations.

The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor

1983

Let Him Rest in Peace poster
8.0

A man returns to his seaside roots to confront a yakuza boss. Along the way, he charms young men, softens a hard woman and busts a few heads.

Let Him Rest in Peace

1985

CLUB DEJA-VU ONE NIGHT SHOW 松田優作・メモリアル・ライブ poster
NR

No synopsis available yet.

CLUB DEJA-VU ONE NIGHT SHOW 松田優作・メモリアル・ライブ

2022

Dog Race poster
8.0

Ethnically Korean Japanese filmmaker Yoichi Sai directs this madcap crime comedy. Nakayama (Goro Kishitani) is a suave police detective who doesn't play by the rules. He busts a drug ring, but not before sampling a few of the wares, and he closes down an underaged prostitution ring after enjoying the company of a school girl hooker. One of duties is to shake down sniveling Korean gangster Hideyoshi (Ren Osugi) for information. In spite of their positions on opposite sides of the law, the two discover that they share a fair amount in common. A disregard for the law and the love of a comely prostitute from China named Momo-chan (Makoto Togashi). Though Hideyoshi is running an illegal alien smuggling ring with her and has lusted for her from a far for quite a while, Nakayama manages to bed her first. When she does finally appear in Hideyoshi's bed, she's unfortunately a corpse.

Dog Race

1998

Dog Race poster
8.0

Ethnically Korean Japanese filmmaker Yoichi Sai directs this madcap crime comedy. Nakayama (Goro Kishitani) is a suave police detective who doesn't play by the rules. He busts a drug ring, but not before sampling a few of the wares, and he closes down an underaged prostitution ring after enjoying the company of a school girl hooker. One of duties is to shake down sniveling Korean gangster Hideyoshi (Ren Osugi) for information. In spite of their positions on opposite sides of the law, the two discover that they share a fair amount in common. A disregard for the law and the love of a comely prostitute from China named Momo-chan (Makoto Togashi). Though Hideyoshi is running an illegal alien smuggling ring with her and has lusted for her from a far for quite a while, Nakayama manages to bed her first. When she does finally appear in Hideyoshi's bed, she's unfortunately a corpse.

Dog Race

1998

Soo poster
6.5

Tae-soo tries to steal from a gang. The gang catches Tae-Soo's brother, Tae-Jin, instead. The incident causes the brothers to separate. Tae-Soo becomes a mob fixer and an assassin. Tae-Jin becomes a police detective. When a call brings the brothers together, they get ready for brotherly bonding, but Tae-Jin gets killed. Tae-Soo decides to get revenge on his brother's killer.

Soo

2007

Soo poster
6.5

Tae-soo tries to steal from a gang. The gang catches Tae-Soo's brother, Tae-Jin, instead. The incident causes the brothers to separate. Tae-Soo becomes a mob fixer and an assassin. Tae-Jin becomes a police detective. When a call brings the brothers together, they get ready for brotherly bonding, but Tae-Jin gets killed. Tae-Soo decides to get revenge on his brother's killer.

Soo

2007

Via Okinawa poster
7.0

During the Vietnam War era, the influx of American soldiers to Okinawa boosted the local economy and introduced many bars and nightclubs. With exhausting displays of energy, Sai presents a whirlwind romance between a local rocker and the daughter of a mixed American-Okinawan marriage.

Via Okinawa

1989

Love Story poster
NR

TBS Wednesday Drama Special about a young assistant in love with an older man who works as a photographer.

Love Story

1986