
Directing
Kensaku Watanabe
Born 1971-01-26 · Fukushima Prefecture, Japan
Acting credits
6.2In the wake of the social unrest caused by the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, two female sumo athletes, Kiku and Tokachi, and an anarchist group called the Guillotine Society, spark an unlikely connection.
The Chrysanthemum and the Guillotine
2018
10.0Yuka is staying at hotel Seaside in a Japanese resort. She is alone and bored, so she gets something going with the night porter.
Wave
2001
6.1An assassin fends off numerous attacks from her comrades, who are trying to move up in rank by killing off the competition.
Pistol Opera
2001
6.1A man is trying to flee from his past, and he ends up in an underworld filled with strange characters. He finds a job skewering meat in a dirty old room in a shabby old house filled with prostitutes, gangsters and a weird old tattoo master. He clearly doesn't fit in to this new world, and the inhabitants of it immediately despise him.
Akame 48 Waterfalls
2003
Behind the camera
7.2Majime, an eccentric man in publishing company, who has unique ability of words, joins the team that will compile a new dictionary, The Great Passage. In the eclectic team, he becomes immersed in the world of dictionaries. But the team is overwhelmed with problems.
The Great Passage
2013
6.0Junko and Kohei were each other's first relationship, and got married. A white apartment, a white blouse, and white underwear; their relationship was pure. But then Junko put on conspicuous lingerie and a black dress, and went to attend a class reunion. Suspicious, Kohei followed behind her until she disappeared into a hotel with Okada, a former junior high school classmate. Kohei had learned from his mother to obsessively despise `filth,' and vowed to make Junko utterly filthy. So, he presented his own wife to a gang rape club...
Diary of Beloved Wife: Saucepot
2006
10.0Yuka is staying at hotel Seaside in a Japanese resort. She is alone and bored, so she gets something going with the night porter.
Wave
2001
6.5Mari is a female university student. She takes part in an experiment held by popular VTuber Sophia. When Mari arrives at the place where the experiment is to be held, she notices the place looks like a prison. 12 people participate in the experiment and they are assigned roles of prisoners and prison officers. The experiment takes place over 7 days. Mari is assigned the role of a prison officer. The experiment turns violent.
Prison 13
2019
6.5Mari is a female university student. She takes part in an experiment held by popular VTuber Sophia. When Mari arrives at the place where the experiment is to be held, she notices the place looks like a prison. 12 people participate in the experiment and they are assigned roles of prisoners and prison officers. The experiment takes place over 7 days. Mari is assigned the role of a prison officer. The experiment turns violent.
Prison 13
2019
7.0A story about a hitman named Hayamada who carries a distinctive red gun. As the film progresses we discover the reason for his work, and how he came to be alone. His aim right now is to reach a desitination, but he's late.
Loved Gun
2004
7.0A story about a hitman named Hayamada who carries a distinctive red gun. As the film progresses we discover the reason for his work, and how he came to be alone. His aim right now is to reach a desitination, but he's late.
Loved Gun
2004
6.3Yuji Takanashi is a university philosophy professor who can't swim. Making awkward justifications to himself about the relationship between water and people, still he decides on the spur of the moment to enroll in a swimming class. There he encounters the teacher Shizuka Usuhara, who ignores his last-minute hesitation and enrolls him.
Yes, I Can't Swim
2022
6.3Yuji Takanashi is a university philosophy professor who can't swim. Making awkward justifications to himself about the relationship between water and people, still he decides on the spur of the moment to enroll in a swimming class. There he encounters the teacher Shizuka Usuhara, who ignores his last-minute hesitation and enrolls him.
Yes, I Can't Swim
2022
6.0Kitahara Shuji, an ordinary business man turns into a spy for his town's war against a neighboring town in a Dystopian society.
Invisible War
2007
5.0Fu and Suzu are two hedonist girls who decide to take to the road. They set off on a journey to visit the tomb of a small pig by name Pupu. On the way, they meet Suzu's ex-lover, a gay couple, and a golf player; always getting in trouble. But whenever trouble comes, 'Trunk Man' the hero appears to save them.
The Story of PuPu
1998
5.0Fu and Suzu are two hedonist girls who decide to take to the road. They set off on a journey to visit the tomb of a small pig by name Pupu. On the way, they meet Suzu's ex-lover, a gay couple, and a golf player; always getting in trouble. But whenever trouble comes, 'Trunk Man' the hero appears to save them.
The Story of PuPu
1998
5.8Momoko (Yui Aragaki) is a quiet and lonely high school girl who's only passion is to cheer traditional cheer squad, but all she could gather were good for nothing guys, who could not find places in school. They start the cheer squad with a disaster, but when they finally find the true meaning of "cheering" someone, their passion becomes power and gives strength to those that are cheered.
Cheer Cheer Cheer!
2008
8.0A musical- style comedy movie set in Hakata.
Hakata Movie: Chinchiromai
2000
NRUp-and-coming manzai stand-up comedy duo Emi-Abi has lost consummate funny man Unno (a surprisingly touching Tomoya Maeno) to an accident, leaving conceited straight man Jitsudo (Ryu Morioka) to contend with his diminished career prospects as a bland, pretty face entertainer. Guided by his manager Natsumi (Haru Kuroki), who demonstrates stronger comedy chops than her own star, Jitsudo comes to learn the circumstances of his friend's passing, as well as the life-and-death stakes of a career in comedy. Demonstrating a careful balance of tone across tragedy and deadpan and gross-out humor, writer/director Kensaku Watanabe expands "Emi-Abi"'s hilarious premise into a strikingly assured meditation on artistic rivalry and self-actualization.
Emi-Abi
2016