Rokuro Mochizuki
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese film director
who has worked in pink film, adult videos and mainstream cinema. He won the award for Best Director at the 19th Yokohama Film Festival
for Onibi
and A Yakuza in Love.
area of Tokyo
. He attended Keio University
in Tokyo but dropped out in his freshman year. After a round of bad-paying jobs, he eventually enrolled to study film at Tokyo's Image Forum. After graduating in the early 1980s, Mochizuki briefly worked at the Nikkatsu
studio which was exclusively producing its Roman porno line of films at that time. Nikkatsu's fortunes were in decline, however, and Mochizuki was soon out of work. Mochizuki had been encouraged to write scripts by one of his teachers at Image Forum and in 1983, one of his screenplays was made into the pink film Virgin Rope Doll by Genji Nakamura for his Yū Pro company.
He continued working with Nakamura as a screenwriter and assistant director, including writing two gay-themed pink films, Beautiful Mystery: The Legend of Big Horn (a parody of Yukio Mishima
's right-wing activities) and Our Season (aka Male Season) starring Tōru Nakane
. He made his debut as a director in 1985 with two pink films for Million Film
, Real Performance Video: To Strip and Miss Masturbation: My Steamy Private Life. He also directed his first film for Nikkatsu
in 1986, the melodramatic pink film Love Slave Doll: Make Me Come.
, a company founded in 1986 as the adult video arm of Japan Home Video
. He started the "Flashback" series for Alice Japan in August 1987 and had produced Volume 30 in the series by December 1990 including one with the 1980s AV Idol
Nao Saejima
. In April 1990, he directed another early AV Idol, Yumika Hayashi
, in the Alice Japan video The Contrary Soap Heaven 5 and he remained very active with Alice Japan through 1991.
in 1993. The commercial success of the film about a middle-aged boozing and gambling newspaperman (played by Eiji Okuda
) led to two sequels in 1994 and 1996.
movies that are considered his best work. Some of the films were a collaboration with novelist Yukio Yamanouchi who had once been a legal advisor to one of the yakuza syndicates. The first of the films, Another Lonely Hitman, about an old-time yakuza hitman who ends up battling his own gang, was released in 1995. What critics consider his best film appeared in 1997, Onibi
or The Fire Within, another study of an aging yakuza trying to go straight. Onibi won the Best Film award at the 19th Yokohama Film Festival
and Mochizuki took the festival's Best Director award for this movie and his other 1997 film A Yakuza in Love. These were followed by the 1998 manga
-based Mobster's Confession, a comical, cynical account of a small-time gangster and his girlfriend. By this time, Mochizuki had begun to attain an international reputation and the Rotterdam Film Festival held a ten-film retrospective on the director in 1998.
series "Flash Paradise" , working with actresses Rui Sakuragi
, Riria Yoshikawa
and Hitomi Shiraishi
among others. He also returned to his erotic film roots with his 2000 movie, Currency and Blonde, about a Japanese university lecturer and his sadomasochistic affair with his American lover. Critic Tom Mes sees this film, shot cheaply on video, as the start of a decline in the quality of Mochizuki's work. Much of his production in the 2000s was in the direct-to-video V-Cinema
field, one exception being the 2000 pink film B-Grade Video Correspondent: AV Guy: Extraction Shop Ken, which won the 10th Best Film Award at the 2000 Pink Grand Prix
. A more ambitious project was the 2004 mainstream film Kamachi, a young poet and painter who died accidentally at the age of seventeen but his treatment, with hip-hop singer Shinya Taniuchi
and actress Jun Fubuki
, has been criticized as being superficial and romanticized.
After the loss of his production company and the cancellation of other projects, Mochizuki returned to directing adult videos as well, with works in the 2000s for Alice Japan
and Max-A
, some featuring AV idols Milk Ichigo
, Ryōko Mitake
and Akiho Yoshizawa
.
studio, Wet Red Thread concerned two former prostitutes played by Saki Takaoka
and Rei Yoshii
looking to start a new life.
After a gap of three years, Mochizuki directed another film for Toei, the erotic feature Johnen: Love of Sada, an alternate look at Sada Abe
, whose story had been previously treated in the pink film A Woman Called Sada Abe
and more famously in Nagisa Oshima
's In the Realm of the Senses
. In Mochizuki's version, a young photographer becomes obsessed with the married Sada (played by actress-dancer-singer Aya Sugimoto
) and his affair with her brings back memories of a former life together with her. Sugimoto had created a scandal by her unfettered sexuality when starring in the 2004 S&M cult film Flower and Snake and critic Mark Schilling compliments Mochizuki's style and casting for this film.
Film director
A film director is a person who directs the actors and film crew in filmmaking. They control a film's artistic and dramatic nathan roach, while guiding the technical crew and actors.-Responsibilities:...
who has worked in pink film, adult videos and mainstream cinema. He won the award for Best Director at the 19th Yokohama Film Festival
Yokohama Film Festival
The is a noticed yearly awards ceremony held in Japan. The festival was started as a small affair by fans and film critics, and first held on February 3, 1980. Ten films are chosen as the best of the year, and various awards are given to personnel...
for Onibi
Onibi (film)
is a 1997 Japanese film directed by Rokuro Mochizuki.-Awards and nominations:19th Yokohama Film Festival* Won: Best Film* Won: Best Director - Rokuro Mochizuki* Won: Best Actor - Yoshio Harada...
and A Yakuza in Love.
Early career - Pink film
Mochizuki was born in 1957 in the Shinjuku, TokyoShinjuku, Tokyo
is one of the 23 special wards of Tokyo, Japan. It is a major commercial and administrative center, housing the busiest train station in the world and the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building, the administration center for the government of Tokyo.As of 2008, the ward has an estimated population...
area of Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. He attended Keio University
Keio University
,abbreviated as Keio or Keidai , is a Japanese university located in Minato, Tokyo. It is known as the oldest institute of higher education in Japan. Founder Fukuzawa Yukichi originally established it as a school for Western studies in 1858 in Edo . It has eleven campuses in Tokyo and Kanagawa...
in Tokyo but dropped out in his freshman year. After a round of bad-paying jobs, he eventually enrolled to study film at Tokyo's Image Forum. After graduating in the early 1980s, Mochizuki briefly worked at the Nikkatsu
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...
studio which was exclusively producing its Roman porno line of films at that time. Nikkatsu's fortunes were in decline, however, and Mochizuki was soon out of work. Mochizuki had been encouraged to write scripts by one of his teachers at Image Forum and in 1983, one of his screenplays was made into the pink film Virgin Rope Doll by Genji Nakamura for his Yū Pro company.
He continued working with Nakamura as a screenwriter and assistant director, including writing two gay-themed pink films, Beautiful Mystery: The Legend of Big Horn (a parody of Yukio Mishima
Yukio Mishima
was the pen name of , a Japanese author, poet, playwright, actor and film director, also remembered for his ritual suicide by seppuku after a failed coup d'état...
's right-wing activities) and Our Season (aka Male Season) starring Tōru Nakane
Tōru Nakane
is a Japanese actor who was born in Tokyo, Japan on November 6, 1957. He has appeared extensively in pink film and on television. The pink film critics Thomas and Yuko Mihara Weisser commented in 1998 that "he is generally considered one of the best actors in the pink business."-Pink film:Nakane's...
. He made his debut as a director in 1985 with two pink films for Million Film
Million Film
was one of the early independent studios which produced pink films. Along with OP Eiga, Shintōhō, Kantō and Kōji Wakamatsu's production studio, Million Film was one of the most influential on the genre during its first decade...
, Real Performance Video: To Strip and Miss Masturbation: My Steamy Private Life. He also directed his first film for Nikkatsu
Nikkatsu
is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...
in 1986, the melodramatic pink film Love Slave Doll: Make Me Come.
Adult videos (AV)
However, the pink film industry was in decline due to the rise of the adult video (AV) and Mochizuki decided to join the AV market, starting up his own production company, E-Staff Union . With the difficulties of surviving in the Japanese film industry of the time, Mochizuki went into the AV business primarily to make some money while directing films and although he expressed some doubts about his choice he has said that if he "wanted to keep making them [films], it was either the sexy stuff or nothing."In 1987, Mochizuki was directing AVs for Alice JapanAlice Japan
was established on April 4, 1986 as the adult video label for Japan Home Video .-Company information:The early AVs produced by JHV went under the Penguin label, the first title being the 30 minute long softcore Asobinasareya, Tadakurue starring Hidemi Nakajima released May 21, 1984 with...
, a company founded in 1986 as the adult video arm of Japan Home Video
Japan Home Video
is a Japanese media corporation which produces and distributes film and video products and is also involved in TV programming and game software. It uses the label for its adult video production.-Company history and finances:...
. He started the "Flashback" series for Alice Japan in August 1987 and had produced Volume 30 in the series by December 1990 including one with the 1980s AV Idol
AV Idol
An AV idol is a Japanese idol who works in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances have a wide range, from just the idol strolling around their house doing chores in bikinis to hardcore porn...
Nao Saejima
Nao Saejima
is a Japanese AV idol and model of the 1980s and 1990s who also starred in photobooks, V-Cinema, and feature films, including Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series.-AV career:...
. In April 1990, he directed another early AV Idol, Yumika Hayashi
Yumika Hayashi
was a Japanese AV idol and pink film actress. She earned the title of "Japan's Original Adult Video Queen" during a 16-year career in which she starred in nearly 200 AVs and appeared in over 180 films...
, in the Alice Japan video The Contrary Soap Heaven 5 and he remained very active with Alice Japan through 1991.
Mainstream film
Mochizuki made his mainstream directorial debut in 1991 with the autobiographical Skinless Night produced by his own company E-Staff Union. The work revolves about a filmmaker from a background in pink film and now making AVs who is inspired by the discovery of an early student film of his to try to make an independent movie. The film, which showed more of the tedium of making adult videos than the glamor, was well received at festivals and the video distribution rights were picked up by Japan Home Video, the parent company of Alice Japan. With a new reputation as a mainstream director, Mochizuki filmed The Wicked Reporter for the Daiei studioKadokawa Pictures
is a Japanese movie studio.-History:One of the most famous studios in Japan and founded in 1942 as , it is best known for having produced the giant monster Gamera film series and the Daimajin Trilogy. It also produced the Zatoichi and Nemuri Kyoshiro film series and the television series Shōnen Jet...
in 1993. The commercial success of the film about a middle-aged boozing and gambling newspaperman (played by Eiji Okuda
Eiji Okuda
is a Japanese actor and film director. Born in Kasugai, Aichi, he was nominated for the Best Actor award at the 1990 Japanese Academy Awards for his performance in Sen no Rikyu...
) led to two sequels in 1994 and 1996.
Yakuza films
In the last half of the 1990s, Mochizuki directed a series of yakuzaYakuza
, also known as , are members of traditional organized crime syndicates in Japan. The Japanese police, and media by request of the police, call them bōryokudan , literally "violence group", while the yakuza call themselves "ninkyō dantai" , "chivalrous organizations". The yakuza are notoriously...
movies that are considered his best work. Some of the films were a collaboration with novelist Yukio Yamanouchi who had once been a legal advisor to one of the yakuza syndicates. The first of the films, Another Lonely Hitman, about an old-time yakuza hitman who ends up battling his own gang, was released in 1995. What critics consider his best film appeared in 1997, Onibi
Onibi (film)
is a 1997 Japanese film directed by Rokuro Mochizuki.-Awards and nominations:19th Yokohama Film Festival* Won: Best Film* Won: Best Director - Rokuro Mochizuki* Won: Best Actor - Yoshio Harada...
or The Fire Within, another study of an aging yakuza trying to go straight. Onibi won the Best Film award at the 19th Yokohama Film Festival
Yokohama Film Festival
The is a noticed yearly awards ceremony held in Japan. The festival was started as a small affair by fans and film critics, and first held on February 3, 1980. Ten films are chosen as the best of the year, and various awards are given to personnel...
and Mochizuki took the festival's Best Director award for this movie and his other 1997 film A Yakuza in Love. These were followed by the 1998 manga
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
-based Mobster's Confession, a comical, cynical account of a small-time gangster and his girlfriend. By this time, Mochizuki had begun to attain an international reputation and the Rotterdam Film Festival held a ten-film retrospective on the director in 1998.
Declining fortunes
During the early 1990s, despite his entry into mainstream film, Mochizuki continued to produce hardcore pornographic videos as well, directing several entries in the Alice JapanAlice Japan
was established on April 4, 1986 as the adult video label for Japan Home Video .-Company information:The early AVs produced by JHV went under the Penguin label, the first title being the 30 minute long softcore Asobinasareya, Tadakurue starring Hidemi Nakajima released May 21, 1984 with...
series "Flash Paradise" , working with actresses Rui Sakuragi
Rui Sakuragi
, is a former Japanese AV Idol who has been described as a "real AV Queen", the "top Japanese AV idol of the mid-1990's" and the "biggest star" in AV in 1992. She has also appeared widely in mainstream films and videos and on TV.-Life and career:...
, Riria Yoshikawa
Riria Yoshikawa
is a Japanese actress, AV Idol, and gravure idol.-Life and career:Riria Yoshikawa was born on July 11, 1970 in Tokyo, Japan and made her adult video debut at age twenty in the November 1990 Alice Japan release, . Yoshikawa was the star of director Sachi Hamano's pink film, released by Exces in...
and Hitomi Shiraishi
Hitomi Shiraishi
is a former Japanese model, adult video actress, and a movie and TV actress from the 1990s who has been called "the eternal porn queen" and been described as "one of the most popular AV actresses of 1990s"...
among others. He also returned to his erotic film roots with his 2000 movie, Currency and Blonde, about a Japanese university lecturer and his sadomasochistic affair with his American lover. Critic Tom Mes sees this film, shot cheaply on video, as the start of a decline in the quality of Mochizuki's work. Much of his production in the 2000s was in the direct-to-video V-Cinema
V-Cinema
Japanese is the direct-to-video industry that appeared in Japan in the 1980s. The term is a trademark of Toei Company but is widely used in the West to describe any Japanese direct-to-video release. In Japan the term used is...
field, one exception being the 2000 pink film B-Grade Video Correspondent: AV Guy: Extraction Shop Ken, which won the 10th Best Film Award at the 2000 Pink Grand Prix
Pink Grand Prix
The or is an annual Japanese film award ceremony which recognizes excellence in the pink film. Known as the "Academy Awards of the Pink Film", the ceremony attracts a diverse audience of industry personnel, film scholars and the general public....
. A more ambitious project was the 2004 mainstream film Kamachi, a young poet and painter who died accidentally at the age of seventeen but his treatment, with hip-hop singer Shinya Taniuchi
Lead (band)
Lead is a Japanese hip-hop group, under the Record of Pony Canyon/ Flight Master. Their debut was on July 31, 2002 with their single Manatsu no Magic .-Biography:...
and actress Jun Fubuki
Jun Fubuki
is a Japanese actress. She received a Japanese Academy Award Best Supporting Actress nomination for her role in Muno no hito, and won at the Hochi Film Awards. This role also won Fubuki the "Best Actress" award at the Yokohama Film Festival...
, has been criticized as being superficial and romanticized.
After the loss of his production company and the cancellation of other projects, Mochizuki returned to directing adult videos as well, with works in the 2000s for Alice Japan
Alice Japan
was established on April 4, 1986 as the adult video label for Japan Home Video .-Company information:The early AVs produced by JHV went under the Penguin label, the first title being the 30 minute long softcore Asobinasareya, Tadakurue starring Hidemi Nakajima released May 21, 1984 with...
and Max-A
Max-A
is a Japanese adult video studio which is especially known for videos made under its Samansa and Calen labels which produced a number of innovative and quality AVs in the late 1990s and early 2000s.-Company information:...
, some featuring AV idols Milk Ichigo
Milk Ichigo
, also often billed as Miruku Ichigo, is an award-winning Japanese adult video actress who has had an exceptionally long career.-Life and career:...
, Ryōko Mitake
Ryoko Mitake
is a popular and multiple-award-winning Japanese AV idol. Throughout her career she alternated between the two AV studios, Alice Japan and Max-A. At the end of her first year in AV, Mitake was given two Best Actress awards in different AV ceremonies, and at the end of her second year she was given...
and Akiho Yoshizawa
Akiho Yoshizawa
, often known simply as Acky , is a Japanese adult video and pink film actress.-AV debut - Alice Japan & Max-A:Yoshizawa was born in Tokyo, Japan on March 3, 1984 and after working as a gravure idol, made her AV debut in 2003 under contract to two studios, Alice Japan and Max-A...
.
Later career
Mochizuki's 2005 film for the Toei CompanyToei Company
is a Japanese film, television production, and distribution corporation. Based in Tokyo, Toei owns and operates thirty-four movie theaters across Japan, a modest vertically-integrated studio system by the standards of the 1930s United States; operates studios at Tokyo and Kyoto; and is a...
studio, Wet Red Thread concerned two former prostitutes played by Saki Takaoka
Saki Takaoka
is a Japanese actress. Yōsuke Yamashita, a jazz pianist is her uncle. She won the award for best actress at the 19th Hochi Film Award for Crest of Betrayal.- Filmography :* cf girl * Swimming Upstream...
and Rei Yoshii
Rei Yoshii
-Musical:*Rock Musical Bleach as Orihime Inoue*Rock Musical Bleach Saien as Orihime Inoue-External links:*...
looking to start a new life.
After a gap of three years, Mochizuki directed another film for Toei, the erotic feature Johnen: Love of Sada, an alternate look at Sada Abe
Sada Abe
is remembered in Japan for erotically asphyxiating her lover, , on May 18, 1936, and then cutting off his penis and testicles and carrying them around with her in her handbag...
, whose story had been previously treated in the pink film A Woman Called Sada Abe
A Woman Called Sada Abe
aka Sada Abe: A Docu-Drama is a Roman porno version of the Sada Abe story directed by Noboru Tanaka.It is based on the true story of a woman who strangled her lover during a love-making session, then severed his penis, which she carried with her until her arrest...
and more famously in Nagisa Oshima
Nagisa Oshima
is a Japanese film director and screenwriter. After graduating from Kyoto University he was hired by Shochiku Ltd. and quickly progressed to directing his own movies, making his debut feature A Town of Love and Hope in 1959....
's In the Realm of the Senses
In the Realm of the Senses
is a 1976 Franco-Japanese romantic drama film directed by Nagisa Oshima. It is a fictionalised and sexually explicit treatment of an incident from 1930s Japan, that of Sada Abe...
. In Mochizuki's version, a young photographer becomes obsessed with the married Sada (played by actress-dancer-singer Aya Sugimoto
Aya Sugimoto
is a Japanese TV personality, actress, dancer and author born in Kyoto. She also had a J-pop career in the late 1980s-early 1990s.-Early life:Aya Sugimoto grew up in Kyoto under a "strict" upbringing, making her first foray into the world of entertainment when she began modeling at age 15...
) and his affair with her brings back memories of a former life together with her. Sugimoto had created a scandal by her unfettered sexuality when starring in the 2004 S&M cult film Flower and Snake and critic Mark Schilling compliments Mochizuki's style and casting for this film.