SABU

Sabu is a Japanese director, writer, and actor born in 1964. His kinetic, cyberpunk style is often imitated. He began his career as an actor, appearing in at least five films before he first directed and wrote. As an actor, he has usually been credited under his birth name, Hiroyuki Tanaka, and has often played cold-blooded gangsters, while he uses the name Sabu for his directing and writing work. He acted in a film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Pulse (2001), and in Takashi Miike's Dead or Alive trilogy and Ishi the Killer. His first film as director and writer was Dangan Runner (1996). His own films often mix yakuza stories with black comedy, though later ones became more stylistically diverse. He also wrote and directed the short science-fiction film A1012K (2002), about a robot that goes berserk in a shopping mall. He has said he did not attend film school despite having written and directed five award-winning movies.