Takashi Miike

Takashi Miike is a film director born on August 24, 1960, in Yao, near Osaka. At 18 he attended Shôhei Imamura's film school in Yokohama, though he rarely went to classes. A local TV company seeking unpaid production assistants led the school to nominate him. He spent nearly a decade in television in various roles, then became a film assistant director for Imamura and others. The early 1990s V-Cinema boom, direct-to-video productions, gave him his start as a director, with new companies hiring young filmmakers for low-budget action movies. His first theatrical release was Shinjuku Triad Society (1995). He alternated V-Cinema and bigger-budget projects, and Audition (1999) brought his international breakthrough and a cult following in the West. His films, known for graphic and taboo depictions of sex and violence, include Visitor Q (2001), Ichi the Killer (2001), and the Dead or Alive trilogy. He had directed more than 60 films in 13 years.