Kazutaka Watanabe

Directing

Kazutaka Watanabe

Kazutaka Watanabe worked in a range of film industry and film festival positions before establishing his company, E.x.N K.K., in 2014 to plan and produce films from A to Z. He had produced 3 features, 2 are co-production, and 1 short film. Since 2017, he works as a coordinator at Rough Cut program in Yamagata International Documentary FF. He once in a while holds screening workshops for the locals…

Known For

Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a ConfessionalThus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional · 2025
Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional
8.52025
MovieDramaFantasy
While on vacation in Venice, author Rohan Kishibe is mistaken for a priest and hears the confession of a horrific crime. Rohan becomes engrossed in this mysterious confession and uses his special ability to turn people into books and read their memories and experiences…
Lost LandLost Land · 2026
Lost Land
7.02026
MovieDrama
In the hope of reuniting with their scattered family, four-year-old Shafi and his nine-year-old sister Somira leave a Rohingya refugee camp in Bangladesh on a perilous journey to reach Malaysia.
SHOWTIME 7SHOWTIME 7 · 2025
SHOWTIME 7
5.12025
MovieDramaThriller
Orimoto Shinnosuke, a former popular news anchor, was forced to leave the nationwide news program “Showtime 7” for a certain reason. Orimoto, now a negotiator, forcefully goes live on air to negotiate with a bomber. Based on the 2013 Korean film “Terror, Live.”
Rohan at the LouvreRohan at the Louvre · 2023
Rohan at the Louvre
7.72023
MovieMysteryAction
Rohan Kishibe is a mangaka who can read people like a book. At work on a new creation, Rohan recalls a tale of the blackest painting ever made. Called the most evil of paintings, it used a paint that should not exist. Driven by the events linked to it, Rohan and his editor, Izumi, go to the Louvre in France for answers.
An Artist of the Floating WorldAn Artist of the Floating World · 2019
An Artist of the Floating World
2019
MovieDrama
In the face of the misery in his homeland, the artist Masuji Ono was unwilling to devote his art solely to the celebration of physical beauty. Instead, he put his work in the service of the imperialist movement that led Japan into WWII.
The Forest of SunekosuriThe Forest of Sunekosuri · 2026
The Forest of Sunekosuri
2026
MovieDramaRomance
Snow CountrySnow Country · 2022
Snow Country
7.02022
MovieRomanceDrama
Depicts the love story between an idle author and a provincial geisha.
Space PoliceSpace Police · 2004
Space Police
2004
Movie
A sci-fi comedy action film in which a Space Police officer who has arrived from outer space to fend off man-eating aliens and a good-for-nothing young man race against time to save the Earth. Directed by Kazushi Watanabe, whose debut film *19* was acclaimed at numerous international film festivals. Starring Shugo Oshinari (Blue Spring), alongside Yuki Meguro, who is making his first film appearance in ten years. The cast also includes Soji Itao and Minoru Torihada.

Filmography

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Song of the Samurai - Chapter: Youthful Days in EdoSong of the Samurai - Chapter: Youthful Days in Edo · 2026
Song of the Samurai - Chapter: Youthful Days in Edo
9.22026
SeriesAction & Adventure
A live-action adaptation that translates this deep legacy to the screen. Set in Kyoto at the end of the Edo period, the story depicts the intense and passionate lives of the Shinsengumi - the iconic samurai force that defended Kyoto in the final years of Japan's shogunate - through spectacular action and a bold interpretation based on historical facts. The story follows street brawler Toshizo Hijikata (Yuki Yamada), who finds a new kind of family in Isami Kondo and Soji Okita. Hijikata and his comrades in the Shinsengumi forge a bond of loyalty - tested by betrayal, illness, and war - as they fight not only their enemies but their own ideals.

Director

The AuditorThe Auditor · 2008
The Auditor
2008
Series
The setting is Japan. After the bursting of its asset-inflated "bubble economy" in 1990, the country is suffering an economic hangover. Foreign capital is flooding in, and great transformations are underway. Accountant Kenji Wakasugi's auditing firm is divided into two camps. The "doves" favor overlooking what are called "window-dressed accounts" so as to allow businesses to recover their financial footing. The "hawks" won't ignore the slightest infraction, holding that inferior firms should be allowed to perish. Wakasugi himself believes in strict accounting practices -- until he is brought face-to-face with the distress and even deaths of employees of companies forced to go under. This is a fictionalized report from the economic front lines, replete with human interest.

Director