Yuya Ishii

Directing

Yuya Ishii

Born June 21, 1983 · Saitama Prefecture, Japan (age 43)

Yuya Ishii is a Japanese film director, writer, editor, producer and actor best known for his 2013 movie The Great Passage for which he won best director at the 2013 Japanese Academy Awards.

Known For

The Real YouThe Real You · 2024
The Real You
7.42024
MovieDramaScience Fiction
Why had a mother who seemed happy desired to end her own life? Desperate to uncover his mother’s true intentions, Sakuya ventures into uncharted technological territory. He turns to VF (Virtual Figure), a technology that aggregates personal data from one’s life to create a “human” in a virtual space.
Uta Monogatari: Cinema Fighters ProjectUta Monogatari: Cinema Fighters Project · 2018
Uta Monogatari: Cinema Fighters Project
7.02018
MovieDrama
Six Stories based on Six Songs.
The Asian AngelThe Asian Angel · 2021
The Asian Angel
6.82021
MovieDrama
Aoki is a failing novelist, and Sol is a failing pop singer. Encountering each other in South Korea, speaking different languages, they and their families somehow end up in a truck heading off into the Korean countryside.
The Great PassageThe Great Passage · 2013
The Great Passage
7.22013
MovieDrama
Majime, 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.
One Last Love LetterOne Last Love Letter · 2026
One Last Love Letter
2026
MovieDramaRomance
A woman writes a letter to a young man, leading to a correspondence with his father that unveils the truth of a 24-year-old high school romance, his son's death, and the power of love letters.
Masked HeartsMasked Hearts · 2023
Masked Hearts
6.82023
MovieComedyDrama
26 years old Hanako is on the verge of directing her first-ever feature film, achieving her childhood dream. Although she’s being hindered by an older male assistant director, she has a fateful encounter with a man named Masao, and her life at last begins to take on a whole new luster. However, the underhanded actions of an unscrupulous producer cause Hanako to have her personal project stolen. After being dumped into despair, she quietly stokes her rage, and makes a pledge to keep fighting, and never back down! Entangling Masao, her hopeless father and two older brothers (who she’s been out of touch with for over 10 years) in her obsessive quest, Hanako audaciously attempts to make her dream come true, her way!
The Secret BattlefieldThe Secret Battlefield · 2026
The Secret Battlefield
2.02026
MovieWarDrama
In April 1941, months before the Pacific War begins, Japan’s brightest young elites, bureaucrats, military officers, and civilians, are secretly assembled at the Total War Research Institute. Tasked with simulating a conflict against the United States, they confront harsh realities through intense analysis.
The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of BlueThe Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue · 2017
The Tokyo Night Sky Is Always the Densest Shade of Blue
6.72017
MovieDrama
Mika works as a nurse by day; by night she entertains covetous men at a girls' bar. Shinji is blind in one eye and ekes out a living as a construction worker. Young and grown-up at the same time, they both lead a lonely existence, but somehow their paths keep miraculously crossing under the Tokyo sky.

Filmography

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To Walk Beside YouTo Walk Beside You · 2009
To Walk Beside You
4.52009
MovieDrama
A 17-year-old country boy named Norio decides his only option is to follow his late parents’ example and commit suicide. After failing even at that, his 34-year-old English teacher Akemi convinces him that he should instead move to Tokyo with her and become a lawyer on her dime. Unfortunately, Akemi doesn’t have quite as much money as she leads Norio to believe, and has to secretly get a job at a karaoke bar under the guise of “going to the salon”. Meanwhile, she continuously prods her somewhat dimwitted student to work harder toward her manufactured goal of him becoming a lawyer. Although Norio is falling in love with Akemi, he’s not all that interested in studying, and matters only get worse when he discovers his benefactor’s secret source of income.

Screenplay

Of Monster ModeOf Monster Mode · 2008
Of Monster Mode
2008
MovieDrama
A young man in a green Martian costume allows himself to be dragged hither and thither by a bossy housewife. In this way the film swerves between deceptively ordinary realism and a fantastic absurdism. The housewife Junko (Otori Rei) has started to behave increasingly strangely since the death of her son. Her husband can't put up with it any more and goes off with a female colleague. The man in the green suit, Katsura Tombo (Oda Yonosuke), is a bread salesman but he forgets his work. His strange costume is supposed to lure new customers, but he seems to have forgotten that. He is more or less kidnapped by Junko and falls in love with her. Junko however has other intentions with the rather naive salesman. The failed Martian drives her around in his aunt's van, but his helpfulness doesn't get rewarded.

Director