Katsu Kanai

Directing

Katsu Kanai

Born July 9, 1936 · Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan

Died April 22, 2026 · aged 89

Katsu Kanai (金井 勝, Kanai Katsu, born 9 July 1936) is a Japanese experimental and avant-garde film director. The Harvard Film Archive has called him "one of the most vital and inventive filmmakers in the history of Japanese underground film". Born the son of a farmer in Kanagawa Prefecture, Kanai graduated from the College of Art of Nihon University before finding work at Daiei Film. He later beca…

Known For

Dogra MagraDogra Magra · 1988
Dogra Magra
6.71988
MovieHorrorMystery
A young man murders his new bride and goes insane. He wakes in an asylum with no memory, left in the hands of two mysterious doctors who relate his condition with his biological identity.
The KingdomThe Kingdom · 1973
The Kingdom
7.01973
MovieActionThriller
A popular poet, Goku, becomes depressed when his editor jokingly suggests that he is a sell-out.
Holy TheaterHoly Theater · 1998
Holy Theater
1998
MovieDocumentary
It’s said that people die twice. The first death is a physical one and the second, true death comes when there is no one to remember that person.
Super Documentary: The Avant-Garde SenjutsuSuper Documentary: The Avant-Garde Senjutsu · 2003
Super Documentary: The Avant-Garde Senjutsu
2003
MovieDocumentary
A unique film in which an elderly man creates miracles in his daily life by playing the leading role himself. The film depicts the process of creating a mysterious world that transcends reality through the act of filming and leads to a surrealistic conclusion.
Good-ByeGood-Bye · 1971
Good-Bye
6.21971
MovieDrama
An aphasic young boy living in South Korea meets, on one of his regular paths, a “Koguryo Beauty” who shows him how to trace his heritage.
The Stormy TimesThe Stormy Times · 1991
The Stormy Times
7.31991
MovieDocumentaryDrama
The Stormy Times is a collection of three short films created as a series of visual poems (Dream Running, Grasshopper’s One-Game Match, andWe Can Hear Joe’s Poem). Katsu Kanai screened this films together, along with extra documentary footage, as a memorial to his friend Jônouchi Motoharu.
The Deserted ArchipelagoThe Deserted Archipelago · 1969
The Deserted Archipelago
7.01969
MovieDrama
A young man reaches adolescence and escapes the nunnery where he survived a tortured upbringing; the world outside suddenly seems even more frightening than before.
Body Drop AsphaltBody Drop Asphalt · 2001
Body Drop Asphalt
6.82001
MovieDramaComedy
Eri Manaka lives alone in the big city. She writes a romantic novel on impulse and is startled when it gets rave reviews and makes her a literary celebrity. But doubts soon kick in, and Eri begins work on an anti-romantic sequel, in which her heroine Rie goes through the torments of the damned.

Filmography

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Discovery of Image – The Era of Toshio MatsumotoDiscovery of Image – The Era of Toshio Matsumoto · 2017
Discovery of Image – The Era of Toshio Matsumoto
2017
MovieDocumentary
A five-part documentary chronicling Toshio Matsumoto, the legendary filmmaker known as a pioneer of experimental cinema in Japan and also active as a film theorist, who exerted a profound influence on innovative film expression from the 1950s onward. Directed by filmmaker and critic Takefumi Tsutsui—himself both a filmmaker and critic like Matsumoto—the project was filmed over the course of ten years. Interweaving excerpts from Matsumoto’s works with an extensive series of interviews with collaborators and critics, the documentary retraces, through the figure of Matsumoto, the tumultuous decades from the 1950s to the 2000s across five parts, totaling 700 minutes.