Hirobumi Watanabe Movies, TV Shows, and Filmography
Hirobumi Watanabe
Directing
Biography
Born in 1982 in Otawara, Tochigi prefecture, Watanabe Hirobumi graduated in Japanese literature and, after graduation, entered the Japan Academy of Moving Images. His graduation project, the 41-minute film The Light Pig of August (Hachigatsu no Karui Buta), received the Grand Prix at the Fuji Film Lovers Festival, as well as other awards. In 2013, together with his brother Yuji, composer of film music, he created Foolish Piggies Films in his hometown of Otawara. Their first production was also the debut in Watanabe's feature film, And the Mud Ship Sails Away..., which was presented at the 26th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival and had several screenings outside Japan. The film was released in Japanese theatres in December 2014. His second film, 7 Days, won the best film award in the Japanese Cinema Splash section of the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival. He has been invited to several other festivals and won the Nippon Vision Jury Award at the 17th edition of the Nippon Connection festival. Subsequently, Watanabe shot at least one film a year, always with his brother Watanabe Yuji as the author of the soundtrack and Bang Woo-hyun as director of photography. However, for his most recent film, I'm Really Good (2020), Watanabe also served as a cameraman. This is also his first title in which his grandmother, who died last year at the age of 102, does not appear. After almost a decade of consistency, more or less with the same people in front of and behind the camera, Watanabe's career seems to have come to a turning point.
Filmography Movies
Acting
Techno Brothers
The band "Techno Brothers" played by Watanabe, brother Watanabe Yuji and pal Kurosaki Takanori, go to find fame and fortune in Tôkyô. It’s more accurate, though, to call it their manager’s plan. Named Himuro, she channels the look and attitude of famed Vogue editor Anna Wintour, from her bobbed hair and ever-present sunglasses to her commanding air and iron will.
I’m Glad to Be Alive
Professional boxer Sota Kusunoki has gained popularity for his fighting style, where he goes headlong into his opponents. However, years of fighting have taken their toll on his body, and he is forced to retire by a doctor's stoppage. He takes the opportunity of his retirement to marry his girlfriend, Sachiko, and start a new life, but he is completely useless in society and is made acutely aware of the harsh reality of his situation. One day, a mysterious man who claims to be a fan of Sota's receives an offer to fight in an underground martial arts tournament, where he will fight for a large sum of money and where his desires are thriving... The prospect of fighting once again revives his almost forgotten excitement, and his adrenaline surges as if to fill the emptiness in him. Will the madness and honesty of a man obsessed with fighting have a happy ending or a bad one?
Your Lovely Smile
A bittersweet, hilarious, enlightening and inspirational road trip through Japanese arthouse cinemas with a heartily independent filmmaker, who also struggles to release his own movies in real life.
Poolside Man
In a suburb north of Tokyo that seems to be secluded from the world’s madness and malice, Yusuke Mizuhara works as a lifeguard at a swimming pool. With no family, friends or love, his life is lonely and monotonous. One day, he goes to another pool as a replacement guard with his unpopular co-worker Koji Shirasaki…
Party 'Round the Globe
Poolsideman's Watanabe Brothers stamp their trademark brand of humor and melancholy on this gem of a road movie, as two Beatlemaniacs plan and then travel to Tokyo for a Paul McCartney concert.
Cry
The latest unique human drama from Hirobumi and Yuji Watanabe portrays, in black and white and without words, a man who lives with his aging grandmother and works silently in a pigpen.
Life Finds A Way
Born out of every artist’s creative crisis, the search for the next topic, Hirobumi WATANABE presents his latest film, dealing with the question of what his film should be about. The director stages himself as he idles away his days, delivering endless monologs during car rides, sleeping on the floor at his grandma’s house, or philosophizing over video games and the FIFA World Cup.
I'm Really Good
A normal day for little Riko at home and at school. A vivid snapshot pervaded by the calm flow of reality that creates an authentic sense of wonder.
The Sleeping Insect
Kanako Seri is on a packed bus heading to band practice. She becomes fascinated by a melody being hummed by another passenger, an old woman.
Kamata Prelude
A four-part film done in the unique style of each director, Matusbayashi Urara gives a portrayal of a struggling actress named Machiko who lives in Kamata. Machiko is the central axis of the movie as the film comically depicts what it means to be a "woman" and an "actress" in society through showing the patterns of life as conducted by her and the people that surround her.
Production
Kamata Prelude
A four-part film done in the unique style of each director, Matusbayashi Urara gives a portrayal of a struggling actress named Machiko who lives in Kamata. Machiko is the central axis of the movie as the film comically depicts what it means to be a "woman" and an "actress" in society through showing the patterns of life as conducted by her and the people that surround her.
Sea Not on the Map
A film by Hirobumi Watanabe.
Way of Life
A film by Hirobumi Watanabe.
And the Mud Ship Sails Away...
Takashi is country hipster, work avoiding, not-so-smart life expert in vague rural-urban area in the north from Tokyo. He lives together with his grandmother and laughs at his friend who goes to real work - shoveling cow manure. On one day, a young woman arrives to the area and claims to be Takashi's half-sister from this' father's escapade. And she is the kind you can't get easily rid off...
And the Mud Ship Sails Away...
Takashi is country hipster, work avoiding, not-so-smart life expert in vague rural-urban area in the north from Tokyo. He lives together with his grandmother and laughs at his friend who goes to real work - shoveling cow manure. On one day, a young woman arrives to the area and claims to be Takashi's half-sister from this' father's escapade. And she is the kind you can't get easily rid off...
And the Mud Ship Sails Away...
Takashi is country hipster, work avoiding, not-so-smart life expert in vague rural-urban area in the north from Tokyo. He lives together with his grandmother and laughs at his friend who goes to real work - shoveling cow manure. On one day, a young woman arrives to the area and claims to be Takashi's half-sister from this' father's escapade. And she is the kind you can't get easily rid off...
Sea Not on the Map
A film by Hirobumi Watanabe.
Love Will Tear Us Apart
Wakaba saves her classmate Koki who was being bullied. From then on, people who are involved with Wakaba are killed one after another. When the murderer is found out, Wakaba realizes what true love is.
7 Days
In a farming village north of Tokyo, a man lives with his aging grandmother and works day after day at a cow shed that looks like a relic from another era. Their routine repeats in tune with nature, portrayed tranquilly and persistently in black and white without words.
7 Days
In a farming village north of Tokyo, a man lives with his aging grandmother and works day after day at a cow shed that looks like a relic from another era. Their routine repeats in tune with nature, portrayed tranquilly and persistently in black and white without words.
Gallery
