Kihachi OkamotoFilmography

Occupation:
Director, Screenwriter

  • Sukedachiya Sukeroku

    Crew: Director, Screenwriter

    Actors: Hiroyuki Sanada, Kyoka Suzuki, Takehiro Murata, Tatsuya Nakadai, Shingo Tsurumi

    Synopsis: Veteran filmmaker Kihachi Okamoto revives his similarly named 1960s television series about happy-go-lucky avenger-for-hire Sukeroku (Hiroyuki Sanada) who prefers to brandish a wooden pole or a rope rather than a sword. The film opens with Sukeroku returning to his home in the mountainous Joshu Read More

    2002

  • Boy's Choir

    Actors: Teruyuki Kagawa, Ryoko Takizawa, Ken Mitsuishi

    Synopsis: Former assistant director to Sogo Ishii, Akira Ogata makes his debut with this complex coming of age drama about a pair of orphans obsessed with choir singing. Set during the political tumult of the 1970s, the film focuses on Michio (Atsushi Ito), a stuttering, socially-inept 15-year-old. Michio's Read More

    2000

  • East Meets West

    Crew: Director

    Synopsis: Veteran director Kihachi Okamoto spins this genre-bending samurai western. Kamijo Kenkichi (played by gymnast Hiroyuki Sanada) is ronin from a clan opposed to Japan's opening to foreign lands. Sent in cognito on a government delegation to the United States, he is on a mission to assassinate Read More

    1995

  • Daiyukai

    Crew: Director

    Actors: Tanie Kitabayashi, Ken Ogata, Hiroshi Nishikawa, Toru Kazama, Katsuyoshi Uchida

    Synopsis: Kihachi Okamoto directs his 37th film with this sweet-natured satire about bungling cops and tax scams. The story opens with an 84-year-old widow and grandmother (Tanie Kitabayashi), who lives in a palatial estate in rural Wakayama prefecture, getting jumped by a trio of bumbling thugs (Toru Read More

    1991

  • Dixieland Daimyo

    Crew: Director, Screenwriter

    Actors: Ikko Furuya, Ai Kanzaki, Mami Okamoto, Ron Nelson

    Synopsis: Set in the late 19th century, a shipwrecked trio of African-American Dixieland jazz musicians find themselves in war-torn feudal Japan in this charming and genuinely funny Japanese comedy. Not only do the foreigners teach the Japanese war lords a thing or two about music, they also become symbols Read More

    1987

  • Chikagoro Nazeka Chaarusuton

    Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

    Actors: Yu Fujiki, Ichiro Zaitsu

    Synopsis: A group of old men take over an empty house and proclaim it to be a new "country" they have founded, called Yama. ("Yamato" is one of the oldest names for Japan, "yama" itself means "mountain.") The men basically refuse to be thrown out of this domicile by some gangsters, and they are successful Read More

    1982

  • Okinawa Kessen

    Crew: Director

    Actors: Keiju Kobayashi, Tetsuro Tamba, Tatsuya Nakadai, Yuzo Kayama, Mayumi Ozora

    Synopsis: Samurai Assassin and Japan's Longest Day director Kihachi Okamoto offers a vivid dramatization of the bloodiest battle ever fought in the Pacific Theater with this combat film produced to portray the Japanese perspective on this landmark confrontation. The year is 1944, and when Allied forces Read More

    1971

  • Zatoichi vs. Yojimbo

    Crew: Director, Screenwriter

    Actors: Shintaro Katsu, Toshiro Mifune

    Synopsis: In Zatoichi vs. Yojimbo, one of many Japanese samurai films starring the blind swordsman Zatoichi (Shintaro Katsu), he has to battle Yojimbo (Toshiro Mifune), the title character from Akira Kurosawa's famous film. At the beginning of the film, Zatoichi is planning on retiring, yet his village is Read More

    1970

  • Red Lion

    Crew: Director, Screenwriter

    Synopsis:
    In this samurai tale, a brave warrior is told by the newly restored emperor that he must return to his home village and announce that there has been a tax cut. Unfortunately, it is a government ruse designed to ensure political control. When the warrior arrives in his home village, he Read More

    1969

  • Kiru

    Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

    Synopsis: A pair of luckless would-be warriors find themselves caught in the middle of a skirmish between rival gangsters in this darkly comic samurai film. Tabata (Etsushi Takahashi) and Genta (Tatsuya Nakadai) are two hungry ronin who meet in a windswept town which has fallen so deeply upon hard times Read More

    1968

  • Nikudan

    Crew: Director, Screenwriter

    Actors: Minoru Terada, Naoko Otani, Chishu Ryu, Tanie Kitabayashi, Yunosuke Ito

    Synopsis: A clever injunction against war, this film by director Kihachi Okamoto centers on the character of a dedicated, old-fashioned soldier (Minoru Terada) versus the changes going on around him at the end of World War II. Slow on the uptake and innocent, the soldier still manages to handle the Read More

    1968

  • The Emperor and a General

    Crew: Director

    Actors: Toshiro Mifune, So Yamamura, Chishu Ryu, Seiji Miyaguchi, Rokko Toura

    Synopsis: This star-studded and relatively lavishly produced fact-based war drama, set in 1945 Japan during WW II, chronicles the attempts of Japan's War Minister, (played by Toshiro Mifune), to prevent Emperor Hirohito from publicly broadcasting the declaration of surrender. The War Minister rallies those Read More

    1967

  • The Sword of Doom

    Crew: Director

    Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Toshiro Mifune, Yuzo Kayama, Michiyo Aratama, Ichiro Nakaya

    Synopsis: In this epic Japanese samurai adventure, a bloodthirsty young fighter (Tatsuya Nakadai) kills a man in competition and is pursued by the slain warrior's brother. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

    1967

  • Satsujinkyo Jidai

    Crew: Director

    Actors: Tatsuya Nakadai, Reiko Dan

    Synopsis: Twenty years after the end of World War II, international agents try to apprehend the world's largest diamond in this offbeat spy comedy. An eight year-old boy had the diamond sewn inside him during the war to smuggle the bauble out of the country. A mad scientists tortures one of the former Nazi Read More

    1967

  • Fort Graveyard

    Crew: Director, Screenwriter

    Synopsis: In this Japanese war movie, a rebellious war hero disobeys orders. For his punishment, the fellow is sent to the Chinese front. He goes there and finds that his brother was killed for desertion. This enrages the soldier who explodes and finds himself in deeper trouble, and he is faced with a Read More

    1966

  • Samurai Assassin

    Crew: Director

    Actors: Toshiro Mifune, Keiju Kobayashi, Yunosuke Ito, Koshiro Matsumoto, Michiyo Aratama

    Synopsis: A ronin seeking to redeem his wandering status by gaining entry into one of the great houses takes part in a plot to assassinate a Shogunate Elder in this classic tale of swordplay directed by Okamoto Kihachi, starring Toshiro Mifune, and based on actual events. Niiro Tsuruchiyo (Mifune) is a Read More

    1965

  • Operation X

    Crew: Director, Screenwriter

    Synopsis: In this Japanese WW II drama set in northern China near the war's end, a youthful officer disregards advice and launches an attack against the Chinese. As a result his unit is slaughtered and he is taken captive. Later a reward is posted for his return. To earn the reward the leader of a band of Read More

    1963

  • Warring Clans

    Crew: Director, Screenwriter

    Actors: Yuzo Kayama, Ichiro Nakatani, Makoto Sato, Yuriko Hoshi

    Synopsis: In this Japanese samurai adventure, a brave, highly principled warrior resigns his post as a body guard to the head of a powerful clan after he learns that his employers have been smuggling arms to the enemy. The remaining samurai try in vain to coerce him back, but their efforts are thwarted by Read More

    1963

  • Westward Desperado

    Crew: Director, Screenwriter

    Synopsis: In this patriotic Japanese WW II drama, the army demonstrates its courage and willingness to do anything to win as they endeavor to sneak into Communist China to bring back the flag of a defeated enemy regiment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

    1961

Movie data provided by AMG

Kihachi Okamoto not available

© 2007 Getty Images

Add this Person to Favorites

Need Help?