Katsuyuki Hirano

Hirano was born in 1964 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan and was an aspiring cartoonist until he began making amateur films from the time he was 18. Three of his early films were selected to play at the Japanese PIA independent film festival in 1985–1987.{{cite web|url=http://www.yidff.jp/docsjapan/99/dj99w2-e.html|title=The White|publisher= YIDFF|accessdate=2009-08-05}}{{cite web|url=http://www.filmplay.com/html/2001/faaoi.html|script-title=ja:平野勝之|publisher= Filmplay|accessdate=2009-09-06|language=Japanese}} He appeared as an actor in the 1986 Cinderella story film Hai Kaburi (Princess Story) (はいかぶり姫物語) directed by Hisashi Saitō (斎藤久志).{{cite web|url=http://www.walkerplus.com/movie/kinejun/index.cgi?ctl=each&id=29416|script-title=ja:はいかぶり姫物語|publisher=MovieWalker|accessdate=2009-09-06|language=Japanese|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050326070049/http://www.walkerplus.com/movie/kinejun/index.cgi?ctl=each&id=29416|archive-date=2005-03-26|url-status=dead}} In January 1989 Raigyo (雷魚) was released, an 8 mm color film written, directed and photographed by Hirano.{{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1989/dm000030.htm|script-title=ja:雷魚|publisher= JMDB|accessdate=2009-09-06|language=Japanese}} The film assured his reputation as an independent film maker{{cite web|url=http://www.cinematopics.com/cinema/works/output2.php?oid=8499|script-title=ja:雷魚|publisher=Cinema Topics Online|accessdate=2009-09-06|language=Japanese}}{{Dead link|date=April 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} and won a Jury Prize at the 1990 Image Forum Festival (イメージフォーラム・フェスティバル).{{cite web|url=http://www.jishueiga.com/iff/1990.htm|script-title=ja:イメージフォーラム・フェスティバル 1990|publisher=www.jishueiga.com/iff|accessdate=2009-09-06|language=Japanese|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080820122223/http://www.jishueiga.com/iff/1990.htm|archive-date=2008-08-20|url-status=dead}}

Hirano started directing in the adult video (AV) industry in the early 1990s with several videos for V&R Planning. At the V&R studio he met AV actress Yumika Hayashi who had had a love affair with another V&R Planning director, Company Matsuo.{{cite web|url=http://www.midnighteye.com/features/company-matsuo-and-the-world-of-japanese-adult-video.shtml|title=Company Matsuo and the World of Japanese Adult Video|publisher= Midnight Eye|accessdate=2009-08-07|last=Schoenherr|first=Johannes|date=December 29, 2006}} Hirano, although married, also had an affair with Hayashi {{cite web|url=http://allabout.co.jp/entertainment/adultvideo/closeup/CU20060104A/index2.htm|title=いまさらですが2005年AV界を振り返る!|publisher=All About|accessdate=2009-08-07|last=Otsubo|first=Kemuta|date=January 4, 2006|language=Japanese|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090623095054/http://allabout.co.jp/entertainment/adultvideo/closeup/CU20060104A/index2.htm|archive-date=June 23, 2009|url-status=dead}} and starred with her in a bike-trip AV production in January 1997 called Tokyo - Rebun 41-day Adultery Bicycle Touring Trip.{{cite web|url=https://www.vandr.net/video/V105860/|script-title=ja:東京〜礼文島 41日間自転車ツーリングドキュメント わくわく不倫旅行 200発もやっちゃった|publisher= vandr.net|accessdate=2009-09-05|language=Japanese}} He later released a mainstream documentary of their trip in May 1997 as Yumika (由美香). Both the video and the movie were produced by V&R Planning.{{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1997/du001420.htm|script-title=ja:由美香|publisher= JMDB|accessdate=2009-09-06|language=Japanese}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0471443/|title=Yumika (1997)|date=3 May 1997|publisher= IMdB|accessdate=2009-09-06}} The trip to the northern Japanese Rebun Island in Hokkaidō was made in July 1996 with the knowledge of Hirano's wife Honey (who appears in the movie) and Hayashi's mother. The rigors of the long trip proved to be a strain on his relationship with Hayashi.{{cite web|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071105054724/http://www.cinema-r.com/program/backNumber/b20060415_04.html|archivedate=2007-11-05|url=http://www.cinema-r.com/program/backNumber/b20060415_04.html|script-title=ja:由美香|publisher= www.cinema-r.com|accessdate=2009-09-06|language=Japanese}} Hirano also directed AVs for the Alice Japan studio in the 1990s, several of them with AV Idol Yuri Komuro, including her farewell to the AV industry Last Scene in September 1999.{{cite web |url=http://xcity.jp/release/detail/?id=2409|title=LastScene|accessdate=2010-08-05|publisher= AV Idol Directory|language=Japanese}}

The second of Hirano's trilogy of bike-ride documentary movies, {{nihongo|Encyclopedia of a Drifter|流れ者図鑑|Nagaremono zukan}}, was released in May 1998 and co-starred Tomoko Matsunashi.{{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1998/dv001350.htm|script-title=ja:流れ者図鑑|publisher= JMDB|accessdate=2009-09-06|language=Japanese}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0794318/|title=Nagaremono zukan (1998)|date=16 May 1998|publisher= IMdB|accessdate=2009-09-06}} A hardcore version was also released by V&R Planning in July 1998.{{cite web|url=http://www.arzon.jp/item_426577.html|title=東京〜北海道 自転車ロードFUCKING わくわく不倫旅行2 |publisher=www.arzon.jp|accessdate=2010-07-28|language=Japanese}}

The last entry in the trilogy came out in December 1999 as Shiro - The White (白 THE WHITE) starring Hirano, 9 dogs, 3 cats, and a wild fox.{{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/1999/dw003210.htm|title=白 THE WHITE|publisher= JMDB|accessdate=2009-09-08|language=Japanese}}{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0794343/|title=Shiro the White (1999) |date=18 December 1999 |publisher= IMdB|accessdate=2009-09-08}} In this film, Hirano embarks on a solo bike trip of over 2300 km to the northernmost point of Japan in Hokkaidō during a winter blizzard, sleeping in a tent in temperatures as low as 20 below zero. Hirano, who the Japan Times reviewer describes as having the "look and attitude of a middle-aged class clown who never quite outgrew his early obsession with peeking up girls' knickers",{{cite web|url=http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/ff20000118a1.html|title='SHIRO -- THE WHITE' It's the journey, not the destination |publisher= Japan Times Online|accessdate=2009-08-05|last=Schilling|first=Mark|date=January 18, 2000}} films himself alone in his tent having imaginary conversations with a female companion. A few weeks into his trek he developed appendicitis and had to spend two weeks in a hospital. His wife {{nihongo|Honey Hirano|平野ハニー|Hirano Hanii}} came up from Tokyo to nurse him but once recovered he set out again alone into the biggest snowstorm in years filming himself struggling against the elements. The film won the NETPAC Award at the 1999 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival and was shown at the 24th Hong Kong film festival in 2000{{cite web|url=http://www-cgi.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/magazine/2000/0421/as.cinema.main.html|title=Asian Film Gets A Rush|publisher=Asia Week Magazine|accessdate=2009-09-08|last=Sun|first=Andrew|date=April 21, 2000|archive-date=2011-06-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110615022417/http://www-cgi.cnn.com/ASIANOW/asiaweek/magazine/2000/0421/as.cinema.main.html|url-status=dead}} and at the 2000 Berlin International Film Festival.{{cite web|url=http://www.filmfestivals.com/berlin_2000/daily/day5.htm|title=Berlin International Film Festival 13 February|publisher=www.filmfestivals.com|accessdate=2009-09-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090913120126/http://www.filmfestivals.com/berlin_2000/daily/day5.htm|archive-date=2009-09-13|url-status=dead}}

Hirano was singled out as one of the subjects of a study in the year 2000 by the Anti-Pornography-&-Prostitution Research Group of Japan (APP) where "violent porno videos" made by "popular porno video directors such as Baksheesh Yamashita and Katsuyuki Hirano" were analyzed and reported on.{{cite web|url=http://old.app-jp.org/english/introduction.html|title=APP Introduction|publisher=old.app-jp.org|accessdate=2009-09-08}}

Hirano returned to film scenes of winter and snow in Hokkaidō for a 2003 hardcore video for Kuki, Nasty Girls Go to the North, with AV actress Fubuki Aoi.{{cite web|url=http://xxx.xcity.jp/release/detail/?id=8347|title=Nasty girls go to the north|publisher= AV Idol Directory|accessdate=2010-08-05}} In May 2006, Hirano also directed the Dream Ticket studio's entry in the 2006 AV Open contest, Mrs. Abnormal Nymphomania with an amateur cast of "mature women".{{cite web|url=http://www.dmm.co.jp/mono/dvd/-/detail/=/cid=24open0609/|script-title=ja:浮気投稿【露出拘束×生ハメ熟女】|publisher= DMM|accessdate=2009-09-08|language=Japanese}}

It was Hirano who, after his former lover Yumika Hayashi had not been to work for a few days, went to her apartment along with Hayashi's mother and found her dead body on July 29, 2005. Hayashi had died after a night of heavy drinking to celebrate her 35th birthday.{{cite news|first=Ryann|last=Connell|title=Porno queen's mysterious death -- murder or suicide?|publisher=Mainichi Shimbun|date=2005-07-11}}{{cite book|last=Sharp|first=Jasper|title=Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema|page=299|year=2008|publisher=FAB Press|location=Guildford|isbn=978-1-903254-54-7}} He appeared in a 2009 documentary on Hayashi by director Tetsuaki Matsue titled {{nihongo|Annyeong Yumika|あんにょん由美香|Annyon Yumika}} along with other former colleagues Company Matsuo and Lemon Hanazawa.{{IMDb title|1436318|An nyon yumika}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1989436/|title=Katsuyuki Hirano at IMdB|website=IMDb}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.jmdb.ne.jp/person/p0342290.htm|title=Katsuyuki Hirano at JMDB|language=Japanese}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.allcinema.net/prog/show_p.php?num_p=264493|title=Katsuyuki Hirano at AllCinema|language=Japanese}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.allmovie.com/work/shiro-doc-201816|title=Shiro at AMG}}
• {{cite web|url=http://www.walkerplus.com/movie/kinejun/index.cgi?ctl=each&id=32035&full=1|title=Shiro at MovieWalker|language=Japanese|access-date=2009-09-09|archive-date=2004-09-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040923154930/http://www.walkerplus.com/movie/kinejun/index.cgi?ctl=each&id=32035&full=1|url-status=dead}}

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Category:Japanese film directors

Category:Japanese screenwriters

Category:Japanese pornographic film directors

Category:1964 births

Category:Living people

Category:Japanese documentary filmmakers

Category:People from Shizuoka Prefecture