Shinji Aoyama

Shinji Aoyama was born in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan.{{cite web|first=Todd|last=Brown|url=http://twitchfilm.com/2007/09/venice-report-sad-vacation-review.html|title=Venice Report: Sad Vacation Review|publisher=Twitch Film|date=4 September 2007|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304061742/http://twitchfilm.com/2007/09/venice-report-sad-vacation-review.html|archive-date=4 March 2016}} He began to be interested in cinema when he watched Apocalypse Now and he thought seriously about making films after watching Jean-Luc Godard's films such as Pierrot le Fou and Two or Three Things I Know About Her.{{cite web|url=http://culture360.asef.org/magazine/aoyama-shinji-paris-jeu-de-paume-retrospective-novembre-december-2008|title=Aoyama Shinji In Paris (At Jeu De Paume): The Retrospective (Novembre – December 2008)|last=Ollora Hoyos|first=María|date=29 March 2009|publisher=Film.culture360.org}} He graduated from Rikkyo University, where he was deeply influenced by the film critic Shigehiko Hasumi, from whom he took classes.{{cite web|url=http://www.filmfestival.gr/2000/sscreening/eureka_uk.html|title=Special Screenings|publisher=41st International Thessaloniki Film Festival|year=2000}}

After graduating, Aoyama worked as an assistant director to Swiss film director Daniel Schmid, Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Icelandic director Fridrik Thor Fridriksson. He made his directorial debut with the V-Cinema production It's Not in the Textbook! in 1995.{{cite web|url=http://www.shortshorts.org/2006/ssff/en/jury/|title=Short Shorts Film Festival & Asia 2006 Jury and Awards|publisher=Short Shorts Film Festival|year=2006}}

In 1996, Aoyama made Helpless, which is his first feature film.{{cite news|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ff20070907i1.html|title=The king of Kita Kyushu|newspaper=The Japan Times|first=Mark|last=Schilling|date=7 September 2007}} His 2000 film Eureka, also set in Fukuoka, opened at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival where it received both the FIPRESCI prize and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/2000/05/22/an-international-pack-of-underdogs-have-their-day-at-the-cannes-film-festival/|title=An International Pack Of Underdogs Have Their Day At The Cannes Film Festival|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|first=Michael|last=Wilmington|date=22 May 2000}} Together with the 2007 film Sad Vacation, Eureka and Helpless comprise Aoyama's "Kitakyushu Saga."{{cite magazine|url= http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/sad-vacation-159442|title=Sad Vacation|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter|first=Maggie|last=Lee|date=11 September 2007}} In 2011, he returned with the romance film Tokyo Park, which won the special Golden Leopard award at the 64th Locarno International Film Festival to honor his whole career.{{cite magazine|url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/tokyo-park-film-review-222932|title=Tokyo Park: Film Review|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter|first=Neil|last=Young|date=14 August 2011}} His next film, The Backwater, was released in 2013.{{cite news|first=Jinshi|last=Fujii|url=http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/adv/wol/dy/reviews/130222.htm|title=Blood and Transmigration - Shinji Aoyama's Tomogui (The Backwater)|newspaper=Yomiuri Shimbun|date=22 February 2013}}

Aoyama's literary output includes his 2001 novelization of Eureka, which won the Yukio Mishima Prize,{{cite journal|title=From the Japanese Press|journal=Japan Foundation Newsletter|date=October 2001|volume=29|issue=1|pages=7|url=http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/publish/periodic/jfn/pdf/jfn29_1.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130121174442/http://www.jpf.go.jp/e/publish/periodic/jfn/pdf/jfn29_1.pdf|archive-date=21 January 2013}} as well as the novel Hotel Chronicles, which was nominated for the Noma Literary Prize in 2005.{{cite web|title=Aoyama Shinji|url=http://kotobank.jp/word/%E9%9D%92%E5%B1%B1%E7%9C%9F%E6%B2%BB|work=Nihon jinmei daijiten+Plus|publisher=Kōdansha|access-date=4 December 2012|language=ja}} He has also contributed as a critic to Cahiers du Cinéma Japon{{cite news|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/ff20010206a1.html|title=Trauma in a sepia-tinged Kyushu|newspaper=The Japan Times|first=Mark|last=Schilling|date=6 February 2001}} and Esquire Japan.{{cite web|url=http://www.premiere.fr/Star/Shinji-AOYAMA-104291|title=Shinji Aoyama|publisher=Premiere|date=3 January 2012}}

As of 2012, he became a professor in the Department of Moving Images and Performing Arts at Tama Art University.{{cite web|script-title=ja:映画監督・青山真治教授就任|url=http://www2.tamabi.ac.jp/cgi-bin/eien/?p=2913|publisher=Tama Art University|access-date=12 November 2013|language=ja}}

He was married to Japanese actress Maho Toyota, who played a leading role in Desert Moon.

Aoyama died on March 21, 2022, of esophageal cancer.{{Cite web |last1=Schilling |first1=Mark |last2=Urban |first2=Sasha |date=2022-03-25 |title=Shinji Aoyama, Japanese Director of Cannes-Winning ‘Eureka,’ Dies at 57 |url=https://variety.com/2022/film/asia/shinji-aoyama-dead-dies-director-japanese-1235214807/ |access-date=2023-10-26 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}

Mark Schilling of The Japan Times described Aoyama as "A smart, dedicated cinephile who works his influences into his films while experimenting with various genres".{{cite news|url=http://www.japantimes.co.jp/culture/2011/06/24/films/tokyo-koen-tokyo-park/|title='Tokyo Koen (Tokyo Park)'|newspaper=The Japan Times|first=Mark|last=Schilling|date=24 June 2011}}

Aoyama stated that the origin of the desire to continue the story in "Kitakyushu Saga" is François Truffaut, a French film director who used the same character (Antoine Doinel) in some of his films.{{cite web|url=http://www.asiapacificarts.usc.edu/w_apa/showarticle.aspx?articleID=14897&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1|title=Outside Inspirations: an interview with Shinji Aoyama|publisher=Asia Pacific Arts|first=Rowena|last=Aquino|date=1 April 2010}}

Aoyama listed F. W. Murnau's Faust and Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar as two of the Greatest Films of All Time in 2012. Regarding Faust he said, "I always want to remember that movies are made out of the joy of the replica. The fascination of movies is not their realism, but how to enjoy the 'real'. In that sense, I always have Faust in my mind as I face a movie, make a movie, and talk about a movie." Regarding Johnny Guitar he said, "Johnny Guitar is the only movie that I‘d like to remake someday, although I know that it’s impossible. It’s probably closest to the worst nightmare I can have. I know for sure that my desire to remake this movie comes from my warped thought that I want to remake my own nightmare."{{cite magazine|url=http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/voter/1167|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120827005734/http://explore.bfi.org.uk/sightandsoundpolls/2012/voter/1167|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 August 2012|title=The Greatest Films Poll|magazine=Sight & Sound|first=Shinji|last=Aoyama|author-link=Shinji Aoyama|year=2012}}

• Helpless (1996)
• Two Punks (1996)
• Wild Life (1997)
• An Obsession (1997)
• Shady Grove (1999)
• EM Embalming (1999)
• Eureka (2000)
• Desert Moon (2001)
• Mike Yokohama: A Forest with No Name (2002)
• Lakeside Murder Case (2004)
• My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me? (2005)
• Crickets (2006)
• Sad Vacation (2007)
• Tokyo Park (2011)
• The Backwater (2013)
• Living in the Sky (2020){{cite web |url= https://natalie.mu/eiga/news/393218|title= 青山真治7年ぶりの長編映画で多部未華子が主演、岸井ゆきのや岩田剛典ら共演|access-date= 24 August 2020|work= Natalie}}

• Trunk (2003)
• The Detective Who Can Say No (2003)
• Like a Desperado Under the Eaves (2003)
• Days in the Shade (2003)
• Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (2008)
• 60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero (segment) (2011)

• To the Backstreet: The Films Kenji Nakagami Left Out (2001)
• Song of Ajima (2003)
• AA (2005)

• 1/5 (1996) (8 min, from omnibus film Celebrate Cinema 101)
• To the Alley (2000)
• Down (2010)

• It's Not in the Textbook! (1995)
• A Weapon in My Heart (1996)
• 12 June 1998 (1999) – also known as At the Edge of Chaos
• So as Not to Say Everything About Her Already Aged Self (2001)

• The Jesus of the Ruins (2001)
• The Private Detective Mike (2002)
• D x Town (episode "Spiders Now") (2012)
• 4 for Flowers (2013)
• Shokuzai no Sonata (mini-series, 4 episodes) (2015)
• Kingyo Hime (2020)

• Eureka (2000)
• Tsuki no Sabaku (2002)
• Helpless (2002)
• Hotel Chronicles (2005)
• Shi no Tani '95 (2005)
• Ugetsu Monogatari (2006)
• Sad Vacation (2006)
• Entertainment! (2007)
• Chikyu no Ue de Visa mo Naku (2009)
• Kaerimichi ga Kieta (2010)
• Strange Face (2010)

• Lost in America (2000)
• Wim Wenders (2000)
• Ware Eiga o Hakken Seri (2001)
• {{cite web|last1=Aoyama|first1=Shinji|title=Nouvelle Vague Manifesto; or, How I Became a Disciple of Philippe Garrel|url=http://www.lolajournal.com/6/manifesto.html|website=Lola Journal|date=2015}} (English translation of chapter from Ware Eiga o Hakken Seri)
• Aoyama Shinji to Abe Kazushige to Nakahara Masaya no Cine-con! (2004)
• Cinema 21 (2010)
• Eiga Nagabanashi (2011)

{{reflist}}

• {{IMDb name|id=0031888}}
• {{jmdb name|id=0457950}}
• {{Twitter}}
• [http://www.booksfromjapan.jp/authors/item/778-shinji-aoyama Shinji Aoyama] at J'Lit Books from Japan

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Category:1964 births

Category:2022 deaths

Category:Japanese film directors

Category:Japanese documentary film directors

Category:20th-century Japanese novelists

Category:21st-century Japanese novelists

Category:Japanese film critics

Category:People from Kitakyushu

Category:Yukio Mishima Prize winners

Category:Rikkyo University alumni

Category:Deaths from esophageal cancer in Japan