Shinji Aoyama

Shinji Aoyama
Born	July 13, 1964 (1964-07-13) Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan
Occupation	Film director, screenwriter, composer, novelist
Spouse	Maho Toyota

Shinji Aoyama (青山 真治, Aoyama Shinji, born July 13, 1964) is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, composer, and novelist. He graduated from Rikkyo University. He won two awards at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival for his film Eureka.

Biography

Shinji Aoyama was born in Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, where he attended Kitakyushu Midorigaoka public junior/senior high school. He graduated in 1989 from Rikkyo University, where he majored in film studies in the department of British and American Studies. While he was a student, he was deeply influenced by the theorist and film critic Shigehiko Hasumi, from whom he took classes.

After graduating, Aoyama worked as an assistant director to Swiss independent film director Daniel Schmid, Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and others. In 1995 he made his directorial debut with the V-Cinema production Kyokasho ni nai! (Very Private Lesson), based on the manga publication of the same name.

In 1996 Aoyama made Helpless, a film set in his native Fukuoka. 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. Together with the 2007 film Sad Vacation, Eureka and Helpless comprise Aoyama's "Kitakyushu Saga".

Aoyama's literary output includes his 2001 novelization of Eureka, which won the Yukio Mishima Prize, as well as the novel Hotel Chronicles, which was nominated for the Noma Literary Prize in 2005.

Shinji Aoyama is married to Japanese actress Maho Toyota.

Selected filmography

Year	Title	Notes
1996	Helpless	Director, writer, composer, actor
	Chinpira: Two Punks	Director
1997	Wild Life	Director, writer
1999	Shady Grove	Director, writer, composer
	EM Embalming	Director
2000	Eureka	Director, writer, composer, editor
2001	Desert Moon	Director, writer, editor
	Roji e: Nakagami Kenji no nokoshita firumu	Director
2002	Mike Yokohama: A Forest with No Name	Director, writer
2003	Ajima no uta: Uehara Tomoko, tenjo no utagoe	Director
2004	Lakeside Murder Case	Director, writer, editor
2005	My God, My God, Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?	Director, writer
2006	Crickets	Director
2007	Sad Vacation	Director, writer
2011	Tokyo kōen	Director, writer

Bibliography

Novels

• Eureka (2000)
• Tsuki no Sabaku (2002)
• Helpless (2002)
• Hotel Chronicles (2005)
• Shi no Tani '95 (2005)
• Ugetsu Monogatari (2006)
• Sad Vacation (2006)
• Entertainment! (2007)

Short fiction

• "Yuusuichi no Nagame" (2007)
• "Tengoku wo Motchinagara" (2007)
• "Mikaeri Chimera" (2008)

Criticism and nonfiction

• Lost in America (2000)
• Wim Wenders (2000)
• Ware Eiga wo Hakken sari (2001)
• Aoyama Shinji to Abe Kazushige to Nakahara Masaya no Cine-con! (2004)

Further reading

• Gerow, Aaron (2002). "Aoyama Shinj", in Fifty Contemporary Filmmakers. Ed. Yvonne Tasker. London: Routledge. ISBN 041518973X

External links

• Shinji Aoyama at the Internet Movie Database
• Shinji Aoyama at the Japanese Movie Database (Japanese)