Shinya Tsukamoto

Shinya Tsukamoto (塚本晋也, Tsukamoto Shin'ya) is a Japanese film director and actor with a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad. Tsukamoto started making movies at the age of 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. He made a number of films, ranging from 10-minute shorts to 2-hour features, until his first year at college when he temporarily lost interest in making movies. Tsukamoto then started up a theatre group, which s... more

Shinya Tsukamoto (塚本晋也, Tsukamoto Shin'ya) is a Japanese film director and actor with a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad. Tsukamoto started making movies at the age of 14, when his father gave him a Super 8 camera. He made a number of films, ranging from 10-minute shorts to 2-hour features, until his first year at college when he temporarily lost interest in making movies. Tsukamoto then started up a theatre group, which soon included Kei Fujiwara, Nobu Kanaoka, and Tomorowo Taguchi, all of whom would continue to work with Tsukamoto up through the filming of Tetsuo: The Iron Man. One of their theatre productions at this time was Denchu Kozo no boken. At the end of the production, Tsukamoto didn't want to waste all the effort they had put into building the set, so he decided to shoot a film version. Tsukamoto's early films, Futsu saizu no kaijin (A Phantom of Regular Size) and Denchu Kozo no boken (The Adventures Of Electric Rod Boy) made in 1986/87, were... less