Kōki Mitani

Kōki Mitani (三谷 幸喜, Mitani Kōki, born July 8, 1961) is a Japanese playwright, screenwriter, actor and film director and was previously married to Japanese actress Satomi Kobayashi. He was named after Taihō Kōki, the youngest sumo wrestler to become yokozuna. He studied dramatics at Nihon University.

Kōki Mitani
participated in the Opening Event of the Tokyo International Film Festival (October 17, 2014)
Born (1961-07-08) July 8, 1961
Setagaya, Tokyo
NationalityJapanese
OccupationPlaywright, screenwriter, actor, film director

In an attempt to add his own character to his movies, as a director he takes most of his scenes with a one-scene=one-shot system, moving the camera around as opposed to cutting. He claims this comes from his experience in theatre, where there are no cuts. Mitani does not use a computer.[1]

Early life

Mitani liked watching TV dramas and puppetries of NHK in his childhood. Especially he was interested in the puppetries "Shin Hakkenden" (新八犬伝) and Sangokushi (三国志), jidaigekis such as Tenka Gomen (天下御免) and Tenka Dōdō (天下堂々), and Taiga Dramas like Kaze to Kumo to Niji to.[2]

He also liked and still likes the works featuring famous detectives includes the Sherlock Holmes series[3] and adored Holmes as a detective.[4] He has whole volume of novels including pastiches, DVDs related to Sherlock Holmes and read all the novels again before adapting it to a puppetry whose setting is laid in a boarding school. In his high school days, he planned to produce a film featuring a detective, loosely based on And Then There Were None and went on location to Enoshima, Kanagawa with his friends, though the film was never unfinished.[3]

Besides he watched many foreign films such as the ones directed by Billy Wilder, 12 Angry Men and The Wages of Fear on TV. He says that he was influenced by them but recent Hollywood comedy films are not as funny as those in the golden age and Japanese comedy becomes better.[1] He is a big fan of Columbo also.

Career

His works are basically comedies full of wit and humour and with parody. He usually writes a script visualising the actors and actresses close to the characters.

He writes a weekly column for the Asahi Shimbun daily newspaper,[1] in which he often discusses his favorite films, his writing process, and the actors and actresses that he has worked with.

Feature films and TV dramas

(Note: Many of Mitani's films began as successful plays.)

Theatre works

Puppetries
  • The Three Musketeers
  • Sherlock Holmes

Frequent collaborators
ActorFuruhata Ninzaburō (1994–2006)Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997)Aikotoba wa Yūki (2000)Minna no Ie (2001)Shinsengumi! (2004)　The Uchōten Hotel (2006)The Magic Hour (2008)Wagaya no Rekishi (2010)A Ghost of a Chance (2011)The Kiyosu Conference (2013)Galaxy Turnpike (2015)Sanada Maru (2016)Kioku ni Gozaimasen (2019)
Toshiyuki Nishida (72) NNNNNN
Fumiyo Kohinata (66) NNNNNNNN
Kōji Yakusho (64) NNNN
Keiko Toda (62) NNNNNNNNN
Kōichi Satō (59) NNNNNNN　N
Masahiko Nishimura (59) NNN
Yoshimasa Kondo (59) NNNNNNNNN
Kiichi Nakai (58) NNNNN
Kenji Anan (58) NNNNNNNN
Toshiaki Karasawa (57) NNNNNNN
Susumu Terajima (56) NNNNN
Zen Kajihara (54) NNNNNNNNNN
Kyōka Suzuki (52) NNNNNNN
Eri Fukatsu (47) NN
Yo Oizumi (47) NNN
Masato Sakai (46) NN
Koji Yamamoto (43) NNNNNN
Shingo Katori (43) NNNNNNN
Yūko Takeuchi (40) NN
Satoshi Tsumabuki (39) NN
Haruka Ayase (35) NN

Honours

Notes
  1. Tanaka, Nobuko, "Japan's Mr. Comedy", Japan Times, June 2, 2012, p. 7
  2. 三谷幸喜のありふれた生活14 いくさ上手 松村邦洋との大河フリーク対談　P.248　朝日新聞出版 ISBN 4022514000 ISBN 978-4022514004
  3. 『ユリイカ』、青土社、2014年8月増刊、148–154頁
    Eureka August 2014 Extra Edition", Tokyo: Seidosha, 2014, pp.148–154.
  4. 岡崎信治郎・藤田健一編『シャーロックホームズ冒険ファンブック』、小学館、2014年、21頁。
    Shinjirō Okazaki and Kenichi Fujita (ed.) Sharokku Hōmuzu bōken fan bukku(Guidebook of "Sherlock Holmes"), Tokyo, Shogakukan, 2014, p.21.
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