Known for Directing
Yoshihiro Nishimura (1 April 1969 — 25 May 2026) was a Japanese film director, special effects and makeup effects artist, and a screenwriter who has worked predominantly in the horror genre. Nishimura has been described as 'a legendary director and effects artist' and 'the Tom Savini of Japan' with 'talent to burn'. He has been credited with establishing a new type of visual film presentation, the 'gore effect'.
Born
April 1, 1969
Died
May 25, 2026 (age 57)
Birthplace
Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan
Filmography
169 films, 5 shows


Geisha War
2026 · JP
Rival bosses of Japanese Yakuza and American Mafia fight for control. Blood is shed... like fountains.


Tokyo Evil Hotel
2025 · 1h 30m · JP
Hotel Evil Tokyo explores the human entity in relation to the supernatural, delving into the themes of life and death, good and evil, and the conflict between monsters and humans.


Samurai Ninja Onimanji
2023 · 1h 56m · JP
Ninja samurai Onimanji, who has been sealed in a cursed urn for 631 years and 59 days, is resurrected in the modern era by the assassin-for-hire company, Kika Company. The odd team of Kika, Shigeru, a bumbling assassin, and Onimanjii perform a series of dark jobs and must still compete with rival company Nutmeg.


Holy Mother
2022 · 1h 35m · JP
A racist corporation is looking to expand its territories of domination and for that it needs to destroy the Yakuza mafia. It is then that a transgender woman suddenly appears willing to defend the Yakuza tradition.


Freedom in My Hands
2022 · 45m · JP
Kashira, Hatsu, Seseri, Tan, and Kimo are the five students of the food stall circle who are trying to somehow bring back some fun in a world in turmoil. One day, a regular customer, Nagi, comes to the food stall circle. She says that she has not been able to contact her sister Kokoro for several days, and everyone in the food stall circle goes to look for her...


Go Home
2020 · 6m · JP
In a grave at dusk, a girl whispers, "Let's go home." From there, a terrifying journey to the girl's home begins.


Tokyo Dragon Chef
2020 · 1h 35m · JP
After serving prison time as a scapegoat in a yakuza conflict, Tatsu (Yamaguchi Yoshiyuki) is met upon release by his sworn brother Ryu (Yasukaze Motomiya), who reveals that their gang was dissolved by a mysterious man named Gizmo and everyone has gone their separate ways. Ryu proposes they run a ramen shop together, Ryu Hanten. But trouble follows when former rivals Jin (Hitoshi Ozawa) and Kazu (Kazuyoshi Ozawa), whose gang was also disbanded by Gizmo, open a competing shop nearby called Ramen OZAWA. As a fierce ramen rivalry erupts, Gizmo’s sinister influence closes in once again.


Welcome to Japan
2019 · 1h 33m · JP
Japan hosts an East Asian international tournament in 2020. Many thuggish personalities are travelling to Japan for the event. Kicking into action is a woman who was raised by the Yakuza and has become an assassin. She is tasked with protecting Japan from the thugs during this tournament. She will kill many of the louts. She also meets a member of a pop idol group.


Unfinished
2019 · 1h 59m · JP
The yakuza have their best days behind them and are only a shadow of themselves. The old rituals seem out of date and their tattoos make them outcasts of society. The inexperienced student Ryō stumbles into their ranks by chance, and before he knows it, he becomes entangled in dark machinations. He quickly succumbs to the fascination of omnipotence fantasies and hedonistic decadence and sinks deeper and deeper into a parallel world of prostitution, blackmail and violence. However, there is one thing that Ryō has not considered in his naivety: once yakuza, always yakuza!


Yellow Road
2018 · 8m · JP
A blind girl is confronted by similarly blind assassins.


Meatball Machine Kodoku
2017 · 1h 40m · JP
Nobody knows where they came from. They parasitize in human beings, take control of them and change their bodies into hideous monsters (Necro-borg). The Necro-borg fight each other until the other dies. Where did they come from? To what end? Yuji and Kaoru, whom both have dark secrets within themselves, get caught up in the horrific battles of Necro-borg. What will their fate be?


Tetsudon: the kaiju dream match
2017 · 1h 55m · JP
A compilation of 28 short films about kaijus.


Tetsudon: Fool Wars -Battlefront Japan-
2016 · 1h 30m · JP
Second film in the Tetsuson anthology series comprised of 22 shorts.


The Ninja War of Torakage
2015 · 1h 34m · JP
Set in the Sengoku Period, Torakage is retired ninja. He lives his life peacefully, but turmoil comes as he becomes involved a fight over treasures.


Zombie TV
2013 · 1h 17m · JP
An insane Japanese gore filled zombie anthology.


The Profane Exhibit
2013 · 1h 48m · CA
Deep within the underbelly of Paris, there is a club which is the home of a secret, wicked society. At first it resembles an ordinary fetish or Goth nightclub, but within the cavernous building are many hidden rooms, one of which is known as "The Room of Souls," a private gathering place of the world's richest and most evil people. Their host is the elegant yet frightening Madame Sabatier. For their amusement each member takes a turn and spins a true tale of depravity.


The ABCs of Death
2013 · 2h 9m · NZ
An ambitious anthology film featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world's leading talents in contemporary genre film. Inspired by children's educational ABC books, the film comprises 26 individual chapters, each helmed by a different director assigned a letter of the alphabet. The directors were then given free reign in choosing a word to create a story involving death.


Gekijō-ban: Harapeko Yamagami-kun
2012 · 1h 19m · JP
Yamagami-kun, the god of the mountain, likes to eat "human beings"! Today, he and Isobe, the god of the sea, are planning to eat "human" again. Will he be able to eat a "human" today?


Helldriver
2010 · 1h 57m · JP
Still reeling from the events of a zombie apocalypse, a young woman, along with a group of allies, makes her way across a dystopian Japan in search of her mother, the Zombie Queen.


Mutant Girls Squad
2010 · 1h 25m · JP
Rin a young high school student is your everyday awkward girl who gets bullied by her fellow students. On her 16th birthday, Rin gets an unexpected surprise: she finds out that she is, on her father's side, a half-mutant.


Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl
2009 · 1h 24m · JP
A reconstructed girl is created from the pieces of a vampire girl's mini-butchery. Slaughter abounds as both of them pursue the same boy.


63 Minutes Later
2009 · 45m · JP
A spin-off feature from Tokyo Gore Police centering on three characters from the movie who are each given a short story explaining how they became an “engineer”.


Tokyo Gore Police
2008 · 1h 50m · JP
In a futuristic Tokyo where police have been privatized and bitter self-mutilation is so casual that advertising is often specially geared to the 'cutter' demographic, Ruka is on a mission to avenge her father's assassination. Ruka is a cop from a squad whose goal is to destroy homicidal mutant humans known as 'engineers', that possess the ability to transform any injury to a weapon in and of itself.


Meatball Machine: Reject of Death
2007 · 10m · JP
A young girl with mental illness just wants to die. But the necroborgs have other plans...


Speakerman: The Boo
2004 · 1h 17m · JP
The story of an odd creature called the Speakerman, who served duty in a small mining village by sounding the siren/megaphone that is his head to tell the workers when it was time for lunch and to alert people in case of a mining accident. When the mine closes, Speakerman ends up lonely and in search of new friends and meaning in his life.


Anatomia Extinction
1995 · 54m · JP
A salaryman sees a murder in the subways and is soon pursued by the killer, who wants him to join a group called The Engineers, who have taken it upon themselves to reduce Japan's overpopulation. Despite not wanting any part of joining, the man begins to mutate, running throughout Japan and fighting his urge to kill.


Sham Nation
1987 · 52m · JP
In a distorted near-future Japan ruled by paranoia and illusion, wandering outsiders struggle to survive within a crumbling artificial nation where identity, authority, and reality itself begin to collapse.
Paradox
Paradox
1984 · JP
Japanese horror anthology from 1984.