Known for Directing
Hirokazu Kore-eda (born 6 June 1962) is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, and editor. He began his career in television and has since directed more than a dozen feature films, including Nobody Knows (2004), Still Walking (2008), and After the Storm (2016). He won the Jury Prize at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival for Like Father, Like Son and won the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival for Shoplifters. Description above from the Wikipedia article Hirokazu Kore-eda, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born
June 6, 1962 (age 64)
Birthplace
Tokyo, Japan
Filmography
121 films, 21 shows


5 - The Time Called Arashi -
2026
country: Japan


Look Back
2026 · 1h 40m
country: Japan
The overly confident Fujino and the shut-in Kyomoto couldn’t be more different, but a love of drawing manga brings these two small-town girls together.


Sheep in the Box
2026 · 2h 6m
country: Japan
In the near future, architect Otone Komoto is married to Kensuke, who runs a construction company. The married couple decide to welcome a humanoid robot into their home as their son.


Monster
2023 · 2h 5m
country: Japan
After an outburst at school involving her son, a concerned single mother demands answers, triggering a sequence of deepening suspicion and turmoil.


Broker
2022 · 2h 9m
country: South Korea
When a young mother reconsiders abandoning her baby, she discovers a scheme selling foundlings for adoption.


The Center Lane
2021 · 11m
country: Japan
Diagnosed with leukemia in February 2019, Japanese competitive swimmer Rikako Ikee returns to her destiny: the center lane, in Hirokazu Kore-eda's short film for skincare brand SK-II.


The Truth
2019 · 1h 46m
country: France
Fabienne is a star; a star of French cinema. She reigns amongst men who love and admire her. When she publishes her memoirs, her daughter Lumir returns from New York to Paris with her husband and young child. The reunion between mother and daughter will quickly turn to confrontation: truths will be told, accounts settled, loves and resentments confessed.


Shoplifters
2018 · 2h
country: Japan
In the outskirts of Tokyo, a poor but close-knit group living on the fringes of society survives through shoplifting and odd jobs. When Osamu and his son take in a neglected young girl, their already fragile existence begins to unravel. As the family grows attached to her, buried secrets surface, forcing them to confront the true meaning of love, belonging, and what makes a family.


The Third Murder
2017 · 2h 5m
country: Japan
A lawyer tasked with defending a robbery-and-murder suspect begins developing doubts about what truly happened.


After the Storm
2016 · 1h 57m
country: Japan
Ryota is an unpopular writer although he won a literary award 15 years ago. Now, Ryota works as a private detective. He is divorced from his ex-wife Kyoko and he has an 11-year-old son Shingo. His mother Yoshiko lives alone at her apartment. One day, Ryota, his ex-wife Kyoko, and son Shingo gather at Yoshiko's apartment. A typhoon passes and the family must stay there all night long.


Ishibumi
2015 · 1h 25m
country: Japan
A memorial to the atomic annihilation of 321 students at Hiroshima Middle School.


Our Little Sister
2015 · 2h 7m
country: Japan
After the death of their estranged father, 3 adult sisters invite their teenaged half-sister to live with them.


Like Father, Like Son
2013 · 2h
country: Japan
Ryota Nonomiya is a successful businessman driven by money. He learns that his biological son was switched with another child after birth. He must make a life-changing decision and choose his true son or the boy he raised as his own.
The Message from Fukushima
The Message from Fukushima
2012 · 16m
country: Japan
Short documentary about the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster.


I Wish
2011 · 2h 7m
country: Japan
Twelve-year-old Koichi, who has been separated from his brother Ryunosuke due to his parents' divorce, hears a rumor that the new bullet trains will precipitate a wish-granting miracle when they pass each other at top speed.


Kaidan Horror Classics
2010 · 2h 40m
country: Japan
Four short films based on ghost stories written by award winning modern Japanese writers.


The Days After
2010 · 51m
country: Japan
A child appears before a young couple who lost their beloved son at an early age. Is he the reincarnation of their son, or a ghost? The couple grows closer to the child, but before long, he suddenly disappears. The Days After is the contribution of Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda to the fantasy TV series Kaidan-Horror Classics, produced by NHK and NHK Enterprises.


Air Doll
2009 · 1h 56m
country: Japan
A life-size, inflatable sex doll suddenly comes to life one day. Without her owner knowing, she goes for a walk around town and falls in love with Junichi. She starts to date Junichi and gets a job at the same store where he works. Everything seems to be going perfectly for her until something unexpected happens.


So I Can Be Alright: Cocco's Endless Journey
2008 · 1h 47m
country: Japan
A documentary about the J-pop / folk rock singer Cocco.


Still Walking
2008 · 1h 54m
country: Japan
A family gathers together for a commemorative ritual whose nature only gradually becomes clear.


Hana
2006 · 2h 7m
country: Japan
In a poor district of Edo lives a young samurai named Soza. He has been sent by his clan to avenge the death of his father. He isn't an accomplished swordsman however, and he prefers sharing the life of the residents, teaching the kids how to write etc. When he finally finds the man he is looking for, he will have to decide whether he follows the way of the samurai or chooses peace and reconciliation.
Series Constitution. Article 9: War Renunciation "Oblivion"
Series Constitution. Article 9: War Renunciation "Oblivion"
2006 · 48m
country: Japan
Part of the documentary project that each company competed on the theme of the Constitution of Japan.With the keyword "oblivion," Koreeda explores how "Article 9 of the Constitution renounces war" has been involved in people's inner world, turning the camera around in various places, including his father's hometown, Taiwan.It is a unique work that reflects the personal history deeply.


Nobody Knows
2004 · 2h 21m
country: Japan
In a small Tokyo apartment, twelve-year-old Akira must care for his younger siblings after their mother leaves them and shows no sign of returning.


Birthplace
2003 · 30m
country: Japan
Makiko Esumi and Hirokazu Kore-eda revisit Wajima, the setting of 'Maborosi'


Kaettekita! Deka Matsuri
2003 · 1h 35m
country: Japan
Second installment of omnibus series Deka Matsuri. 10 films made under the conditions "The main character must be a female detective" "the film must be less than 10 minutes long" "at least five gags must be included"


Distance
2001 · 2h 12m
country: Japan
On the third anniversary of a cult's failed chemical attack on Tokyo and their subsequent mass suicide, family members of those affected gather at the cult's former base on the shores of a lake to observe the anniversary of their loved ones' deaths.


After Life
1999 · 1h 58m
country: Japan
On a cold Monday morning, a group of counselors clock in at an old-fashioned social services office. Their task is to interview the recently deceased, record their personal details, then, over the course of the week, assist them in choosing a single memory to keep for eternity.


Without Memory
1996 · 1h 24m
country: Japan
A father loses his short-term memory as a result of a botched medical procedure, which causes him to develop Wernicke's Encephalopathy. Kore-eda chronicles his family’s fight to receive proper treatment and benefits from this devastating malpractice.


This World (A Correspondence Between Naomi Kawase and Hirokazu Koreeda)
1996 · 1h 5m
country: Japan
The film takes shape through the form of a video exchange between Hirokazu Kore-eda and Naomi Kawase. Each films the world around them and intimately reflects on their individual struggles with making films. Kore-eda self-consciously reflects on his process, “What does a camera shoot? What does a film capture? The emptiness in my life reflects in my work.” Kawase concentrates on her everyday life and candid moments with her friends, who say, “Hang in there Naomi we are all on your side,” and, “You never keep the promises you make, but I love you anyway.”


Maborosi
1995 · 1h 50m
country: Japan
A tragedy strikes a young woman's life without warning or reason. She continues living while searching for meaning in a lonely world.


August Without Him
1994 · 1h 17m
country: Japan
Hirata Yukata became the first man in Japan to publicly acknowledge that he had contracted HIV through gay sex. Filmed over a series of months, the documentary contrasts his public life as an outspoken figure on the lecture circuit with his personal descent into illness and death.
Yottsu no shibu jikoku
Yottsu no shibu jikoku
1993
country: Unknown
Soul Sketches - Every Person's Kenji Miyazawa
Soul Sketches - Every Person's Kenji Miyazawa
1993
country: Japan


When Cinema Reflects the Times: Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Edward Yang
1993 · 47m
country: Japan
From the 1980s to the 1990s, New Taiwanese Cinema gained international attention for adopting a completely different approach to that of the commercial films which had preceded it. This piece contrasts Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang, two rivals who were the driving force behind New Taiwanese Cinema. The closing of a cinema invites us to reflect on society and the passage of history.


I Wish I Could Be Japanese
1992 · 47m
country: Japan
The film deals with the rights of Japanese-Koreans -born in Japan but without Japanese passport or nationality- and the social rejection that they face if they don’t integrate completely, abandoning their Korean identity. The film’s main thread is the story of a Korean man, who in the times of the Japanese occupation of the Korean peninsula, is sent to Japan to fight along with the Japanese in the Philippines, but after the war and fearing discrimination, creates a Japanese identity for himself and manages to get married and have children without his family ever knowing about his origins for 50 years until he is arrested in 1985 for forging official documents and in suspicion of being a spy from North Korea. (…) © timegoesbyin.wordpress.com/tag/i-wanted-to-be-japanese


Where Has All the Pollution Gone?
1991 · 47m
country: Japan
Where Has All The Pollution Gone? exposes air pollution caused by Japan’s largest Kawasaki Steel Corp. on a scale of ten times the size of Disneyland. Since the steelworks started running, almost every local resident has been suffering from severe asthma which resulted in a 17-year long court battle with the company. Filmmaker KORE-EDA Hirokazu traces one civil servant’s involvement in the growth of pollution administration that took place during the height of Japan’s economic surge in the 60s and discloses the connection between air pollution and state policy.


Lessons from a Calf
1991 · 47m
country: Japan
An elementary school in Japan begins an experimental program that frames the students' curriculum around one single project: the raising of a calf from adolescence to adulthood. Through their work with the calf, the students learn about math, biology, nutrition and numerous other subjects. But after multiple years of investing energy and emotion into their beloved pet, the students begin to realize that the final days of their project may provide them with the hardest and most important lesson of all.


However...
1991 · 47m
country: Japan
Kore-eda started as a documentary maker with this beautiful portrait about the life and work of the head of Japanese social work. Yamanouchi Yoyomori devoted himself to the victims of the Minamata disease, caused by methyl mercury poisoning.