Known for Directing
Takashi Yamazaki (山崎 貴, Yamazaki Takashi, born June 12, 1964) is a Japanese filmmaker and visual effects supervisor. Known for his blockbusters featuring advanced visual effects, he is considered a leading figure in the Japanese film industry. Yamazaki receives multiple accolades, including an Academy Award, eight Japanese Academy Awards, five Nikkan Sports Film Awards, two Hochi Film Awards, and an Asian Film Award. His films have collectively grossed over $523 million worldwide. Yamazaki found employment at the visual effects and animation studio Shirogumi in 1986 and has remained there throughout his career. His first directorial features were the science fiction films Juvenile(2000) and Returner (2002), for which he became known as the "Japanese James Cameron". He later gained further notice in Japan by directing film adaptations of popular anime, novels, and manga, including Always: Sunset on Third Street (2005), Space Battleship Yamato (2010), The Eternal Zero (2013), and Stand by Me Doraemon (2014); the latter two films both earned a total of nine awards at the 38th Japan Academy Film Prize. Yamazaki's career advanced with The Great War of Archimedes, Dragon Quest: Your Story, Lupin III: The First (2019), and Stand by Me Doraemon 2 (2020). His 2023 kaiju epic, Godzilla Minus One, became the most successful Japanese Godzilla film of all time and one of his highest-grossing films. Yamazaki and the visual effects team also became the first Japanese crew to receive the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. In 2024, Yamazaki was included in Gold House's annual list of 100 Most Impactful Asians. Description above from the Wikipedia article Takashi Yamazaki, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Born
June 12, 1964 (age 62)
Birthplace
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
Filmography
68 films, 6 shows
showing 23 of 24 films


Godzilla Minus Zero
2026 · 2h 15m
country: Japan
War reduced Japan to zero, and Godzilla plunged it into minus. Two years have passed since then, and the country has faced agonizing struggles to achieve recovery and finally reclaim its daily life. Just as humanity managed to cling to a hard-won peace, a new threat strikes, crushing hope in an instant.


Foodlosslla
2024 · 2m
country: Japan
A kaiju short film from director Takashi Yamazaki that advertises products by Ajinomoto.


Godzilla Minus One
2023 · 2h 5m
country: Japan
In postwar Japan, Godzilla brings new devastation to an already scorched landscape. With no military intervention or government help in sight, the survivors must join together in the face of despair and fight back against an unrelenting horror.


Ghost Book
2022 · 1h 52m
country: Japan
The forbidden book that will make any wish come true "The Ghostly Book of Books". However, in order to make your wish come true you have to go through a life-threatening trial. What is that trial...?


Stand by Me Doraemon 2
2020 · 1h 36m
country: Japan
Nobita travels to the future to show his beloved grandma his bride, but adult Nobita has fled his own wedding.


Lupin III: The First
2019 · 1h 33m
country: Japan
The iconic "gentleman thief" Lupin III returns in an action-packed, continent-spanning adventure, as Lupin III and his colorful underworld companions race to uncover the secrets of the mysterious Bresson Diary, before it falls into the hands of a dark cabal that will stop at nothing to resurrect the Third Reich.


Dragon Quest: Your Story
2019 · 1h 42m
country: Japan
Luca follows in his father's footsteps to rescue his mother from evil Ladja. Finding the heavenly hero who wields the Zenithian sword is his only hope.


The Great War of Archimedes
2019 · 2h 10m
country: Japan
It is the early 1930s and the command of the Japanese Imperial Navy determines to construct the world's biggest and most formidable battleship, Yamato. One of the admirals, Yamamoto Isoroku, disagrees. He recruits the upstart and mathematics' expert Tadashi Kai who discovers there are discrepancies between the official cost estimates and the actual figures. They soon find out that they have stumbled upon a conspiracy.


Destiny: The Tale of Kamakura
2017 · 2h 9m
country: Japan
Set in an alternate universe, the ancient capital of Kamakura is a vibrant town where fantastical creatures live alongside humans. Akiko is a cheerful publishing assistant who moves into town after marrying Masakazu, a popular mystery writer. Akiko is surprised by the unusual town but enjoys the new curiosities surrounding her. However, just as she was beginning to settle in, a trifling incident sweeps her spirit to the underworld too soon. Convinced that destiny has something else in store for his wife, Masakazu journeys into the underworld to bring back Akiko’s spirit.


Fueled: The Man They Called "Pirate"
2016 · 2h 25m
country: Japan
In a time when the main source of energy was still coal, there was a man who saw the future in oil. Young Tetsuzo Kunioka who hails from Moji, Kitakyushu, rides out into the oil business, but is faced with numerous challenges and competitors who stand in his way, including domestic suppliers and major western oil companies, or the "oil majors". But Tetsuzo never gave up, however despairing the situation was. He always found a way and paved a new road with his unconventional ideas, eccentric actions, and most of all, his caring heart toward his own men. That style of Tetsuzo's was not something that would ever change, even when the tides were against him in a war-lost Japan.


Tales of the Bizarre 25th Anniversary Autumn Special: Film Directors Collection
2015 · 2h
country: Japan
"Box" Shuko Yoshino (played by Yuko Takeuchi), a researcher at a medical university, was suddenly hit in the head while working. When she woke up, she found herself locked in a sealed metal box. Ryota Murakami (played by Satoshi His Wife), a single office worker in "Glasses Bring Happiness", accidentally received a smart glasses. With the help of the glasses, he began to interact with the beautiful woman. Ayumu Miura (played by Mizuki Yamamoto); "Fierce House" Yukiko (Played by Miki Nakatani) Moved into a new house with her daughter Zhuli, but there seemed to be a terrible grudge living here; Hatsuno (played by Takashi Abe), the head of the financing department of "×", accidentally found a × on his forehead, but the people around him couldn't see it at all. Shotaro (played by Shinnosuke Manjima) is experiencing a difficult moment in life. When he was pushed to the extreme, he suddenly told the first lie in the world, and he and his two friends embarked on a magical journey.


Parasyte: Part 2
2015 · 1h 57m
country: Japan
Humanity is under attack by human-mimicking flesh-eating alien parasites. One parasite bonds with his young high school student host, and he convinces the parasite to help him stop the others.


Parasyte: Part 1
2014 · 1h 49m
country: Japan
Humanity is suffering from a series of mysterious murders across the globe, known as the 'Mincemeat murders'. High school student Izumi Shinichi has a parasite living off him, having replaced his right hand, and he might be the discoverer of truth.


Stand by Me Doraemon
2014 · 1h 34m
country: Japan
Sewashi and Doraemon find themselves way back in time and meet Nobita. It is up to Doraemon to take care of Nobita or else he will not return to the present.


The Eternal Zero
2013 · 2h 24m
country: Japan
A brother and sister learn their biological grandfather was a kamikaze pilot who died during World War II. During their research into his life, they get conflicting accounts from his former comrades about his character and how he joined his squadron.


Always: Sunset on Third Street '64
2012 · 2h 22m
country: Japan
As the Tokyo Olympics usher in a wave of rapid modernisation, the residents of Third Street face new beginnings as Mutsuko becomes involved with a seemingly perfect young doctor who may not be all he appears, while Chagawa struggles with his stalled writing career and what it truly means to be a father to the boy he has raised as his own.


Friends: Naki on Monster Island
2011 · 1h 27m
country: Japan
Offshore, shrouded in fog, there is a mysterious island that is said to be the home of a family of monsters. It is strictly forbidden to approach it. But one day a human child, Mushroom, it loses and coming face to face with the mysterious creatures that live there. The arrival of Mushroom, makes panic on the island because the monsters are actually terrified of living humans.


Space Battleship Yamato
2010 · 2h 11m
country: Japan
In 2199, five years after the Gamilons began an invasion of Earth, the planet has been ravaged by the aliens' bombs. The remnants of humanity have fled underground to escape the irradiated surface. One day, former pilot Susumu Kodai discovers a capsule sent from the planet Iscandar that tells of a device that can remove the radiation from the Earth's surface. The Earth Defense Force rebuilds the battleship Yamato with a new type of propulsion system to make the 148,000 light year trip to Iscandar in hopes of saving the Earth. Within one year, the radiation will drive the rest of humanity to extinction.


Ballad
2009 · 2h 12m
country: Japan
Based on the plot of an award-winning Crayon Shin-chan animated movie from 2002, a boy named Shinichi (Takei) does the time-traveling and meets a feared general named Ijiri Matabei (Kusanagi). Ijiri is in love with Princess Ren (Aragaki) who subsequently rejects an arranged marriage to Okura Itakatora (Osawa), a powerful daimyo of northern Kanto. Enraged by the rejection, Okura sends a large army to Ijiri's smaller state and it's up to Shinichi to change their destiny.


Always: Sunset on Third Street 2
2007 · 2h 26m
country: Japan
A year has passed in postwar Tokyo, and struggling writer Chagawa enters the Akutagawa Prize competition in hopes of securing a better future for the boy in his care, while the Suzuki family unexpectedly take in a new relative who looks down on their humble way of life.


Always - Sunset on Third Street
2005 · 2h 13m
country: Japan
In 1958 postwar Tokyo, the residents of a humble Third Street neighbourhood struggle, dream, and grow together as rapid modernisation transforms their lives beneath the shadow of the newly rising Tokyo Tower.


Returner
2002 · 1h 56m
country: Japan
A young woman from the future forces a local gunman to help her stop an impending alien invasion which will wipe out the human race.


Juvenile
2000 · 1h 37m
country: Japan
11-year-old Yusuke and his classmates camp in the woods and see a strange light. They discover a small metallic object like a robot which talks, calls himself Tetra and knows Yusuke's name. Tetra can create wonderful gadgets but actually has to save the world with Yusuke's help from extraterrestrials with bad intentions.