Yoshihiro Nishimura, 'Tokyo Gore Police' Director, Dies at 59
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- Yoshihiro Nishimura died Monday in Tokyo at age 59 following a nearly two-week hospital stay for liver disease.
- "Tokyo Gore Police" (2008), his first commercial release, screened at global festivals and is credited with opening the door for a new wave of Japanese ultra-violent horror and science-fiction cinema.
- Nishimura directed a string of genre films including "Vampire Girl vs. Frankenstein Girl," "Helldriver," "The Ninja War of Torakage," "Meatball Machine Kodoku," "Welcome to Japan" and "Tokyo Dragon Chef," and was in post-production on "Geisha War" at the time of his death.
- Nishimura founded the production and special effects company Nishimura Eizo Co., Ltd. and served as Godzilla's moldmaking supervisor and special modeling producer on the 2016 blockbuster "Shin Godzilla."
- Nishimura launched his career with the 1995 short "Anatomia Extinction," which won at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, after being inspired by "Star Wars" as a child and studying law at Aoyama Gakuin University in Shibuya.
- Frequent collaborator Eihi Shiina stated: "Horror has lost a real visionary, and I have lost a friend."
Why it matters: Nishimura was still actively producing at the time of his death — in post-production on 'Geisha War' — and ran his own effects house, meaning Japanese genre cinema loses both a legacy figure and a working craftsman with institutional knowledge of practical effects. His hands-on role building the Godzilla suit for 'Shin Godzilla' underscores that his impact extended well beyond cult horror into mainstream Japanese blockbuster production.
