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Takao Okawara (大河原 孝夫, Ōkawara Takao, born December 20, 1949, in Tokyo) is a Japanese film director, writer, and producer.
Takao Okawara was born on 20 December 1949 in Tokyo, Japan. He is an assistant director and director, known for Yukai (1997), Godzilla 2000 (1999) and Kagemusha: The Shadow Warrior (1980).
- Takao Okawara
- December 20, 1949
- Not Taking Things Serious
- The (Somewhat) Promising Start
- The Dry Spell
- Directing Actors
- Uneasy Alliance with Kawakita
- Ending on A High Note
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
Okawara’s first professional encounter with the King of the Monsters occurred in 1984, when he served as an assistant on Koji Hashimoto’s The Return of Godzilla. While it is strangely fitting that the most fiscally successful director of the Heisei series began his association with the film that gave birth to said series, working on this particular...
Takao Okawara joined Toho in 1972, at a time when the studio had long-since abandoned its assistant director’s program; gone was the system which had turned out such accomplished Japanese directors of the 1930s-50s like Senkichi Taniguchi, Ishiro Honda, and even the legendary Akira Kurosawa. As the latter recalled in his autobiography, “Management ...
After the fiscal success of Godzilla vs. Mothra, it wasn’t surprising that Toho would approach Okawara to helm a follow-up, a film originally intended as the concluding entry in the Heisei series. An interesting side note before we continue. Over the years, rumors have spasmodically popped up that Ishiro Honda was asked to direct this 1993 film and...
Before we continue with the historical analysis of Okawara’s career, I would like to diverge into a couple of general weaknesses/behind-the-scenes factoids relevant to films covered thus far. These will be used as means of contrasting Okawara’s early pictures with the ones he made later on. After seeing Godzilla vs. Mothra in 1992, Ishiro Honda des...
Though I myself haven’t come across any anecdotes confirming genuine hostility, over the years there’ve been occasional tidbits in interviews suggesting Okawara and special effects director Koichi Kawakita didn’t exactly have the best working relationship. In fact, the two seemed guardedly critical of one another at times. Okawara described his fre...
The opening of Abduction (1997) signals the arrival of mature filmmaking. The first shot is a birds-eye view of Tokyo, staring straight down from a vertigo-triggering height at a cluster of helicopters moving above the skyscrapers, an eerie Takayuki Hattori musical cue tingling on the soundtrack. After holding on this vista for a while, the camera ...
When asked about his future plans in 2000, Takao Okawara proclaimed he was done with Godzilla and would be moving on to suspenseful human dramas in the vein of Abduction.25 Sadly, none of those plans ever seemed to get off the ground, as the man hasn’t made a motion picture in almost twenty years. Alas, it would seem the vast majority of moviegoers...
Ryfle, Steve. Japan’s Favorite Mon-Star: The Unauthorized Biography of “The Big G.”Toronto: ECW Press, 1998, p. 171Godziszewski, Ed. The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Godzilla. Published by Ed Godziszewski, 1996, p. 95Milner, David. Translated by Yoshihiko Shibata. “Takao Okawara Interview I.” December 1993England, Norman. “Godfather of Godzilla.” Fangoria #195, August 2000, p. 43Takao Okawara (born December 20, 1949 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese film director, writer and producer. He is known for directing Godzilla vs. Mothra, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and Godzilla 2000: Millennium.
Dec 31, 2023 · Takao Okawara (大河原 孝夫 Ōkawara Takao) is a Japanese film director and writer. After graduating from Waseda University in 1972, Okawara worked under directors like Shiro Moritani and Toshio Masuda.
Okawara directed the thriller Abduction (1997), his personal favorite of his movies, before the King of the Monsters summoned him once more. Toho was rebooting the franchise sooner than expected, the new movie to be viewed as a response to the 1998 Hollywood adaptation.
Takao Okawara (born December 20, 1949 in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese film director, writer and producer. Description above from the Wikipedia article Takao Okawara, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia. Known For. Godzilla 2000: Millennium. Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II. Godzilla vs. Mothra.
