Ryusuke Hamaguchi

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Biography

Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Japanese: 濱口 竜介, Hamaguchi Ryūsuke; born 16 December 1978; Kanagawa) is a Japanese filmmaker and screenwriter.

After graduating from the University of Tokyo, Hamaguchi worked in the commercial film industry for a few years before entering the graduate program in film at Tokyo University of the Arts. His graduation film "Passion" (2008) was selected for the competition of the 2008 Tokyo Filmex. With Kō Sakai, he made a three-part documentary "The Sound of Waves" (2012) about survivors of the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, with "Voices from the Waves" (2013) being selected for the competition at the 2013 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, and "Storytellers" (2013) winning the Sky Perfect IDEHA Prize. His next film "Happy Hour" (2015) was first developed while Hamaguchi was an artist in residence at KIITO Design and Creative Center Kobe in 2013. His "Asako I & II" (2018) was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. His "Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy" (2021) was selected to compete at the 2021 Berlinale. And his "Drive My Car" (2021) was in competition at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, won the prize for best screenplay and was selected and later nominated as the Japanese entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 94th Academy Awards; the film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

In an interview with Filmmaker Magazine, Hamaguchi said: "I was just purely a cinephile, conventionally in love with Hollywood films—Tarantino, Wong Kar-wai, things called mini theater films in Japan. But after I went to this film club in college and the cinephile culture just poured right in. I think the biggest incentive for me to becoming a director was watching Cassavetes."