©Photo by Nobuhiro Hosoki

Film director Yoshihiro Nishimura, known for “Tokyo Gore Police”, “The ABCs of Dearth” passed away on the 25th at a hospital in Tokyo. He was 59. According to Eiga.com, his death was due to liver disease following a hospital stay of about two weeks.

While Nishimura was by no means a widely recognized director among mainstream Japanese film fans, he had garnered a fervent following among genre film fans overseas—particularly in North America and Europe—since the release of “Tokyo Gore Police” (2008) for his unique aesthetic of blood and visual design, often referred to as the “Nishimura Yoshihiro World.”

Nishimura was born in 1967 in Asakusa, Tokyo. After graduating from Aoyama Gakuin University, he joined the commercial production company Taiyo Kikaku, where he honed his skills in special effects makeup and prosthetics. In 1995, his self-produced short film “Genkai jinkô keisû“ won the Special Jury Prize at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival. His feature film debut, “Tokyo Gore Police” (2008), generated significant buzz at film festivals around the world, instantly bringing him international recognition.

“Tokyo Gore Police” was nominated at approximately 73 film festivals worldwide and won awards at five of them. Since then, Nishimura has traveled frequently to the United States and Europe as a regular at festivals such as the Fantasia International Film Festival in Montreal, Canada, and Fantastic Fest in Texas, USA, becoming something of an evangelist for Japanese splatter films on the global stage.

In Japan, he was highly respected within the industry as a pioneer who carved out a unique niche known as “Cruel Effects.” He served as creative supervisor for Godzilla’s design and special effects producer on “Shin Godzilla” (2016), and also participated as a special makeup producer on the live-action “Attack on Titan” series. He was a figure who embodied both the identity of a horror director with roots in independent filmmaking and that of a design professional supporting the production of major Japanese films behind the scenes.

Actress Eiki Shiina, who frequently collaborated with him on films such as “Hell Driver” and “Tokyo Gore Police,” offered the following tribute upon his passing: “Horror has lost a true innovator. And I have lost a friend.”

At the time of his death, his new film “Geisha War” (working title) was reportedly in the final stages of production.