A work in constant progress (and occasional regress).
Birthplace:
Otawara, Tochigi Prefecture, Japan
Born:
January 1, 1982
Born in 1982 in Otawara, Tochigi prefecture, Watanabe Hirobumi graduated in Japanese literature and, after graduation, entered the Japan Academy of Moving Images. His graduation project, the 41-minute film The Light Pig of August (Hachigatsu no Karui Buta), received the Grand Prix at the Fuji Film Lovers Festival, as well as other awards. In 2013, together with his brother Yuji, composer of film music, he created Foolish Piggies Films in his hometown of Otawara. Their first production was also the debut in Watanabe's feature film, And the Mud Ship Sails Away..., which was presented at the 26th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival and had several screenings outside Japan. The film was released in Japanese theatres in December 2014. His second film, 7 Days, won the best film award in the Japanese Cinema Splash section of the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival. He has been invited to several other festivals and won the Nippon Vision Jury Award at the 17th edition of the Nippon Connection festival. Subsequently, Watanabe shot at least one film a year, always with his brother Watanabe Yuji as the author of the soundtrack and Bang Woo-hyun as director of photography. However, for his most recent film, I'm Really Good (2020), Watanabe also served as a cameraman. This is also his first title in which his grandmother, who died last year at the age of 102, does not appear. After almost a decade of consistency, more or less with the same people in front of and behind the camera, Watanabe's career seems to have come to a turning point.
Cinematography:
2020 I'm Really Good
Director:
2013 And the Mud Ship Sails Away...
2015 7 Days
2016 Poolside Man
2018 Party 'Round the Globe
2019 Cry
2019 Life Finds A Way
2020 I'm Really Good
2020 Kamata Prelude
2021 Sea Not on the Map
2022 Way of Life
2023 Techno Brothers
Director of Photography:
2013 And the Mud Ship Sails Away...
2015 7 Days
2016 Poolside Man
2018 Party 'Round the Globe
2019 Cry
2019 Life Finds A Way
2020 I'm Really Good
2020 Kamata Prelude
2021 Sea Not on the Map
2022 Way of Life
2023 Techno Brothers
Editor:
2013 And the Mud Ship Sails Away...
2015 7 Days
2016 Poolside Man
2018 Party 'Round the Globe
2019 Cry
2019 Life Finds A Way
2020 I'm Really Good
2020 Kamata Prelude
2021 Sea Not on the Map
2022 Way of Life
2023 Techno Brothers
Executive Producer:
2013 And the Mud Ship Sails Away...
2015 7 Days
2016 Poolside Man
2018 Party 'Round the Globe
2019 Cry
2019 Life Finds A Way
2020 I'm Really Good
2020 Kamata Prelude
2021 Sea Not on the Map
2022 Way of Life
2023 Techno Brothers
Screenplay:
2013 And the Mud Ship Sails Away...
2015 7 Days
2016 Poolside Man
2018 Party 'Round the Globe
2019 Cry
2019 Life Finds A Way
2020 I'm Really Good
2020 Kamata Prelude
2021 Sea Not on the Map
2022 Way of Life
2023 Techno Brothers
Writer:
2013 And the Mud Ship Sails Away...
2015 7 Days
2016 Poolside Man
2018 Party 'Round the Globe
2019 Cry
2019 Life Finds A Way
2020 I'm Really Good
2020 Kamata Prelude
2021 Sea Not on the Map
2022 Way of Life
2023 Love Will Tear Us Apart
2023 Techno Brothers
Most data and links to images for the Movies section come from TheMovieDB (TMDB).
Additional data for Film Titles come from The Open Movie Database (OMDb).
At least one plug-in comes from IMDb.
Data are -- hey, it's a plural -- subject to the limitations of their sources. (For example, TMDB search results currently max out at 20.) I am limiting myself to free data sources for now. (No, a "free trial" is not free.)
While much of the above data are retrieved directly from outside APIs and other such sources, data from American Film Institute (AFI) and British Film Institute (BFI) were manually entered the old fashioned way into a MySQL database. Re BFI I took the following liberties:
Regarding profile removals and data corrections:
Filtering is applied here to film projects flagged as "adult" by TheMovieDB. Pending "popular demand" I am contemplating a login and profile system with preferences (such as whether to allow adult images to appear) and permissions (such as data entry).
Whereas the overall purpose of this website is to serve as a personal demo/portfolio/workshop of web and data skills, this Movies section is not meant to compete with or substitute for far more definitive movie websites.
Whether or not he still clings to an award which he won in 1986 as a film critic for his college's newspaper, Jeffrey Hartmann is not responsible for the texts of overviews and biographies supplied by external data sources.