| Kiyoshi Nishimura | |
| Birth Date: | 7 September 1932 |
| Birth Place: | Tokyo |
| Death Place: | Hayama, Kanagawa, Japan |
| Occupation: | Film director |
Kiyoshi Nishimura (西村潔, Nishimura Kiyoshi, September 7, 1932 – November 17, 1993) was a Japanese filmmaker and director.[1]
Nishimura graduated from Tachikawa High School in Tokyo.[2] During his study years, Nishimura worked part-time at a U.S. military base in Tachikawa. During this time, he became interested in filmmaking. In 1956, he graduated from Hitotsubashi University, where he was a classmate of Shintaro Ishihara.
He subsequently joined Toho and worked as an assistant director under Akira Kurosawa, Mikio Naruse, Ishirō Honda, Yuzō Kawashima, Hirokawa Horimichi, Yasuki Chiba, Eizō Sugawa, Kengo Furusawa and Hideo Onchi. In 1969, he made his directorial debut with the action-thriller It's Too Early to Die (Shinu ni wa Mada Hayai), starring Toshio Kurosawa. His next film, Hakuchū no Shūgeki (1970), with Toshio Kurosawa again in the lead role, further solidified his reputation as a distinctive action director at Toho. He was an aficionado of jazz, which was prominently featured in the soundtracks of his films. He was also an avid diver.
As the Japanese film industry continued to decline, Nishimura left Toho to work independently and directed numerous television series.
In 1987, a scandal involving his arrest for secretly using a video camera in a public bathhouse (sento) to film women negatively impacted his career, and he faced difficulty finding work thereafter. Few companies would hire Nishimura due to the media's heavy coverage of this scandal. After this incident, he transitioned to directing television series, working under the pseudonym Yūsai Itō (井藤雄才).
On November 17, 1993, Nishimura was found drowned on the Hayama coast in Kanagawa. A police investigation concluded that he had committed suicide. He was 61.