Yoichi Sai Explained

Yōichi Sai
Birth Date:	1949 7, df=yes
Birth Place:	Nagano Prefecture, Japan
Death Date:	^[1] ^[2]
Death Place:	Tokyo, Japan
Occupation:	Film director
Module:	Child: yes Headercolor: transparent Hangul: 최양일 Rr: Choe Yang-il Mr: Ch'oe Yang'il Text: Japanese name

was a Korean film director who worked in Japan.^{[3] [4]} He was the president of the Directors Guild of Japan.^[5]

Life and career

Sai was born on 6 July 1949 in Nagano Prefecture, Japan. His mother was Japanese and his father was Zainichi Korean.

Sai won the Best Screenplay award at the 11th Yokohama Film Festival for A Sign Days.^[6]

In 1999, he shot The Pig's Retribution, a film set in the lavish natural scenery of Okinawa, inspired by the 1996 Akutagawa Prize-winning eponymous novel by Eiki Matayoshi. The film won the Don Quixote prize at the Locarno International Film Festival in 1999.

Sai directed Blood and Bones, a film starring Takeshi Kitano.^[7] He has also directed films such as Marks,^[8] Doing Time,^[9] Quill,^[10] Soo^[11] and Kamui Gaiden.^[12]

As an actor, Sai appeared in Nagisa Oshima's 1999 film Taboo^[13] and Masahiko Nagasawa's 2003 film The Thirteen Steps.^[14]

Sai's 2004 film Blood and Bones won four Japanese Academy Awards, including two for Sai himself, for Best Director and Best Screenplay. He had previously received two nominations in the same categories for All Under the Moon.

Sai died of bladder cancer at his home in Tokyo, on 27 November 2022, at the age of 73.^[15]

Filmography

As director

Film

• Mosquito on the 10th Floor (1983)
• Sex Crime (1983)
• Someone Will Be Killed (1984)
• Let Him Rest in Peace (1985)
• Kuroi Doresu no Onna (1987)
• Hana no Asuka-gumi! (1988)
• A Sign Days (1989)
• All Under the Moon (1993)
• Marks (1995)
• Heisei Musekinin Ikka: Tokyo Deluxe (1995)
• Dog Race (1998)
• The Pig's Retribution (1999)
• Doing Time (2002)
• Blood and Bones (2004)
• Quill (2004)
• Soo (2007)
• Kamui Gaiden (2009)

TV

• Pro Hunter (1981) (ep.15, 16 and 25)

As actor

• Taboo (1999)
• The Thirteen Steps (2003)

Notes and References

1. Web site: OBITUARY of Sai Yoichi. 35th Tokyo International Film Festival. 22 November 2023.
2. Web site: Film director Yoichi Sai dies of cancer at 73. The Japane News. Yomiuri. Shimbun. 28 November 2022.
3. Web site: [추모] 최양일 감독: 폭력으로 세상에 맞서다]. 씨네 21. 2022-12-08. ko.
4. Web site: Midnigth Eye interview: Yoichi Sai. Midnight Eye. Bryan. Hartzheim. 1 June 2010.
5. Web site: An Interview with Sai Yōichi, President of the Directors Guild of Japan. Directors Guild of Japan. Spring 2007. 16 February 2013. 7 March 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150307063209/http://www.dgj.or.jp/english/article/000288.html. dead.
6. Web site: http://homepage3.nifty.com/yokohama-eigasai/11-1989/11_1989_shou.html. ja:第１１回ヨコハマ映画祭 １９８９年日本映画個人賞. 10 April 2010. Yokohama Film Festival. ja.
7. Blood and Bones - Directed by Yoichi Sai - DVD Reviews - exclaim.ca. Exclaim!. Travis Mackenzie. Hoover. October 2007.
8. Marks - Variety. Variety. Ken. Eisner. 19 November 1995.
9. Web site: DVD Review: Sai Yoichi's 'Doing Time' R1 Disc - Twitch. Twitch Film. Andrew. Mack. 22 November 2006. 16 February 2013. 4 July 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150704141934/http://twitchfilm.com/2006/11/dvd-review-sai-yoichis-doing-time-r1-disc.html. dead.
10. Quill - Directed by Yoichi Sai - Film Reviews - exclaim.ca. Exclaim!. Cam. Lindsay. June 2005.
11. Soo - Variety. Variety. Derek. Elley. 4 October 2007.
12. News: 'Kamui Gaiden' - The Japan Times. The Japan Times. Mark. Scilling. 18 September 2009.
13. Web site: BBC - Films - review - Gohatto (Taboo). BBC. Neil. Smith. 23 July 2001.
14. The Thirteen Steps. Variety. Andy. Klein. 2 February 2003.
15. Web site: '90s Japanese film "All Under the Moon" director Yoichi Sai dies . Kyodo News . 27 November 2022 . 27 November 2022.