Kōki Mitani


Kōki Mitani is a Japanese playwright, screenwriter, actor and film director and was previously married to Japanese actress Satomi Kobayashi. He was named after Taihō Kōki, the youngest sumo wrestler to become yokozuna. He studied dramatics at Nihon University.
In an attempt to add his own character to his movies, as a director he takes most of his scenes with a one-scene=one-shot system, moving the camera around as opposed to cutting. He claims this comes from his experience in theatre, where there are no cuts. Mitani does not use a computer.

Early life

Mitani liked watching TV dramas and puppetries of NHK in his childhood. Especially he was interested in the puppetries "Shin Hakkenden" and Sangokushi, jidaigekis such as Tenka Gomen
and Tenka Dōdō, and Taiga Dramas like Kaze to Kumo to Niji to.
He also liked and still likes the works featuring famous detectives includes the Sherlock Holmes series and adored Holmes as a detective. He has whole volume of novels including pastiches, DVDs related to Sherlock Holmes and read all the novels again before adapting it to a puppetry whose setting is laid in a boarding school. In his high school days, he planned to produce a film featuring a detective, loosely based on And Then There Were None and went on location to Enoshima, Kanagawa with his friends, though the film was never unfinished.
Besides he watched many foreign films such as the ones directed by Billy Wilder, 12 Angry Men and The Wages of Fear on TV. He says that he was influenced by them but recent Hollywood comedy films are not as funny as those in the golden age and Japanese comedy becomes better. He is a big fan of Columbo'' also.

Career

His works are basically comedies full of wit and humour and with parody. He usually writes a script visualising the actors and actresses close to the characters.
He writes a weekly column for the Asahi Shimbun daily newspaper, in which he often discusses his favorite films, his writing process, and the actors and actresses that he has worked with.

Feature films and TV dramas


ActorFuruhata Ninzaburō Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald Aikotoba wa Yūki Minna no Ie Shinsengumi! 　The Uchōten Hotel The Magic Hour Wagaya no Rekishi A Ghost of a Chance The Kiyosu Conference Galaxy Turnpike Sanada Maru Kioku ni Gozaimasen
Toshiyuki Nishida
Fumiyo Kohinata
Kōji Yakusho
Keiko Toda
Kōichi Satō 　
Masahiko Nishimura
Yoshimasa Kondo
Kiichi Nakai
Kenji Anan
Toshiaki Karasawa
Susumu Terajima
Zen Kajihara
Kyōka Suzuki
Eri Fukatsu
Yo Oizumi
Masato Sakai
Koji Yamamoto
Shingo Katori
Yūko Takeuchi
Satoshi Tsumabuki
Haruka Ayase

Honours