Yoshihiro Nishimura, the horror filmmaker and special effects/makeup artist behind such films as “Tokyo Gore Police,” has died at the age of 59. This news comes after Nishimura reportedly faced a weeks-long battle with cirrhosis of the liver.
The news was shared by the official Instagram account for Girls and Corpses, a small production company that worked with Nishimura on his upcoming film, “Geisha War.”
“I am devastated by the sudden loss of my great friend Yoshihiro Nishimura, who, only two weeks ago, was on a live Zoom call with us following the screening of our film ‘Geisha War,’” Girls and Corpses’ Robert Rhine said in a statement on Instagram. “It had been a dream of mine to work with Nishimura and I flew to Kyoto last October (with our lead actor Costas Mandylor) to film at Hikone Studios.”
He continued: “Nishimura was a brilliant filmmaker and true artist who inspired many filmmakers, such as Quentin Tarantino. It is a great loss for the indie horror community and Nishimura’s fans around the world.” You can view the full post below.
Nishimura started his career by doing special effects and makeup work on horror films and thrillers such as “Suicide Club,” “Meatball Machine” and “The Machine Girl.” He would go on to direct, co-write and edit the cult classic “Tokyo Gore Police,” based on his earlier short film “Anatomia Extinction,” in 2008.
The filmmaker went onto play in this genre through additional projects, including “Mutant Girls Squad” (which he co-directed alongside Noboru Iguchi and Tak Sakaguchi) and “Helldriver.” He also helmed a segment for 2012’s “The ABCs of Death,” titled “Z is for Zetsumetsu (Extinction).”
Nishimura just recently completed what will be his final film, “Geisha War,” which has already screened to the public. Rhine, of Girls and Corpses, stated that he will carry on Nishimura’s work by ensuring the film finds broader distribution.
“I will be finalizing ‘Geisha War’ in Nishimura’s memory and we will find [a] great distributor for this amazing film, Nishimura’s last, to show to the world,” Rhine said. “My deepest condolences to his wife, Haruka, and daughter Kika.”
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