Notable Asian Directors
by qempyrean | created - 19 Jun 2021 | updated - 11 hours ago | PublicGenerally includes those from the Middle East and Indian subcontinent, as well as the traditional "Orient" of East Asia and the Pacific islands.
1. Satyajit Ray
Writer | Pather Panchali
Satyajit Ray was born in Calcutta on May 2, 1921. His father, Late Sukumar Ray was an eminent poet and writer in the history of Bengali literature. In 1940, after receiving his degree in science and economics from Calcutta University, he attended Tagore's Viswa-Bharati University. His first movie ...
2. Akira Kurosawa
Writer | Kakushi-toride no san-akunin
After training as a painter (he storyboards his films as full-scale paintings), Kurosawa entered the film industry in 1936 as an assistant director, eventually making his directorial debut with Sanshiro Sugata (1943). Within a few years, Kurosawa had achieved sufficient stature to allow him greater...
3. Kon Ichikawa
Director | Inugami-ke no ichizoku
Kon Ichikawa has been influenced by artists as diverse as Walt Disney and Jean Renoir, and his films cover a wide spectrum of moods, from the comic to the overwhelmingly ironic and even the perverse. Ichikawa began his career as a cartoonist, and this influence is apparent in his skillful use of ...
4. Nagisa Ôshima
Director | Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Nagisa Oshima's career extends from the initiation of the "Nuberu bagu" (New Wave) movement in Japanese cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s, to the contemporary use of cinema and television to express paradoxes in modern society. After an early involvement with the student protest movement in ...
5. Masaki Kobayashi
Director | Seppuku
Masaki Kobayashi was born on February 14, 1916 in Hokkaido, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Harakiri (1962), Samurai Rebellion (1967) and The Human Condition III: A Soldier's Prayer (1961). He died on October 4, 1996 in Tokyo, Japan.
6. King Hu
Director | Xia nü
He was educated in art school in Beijing, left China for Hong Kong in 1949 and entered the film industry in 1951 in the art department. In the 1950s he began acting and in 1958 joined Shaw Brothers as an actor and writer, and later a director. In 1967 he left to start his own studio in Taiwan, ...
7. Shyam Benegal
Director | Ankur
Shyam Benegal was born on December 14, 1934 in Tirumalagiri, Hyderabad State, British India. He is a director and producer, known for Ankur: The Seedling (1974), Bhumika (1977) and Trikal (Past, Present, Future) (1985). He is married to Nira Benegal.
8. Mrinal Sen
Director | Chorus
Sen is one of his nation's most politically active filmakers. After having studied physics at university in Calcutta, Sen worked as a freelance journalist, a salesman of patent medicines and a sound technician in a film studio. In the mid-1940s he joined the Indian People's Theatre Association and ...
9. Yilmaz Güney
Writer | Yol
Güney and his work were almost entirely unknown outside of his homeland Turkey until his 1981 escape from imprisonment in Turkey and his "discovery" the following year at the Cannes Film Festival for his autobiographical screenplay for Yol (1982), the festival's grand prize winner. Born in 1937 in ...
10. Lester James Peries
Director | Rekava
Lester James Peries was born on April 5, 1919 in Colombo, Ceylon [now Sri Lanka]. He was a director and writer, known for The Line of Destiny (1956), Gamperaliya (1963) and Yagunthaya (1985). He was married to Sumitra Peries. He died on April 29, 2018 in Colombo, Western Province, Sri Lanka.
11. Yimou Zhang
Director | Ying xiong
Yimou Zhang was born on November 14, 1951 in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. He is a director and writer, known for Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006). He has been married to Ting Chen since December 2011. They have three children. He was previously married to ...
12. Hsiao-Hsien Hou
Producer | Cike Nie Yin Niang
Of the ten films that Hsiao-Hsien Hou directed between 1980 and 1989, seven received best film or best director awards from prestigious international films festivals in Venice, Berlin, Hawaii, and the Festival of the Three Continents in Nantes. In a 1988 worldwide critics' poll, Hou was championed ...
13. Abbas Kiarostami
Writer | Copie conforme
Abbas Kiarostami was born in Tehran, Iran, in 1940. He graduated from university with a degree in fine arts before starting work as a graphic designer. He then joined the Center for Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults, where he started a film section, and this started his career ...
14. Wayne Wang
Director | Smoke
Wayne Wang is a key figure in the development of independent filmmaking, alternating major Hollywood studio films such as »The Joy Luck Club« with smaller, independent work like »Smoke«. Continuing to work in the two different worlds, Wang directed an independent digital film, »The Center of the ...
15. Ang Lee
Director | Wo hu cang long
Born in 1954 in Pingtung, Taiwan, Ang Lee has become one of today's greatest contemporary filmmakers. Ang graduated from the National Taiwan College of Arts in 1975 and then came to the U.S. to receive a B.F.A. Degree in Theatre/Theater Direction at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, ...
16. John Woo
Director | Ying hung boon sik
Born in southern China, John Woo grew up in Hong Kong, where he began his film career as an assistant director in 1969, working for Shaw Brothers Studios. He directed his first feature in 1973 and has been a prolific director ever since, working in a wide variety of genres before A Better Tomorrow ...
17. Takeshi Kitano
Actor | Zatôichi
Takeshi Kitano originally studied to become an engineer, but was thrown out of school for rebellious behavior. He learned comedy, singing and dancing from famed comedian Senzaburô Fukami. Working as a lift boy on a nightclub with such features as comic sketches and striptease dancing, Kitano saw ...
18. Edward Yang
Writer | Yi yi
Born on November 6, 1947 in Shanghai, China, Edward Yang has become one of the most talented international filmmakers of his generation. Along with Hou Hsiao-Hsien and Tsai Ming-Liang, Yang ranks among the leading artists of the Taiwanese New Wave, and one of the world's most brilliant auteurs. ...
19. Kar-Wai Wong
Director | Yi dai zong shi
Wong Kar-wai (born 17 July 1956) is a Hong Kong Second Wave filmmaker, internationally renowned as an auteur for his visually unique, highly stylised, emotionally resonant work, including Ah fei zing zyun (1990), Dung che sai duk (1994), Chung Hing sam lam (1994), Do lok tin si (1995), Chun gwong ...
20. Mira Nair
Director | Salaam Bombay!
Accomplished Film Director/Writer/Producer Mira Nair was born in India and educated at Delhi University and at Harvard. She began her film career as an actor and then turned to directing award-winning documentaries, including So Far From India and India Cabaret. Her debut feature film, Salaam ...
21. Jee-woon Kim
Writer | Joheunnom nabbeunnom isanghannom
Kim Ji-woon was born in Seoul, South Korea. He began his career as an actor before becoming a stage director with productions such as "Hot Sea" in 1994 and "Movie, Movie" in 1995. He then began scripting for films, his first work, 97's "Wonderful Seasons" won Best Screenplay award at Korea's ...
22. Kim Ki-duk
Writer | Bin-jip
He studied fine arts in Paris in 1990-1992. In 1993 he won the award for Best Screenplay from the Educational Institute of Screenwriting with "A Painter and A Criminal Condemned to Death". After two more screenplay awards, he made his directorial debut with Crocodile (1996) ("Crocodile"). Then he ...
23. Deepa Mehta
Director | Fire
Deepa Mehta is a transnational artist and a screenwriter, director, and producer whose work has been called "courageous", "provocative" and "breathtaking". Her visually lush and emotionally resonating films have played at every major international film festival; receiving numerous awards and ...
24. Fatih Akin
Director | Aus dem Nichts
Fatih Akin was born in 1973 in Hamburg of Turkish parentage. He began studying Visual Communications at Hamburg's College of Fine Arts in 1994. His collaboration with Wueste Film also dates from this time. In 1995, he wrote and directed his first short feature, "Sensin - You're The One!" ("Sensin -...
25. Zhangke Jia
Producer | Jiang hu er nü
Zhangke Jia was born on May 24, 1970 in Fenyang, Shanxi, China. He is a producer and director, known for Jiang hu er nü (2018), A Touch of Sin (2013) and Mountains May Depart (2015). He has been married to Tao Zhao since January 7, 2012.
26. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Producer | Bir Zamanlar Anadolu'da
Nuri Bilge Ceylan was born in Istanbul on January 26th, 1959. In 1976, he began studying chemical engineering at Istanbul Technical University, in a context of strong student unrest, boycotts and political polarization. In 1978, he switched courses to Electrical Engineering at Bogazici University. ...
27. Hayao Miyazaki
Writer | Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi
Hayao Miyazaki is one of Japan's greatest animation directors. The entertaining plots, compelling characters, and breathtaking visuals in his films have earned him international renown from critics as well as public recognition within Japan.
Miyazaki started his career in 1963 as an animator at the ...
28. Park Chan-wook
Director | Oldeuboi
Park Chan-wook was born on August 23, 1963 in Seoul, South Korea. He is a producer and director, known for Oldboy (2003), The Handmaiden (2016) and Decision to Leave (2022). He is married to Eun-hee Kim. They have one child.
29. Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Director | Memoria
Apichatpong Weerasethakul (b. 1970, Bangkok) grew up in Khon Kaen, a city in the north east of Thailand. He has a degree in Architecture from Khon Kaen University and a Master of Fine Arts in Filmmaking from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. He has been making films and videos since the ...
30. Yasujirô Ozu
Writer | Tôkyô monogatari
Tokyo-born Yasujiro Ozu was a movie buff from childhood, often playing hooky from school in order to see Hollywood movies in his local theatre. In 1923 he landed a job as a camera assistant at Shochiku Studios in Tokyo. Three years later, he was made an assistant director and directed his first ...
31. Mikio Naruse
Director | Ukigumo
Considered a major figure of Japan's 'golden age of cinema', Mikio Naruse was a filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer who directed 89 films in the period 1930 to 1967. Although Naruse's work is lesser known in the twenty-first century than those of his contemporaries Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi...
32. Kenji Mizoguchi
Director | Ugetsu monogatari
Coming from a lower class family Mizoguchi entered the production company Nikkatsu as an actor specialized in female roles. Later he became an assistant director and made his first film in 1922. Although he filmed almost 90 movies in the silent era, only his last 12 productions are really known ...
33. Hiroshi Inagaki
Director | Wasurerareta kora
Inagaki's career in film began as an actor--a child actor, in fact, appearing in numerous silent films beginning at the very dawn of Japanese cinema. This is probably why he was promoted to director at the unusually (for Japan) young age of 22. Along with producer Mansaku Itami (later the father of...
34. Hiroshi Shimizu
Director | Kanzashi
Hiroshi Shimizu was born on March 28, 1903 in Shizuoka, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Ornamental Hairpin (1941), Children in the Wind (1937) and Sono ato no hachi no su no kodomotachi (1951). He was married to Kinuyo Tanaka. He died on June 23, 1966 in Kyoto, Japan.
35. Heinosuke Gosho
Director | Madamu to nyôbô
Heinosuke Gosho was born on January 24, 1902 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for The Neighbor's Wife and Mine (1931), Once More (1947) and Ragpicker's Angel (1958). He died on May 1, 1981 in Japan.
36. Teinosuke Kinugasa
Director | Jigokumon
Former female impersonator who entered films in 1917 as an actor, turned to directing in 1922 and made some of the most formally brilliant Japanese films of the following decades. The few of Kinugasa's early works to have reached the West betray a highly mature, sophisticated talent. His best-known...
37. Yûzô Kawashima
Director | Gan no tera
Yûzô Kawashima was born on February 4, 1918 in Tanabu, Aomori, Japan [now Mutsu, Aomori, Japan]. He was a director and writer, known for The Temple of Wild Geese (1962), Sun in the Last Days of the Shogunate (1957) and The Balloon (1956). He died on June 11, 1963 in Tokyo, Japan.
38. Takumi Furukawa
Director | Gyangu no shôzô
Takumi Furukawa was born on March 27, 1917 in Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Gyangu no shôzô (1965), Hei ying (1967) and Season of the Sun (1956). He died on October 4, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.
39. Bimal Roy
Director | Bandini
Bimal Roy (July 12, 1909 - January 8, 1966) was an Indian film director. He is particularly noted for his realistic and socialistic films such as Do Bigha Zamin (1953), Bandini (1963), Biraj Bahu (1954), Madhumati (1958) which he employed to portray realism. He won a number of awards throughout his...
40. Samira Makhmalbaf
Director | Panj é asr
Samira Makhmalbaf Filmmaker
Born on February 15,1980 in Tehran. At the age of eight, she played in "The Cyclist" directed by her father, Mohsen Makhmalbaf the celebrated Iranian filmmaker.
At the age of 17, she directed her first feature titled "The Apple" and She went on to become the youngest ...
41. Shôhei Imamura
Director | Kuroi ame
Shohei Imamura's films dig beneath the surface of Japanese society to reveal a wellspring of sensual, often irrational, energy that lies beneath. Along with his colleagues Nagisa Ôshima and Masahiro Shinoda, Imamura began his serious directorial career as a member of the New Wave movement in Japan....
42. Scud
Writer | An fei ta ming
Danny Cheng Wan-Cheung, known by the stage name Scud Cheng, is a Hong Kong director. He was born in Guangzhou and moved to Hong Kong with his family at the age of 13 and spent his youth in part-time study. After getting a degree in computers from the Open University of Hong Kong and working in the ...
43. Gregg Araki
Writer | Mysterious Skin
Gregg Araki was born on December 17, 1959 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a writer and director, known for Mysterious Skin (2004), White Bird in a Blizzard (2014) and Kaboom (2010).
44. Lino Brocka
Director | Gumapang ka sa lusak
Lino Brocka was born on April 7, 1939 in Pilar, Sorsogon, Luzon, Philippines. He was a director and writer, known for Dirty Affair (1990), Bayan Ko (1984) and Dipped in Gold (1970). He died on May 22, 1991 in Quezon City, Philippines.
45. Q. Allan Brocka
Writer | Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in All the World
Q. Allan Brocka's work as a director and screenwriter spans a range of genres in television, animation, live action, documentary, commercial, and feature film. He is best known as the creator, director and showrunner of Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in All the World, a prime time animated ...
46. Quentin Lee
Producer | Last Summer of Nathan Lee
Born and raised in Hong Kong, Quentin Lee first moved to Montreal, Canada, for high school and then went to UC Berkeley for his B.A. in English, Yale University for his M.A. in English and the UCLA School of Theater, Film & TV for his M.F.A. in Film Directing in the 90s. A double immigrant and an ...
47. Simon Chung
Director | Innocent
Simon Chung is known for Innocent (2005), End of Love (2008) and I Miss You When I See You (2018).
48. Kinji Fukasaku
Director | Batoru rowaiaru
Kinji Fukasaku was born on July 3, 1930 in Mito, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Battle Royale (2000), Fall Guy (1982) and Crest of Betrayal (1994). He was married to Sanae Nakahara. He died on January 12, 2003 in Tokyo, Japan.
49. Im Kwon-taek
Director | Chunhyangdyun
Born in Changsong, Cheollanam-do, 2 May 1936. He grew up in the southern city Kwangju, where he completed senior high school. His family suffered considerable hardships and losses in the Korean War, so he had to move to Pusan in search of work: he was a labourer before trying to start a business ...
50. Hideo Gosha
Director | Goyôkin
Hideo Gosha was born on February 26, 1929 in Akasaka, Tokyo, Japan (undisclosed). He was a director and writer, known for The Steel Edge of Revenge (1969), Yôkirô (1983) and Onimasa (1982). He died on August 30, 1992.
51. Keisuke Kinoshita
Writer | Nijûshi no hitomi
Keisuke Kinoshita was born on December 5, 1912 in Hamamatsu, Shizuoka, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for Twenty-Four Eyes (1954), The Ballad of Narayama (1958) and The Garden of Women (1954). He died on December 30, 1998 in Tokyo, Japan.
52. Hiroshi Teshigahara
Director | Suna no onna
Hiroshi Teshigahara was born the son of Sofu Teshigahara who was the founder of the Sogetsu School of Ikebana (flower arrangement). In 1950, he graduated from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music in oil painting. In 1958, he became the director of Sogetsu Art Centre and took a ...
53. Seijun Suzuki
Director | Tsigoineruwaizen
Seijun Suzuki was born in Nihonbashi, Tôkyô, on May 24, 1923. In 1943, he entered the army to fight at the front. In 1946, he enrolled in the film department of the Kamakura Academy and passed the assistant director's exam. For the next few years, he worked as an assistant director at several ...
54. Koreyoshi Kurahara
Director | Nankyoku monogatari
Koreyoshi Kurahara was born on May 31, 1927 in Kuching, Sarawak, Malaysia. He was a director and writer, known for Antarctica (1983), Eight Below (2006) and Kaitei kara kita onna (1959). He was married to Yumiko Miyagino. He died on December 28, 2002 in Yokohama, Japan.
55. Ferzan Özpetek
Director | La finestra di fronte
He is a Turkish-Italian director, screenwriter and writer. In 1976, he first went to Perugia Foreigners University in Italy, learned Italian for a year, and then transferred to Rome La Sapienza University to study cinema. After completing his education there, he went to Accademia Navona and ...
56. Brillante Mendoza
Director | Alpha: The Right to Kill
Brillante Mendoza is a Philippine director and producer. He is the first Filipino to receive the Best Director award at Cannes for his film Kinatay in 2009. He is also the only Filipino to receive France's "Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et Lettres" (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) in ...
57. Johnnie To
Director | Hak se wooi
With over thirty directing and producing credits to his name, Johnnie To enjoyed international breakthroughs with Election (2005), Election 2 (2006) (aka "Triad Election") and Exiled (2006); those films enjoyed multiple international film festival appearances and were separately sold to more than ...
58. Tsai Ming-liang
Director | Qingshaonian Nuozha
Born in Kuching, Malaysia, he graduated from the Drama and Cinema Department of the Chinese Cultural University of Taiwan and worked as a theatrical producer and TV director. His second feature film, Vive L'Amour (1994), won the Golden Lion (best picture) at the 1994 Venice Film Festival. His ...
59. Hark Tsui
Producer | Di Renjie zhi Tongtian diguo
Tsui Hark recently became the fourth Chinese film director to join the board of judges for the 57th Cannes Film Festival in the feature films category this year.
An internationally acclaimed visionary director, Tsui started making experimental movies with 8mm film when he was only 13. After ...
60. Kaige Chen
Director | Ba wang bie ji
Kaige Chen was born on August 12, 1952 in Beijing, China. He is a producer and director, known for Farewell My Concubine (1993), The Battle at Lake Changjin (2021) and Yellow Earth (1984). He has been married to Hong Chen since 1996. They have two children.
61. Asghar Farhadi
Writer | Forooshande
Asghar Farhadi was born in 1972 in Iran. He became interested in cinema in his teenage years and started his filmmaking education by joining the Youth Cinema Society of Esfahan in 1986 where he made 8mm and 16mm short films. He received his Bachelors in Theater from University of Tehran's School of...
62. Jafar Panahi
Director | Taxi
Jafar Panahi (Born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and film editor, commonly identified with the Iranian New Wave film movement. After several years of making short films and working as an assistant director for fellow Iranian film-maker Abbas Kiarostami, Panahi achieved ...
63. Kore-eda Hirokazu
Director | Manbiki kazoku
Born in Tokyo in 1962. Originally intended to be a novelist, but after graduating from Waseda University in 1987 went on to become an assistant director at T.V. Man Union. Snuck off set to film Mou hitotsu no kyouiku - Ina shogakkou haru gumi no kiroku (1991). His first feature, Maborosi (1995), ...
64. Bahman Ghobadi
Director | Lakposhtha parvaz mikonand
Bahman Ghobadi was born in 1969 in Baneh, in the province of Iranian Kurdistan, near the Iran-Iraq border. Shortly after graduating from the National Audiovisual School, he made his first short, immediately acclaimed by the local critics. One of these short films, "Life in Fog" (1999) is even ...
65. Ishirô Honda
Director | Gojira
Influential Japanese film director born May 7th, 1911, often credited as being the father of Godzilla. His name is a combination of "I" (or Ino), meaning "boar", and "shirô," meaning fourth son in the family. Originally, the young Honda had aspirations of becoming an artist; however, as he entered ...
66. Arthur Dong
Producer | Hollywood Chinese
Arthur Dong is an Oscar®-nominated and triple Sundance award-winning filmmaker, author and curator whose work centers on Asian American and LGBTQ stories. A common theme that underscores his films is personal stories of survival and resistance set against backdrops of social and cultural ...
67. Yen Tan
Director | 1985
Yen Tan was born in 1975 in Malaysia. He is a director and writer, known for 1985 (2018), Pit Stop (2013) and Happy Birthday (2002).
68. Ramin Bahrani
Producer | 99 Homes
Ramin Bahrani was born on March 20, 1975 in North Carolina, USA. He is a producer and director, known for 99 Homes (2014), The White Tiger (2021) and Fahrenheit 451 (2018).
69. Mani Ratnam
Writer | Dil Se..
The man who revolutionized Tamil-language cinema, Mani Ratnam is the biggest director in south India and one of the most respected directors in all of India. Each of his films contain its own unique style, with beautifully photographed songs and unique back-lighting. However, his films contain ...
70. Amir Naderi
Writer | Vegas: Based on a True Story
Amir Naderi is one of the most influential figures of 20th century Persian cinema. He developed his knowledge of cinema by watching films at the theater where he worked as a boy, reading film criticism, and making relationships with leading film critics. He began his career with still photography ...
71. Lee Chang-dong
Writer | Beoning
Lee Chang-Dong was born in 1954 in Daegu, which some consider the most right-wing city in South Korea. Lee is a former high-school teacher and an acclaimed novelist. He turned to cinema when he was over 40 years old. His debut film "Green Fish" (1997) brought immediate success and critical acclaim....
72. Jon M. Chu
Director | G.I. Joe: Retaliation
Jon is an alumni of the USC School of Cinema-Television. There, he won the Princess Grace Award, the Dore Schary Award presented by the Anti-Defamation league, the Jack Nicholson directing award, and recognized as an honoree for the IFP/West program Project: Involve.
After making his student short, ...
73. PJ Raval
Director | Call Her Ganda
PJ Raval is a queer first generation Filipinx American filmmaker who examines social justice issues through the voices of queer and marginalized subjects. Named one of Out Magazine's "Out 100," Raval's feature credits include TRINIDAD (Showtime) and BEFORE YOU KNOW IT (PBS), a film about three gay ...
74. Masahiro Shinoda
Director | Shinjû: Ten no Amijima
Masahiro Shinoda was born on March 9, 1931 in Gifu, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for Double Suicide (1969), Chinmoku (1971) and Ballad of Orin (1977). He has been married to Shima Iwashita since 1967. They have one child.
75. Kaneto Shindô
Writer | Ichimai no hagaki
Kaneto Shindô was born on April 22, 1912 in Hiroshima, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for Postcard (2010), The Naked Island (1960) and A Last Note (1995). He was married to Nobuko Otowa and Miyo Shindo. He died on May 29, 2012 in Hiroshima, Japan.
76. Andrew Ahn
Director | Spa Night
Andrew Ahn was born on March 10, 1986 in Los Angeles, California, USA. He is a director and producer, known for Spa Night (2016), Andy (2010) and Dol (2011).
77. Waris Hussein
Director | Edward & Mrs. Simpson
Born in Lucknow, India, Waris Hussein moved to England at age nine with his parents. He later attended Cambridge and at 21 started as a trainee director with BBC, where his mother, the late Attia Hussein, worked. In addition to reading news in Hindi, she was also the station's dramatic star--...
78. Kôji Wakamatsu
Director | Jitsuroku Rengo Sekigun: Asama sanso e no michi
The pioneering Kôji Wakamatsu (born Ito Takashi) was a contemporary of Oshima Nagisa and equally controversial, yet not as famous. The man was born in Miyagi Prefecture in the north of Japan before dropping out of agricultural school, some say following a physical altercation, moving to Tokyo at ...
79. Justin Lin
Producer | Better Luck Tomorrow
Justin Lin is a Taiwanese-American film director whose films have grossed $2 billion worldwide. He is best known for his work on Better Luck Tomorrow, The Fast and the Furious 3-6 and Star Trek Beyond. He is also known for his work on television shows like Community and the second season of True ...
80. Bong Joon Ho
Writer | Snowpiercer
Bong Joon-ho is a South Korean filmmaker. The recipient of three Academy Awards, his filmography is characterized by emphasis on social themes, genre-mixing, black humor, and sudden tone shifts. He first became known to audiences and achieved a cult following with his directorial debut film, the ...
81. Isao Takahata
Director | Hotaru no haka
Isao Takahata was born on October 29, 1935 in Ise, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Grave of the Fireflies (1988), Pom Poko (1994) and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (2013). He died on April 5, 2018 in Tokyo, Japan.
82. Cary Joji Fukunaga
Producer | Beasts of No Nation
Cary Joji Fukunaga is a Japanese-American film director, screenwriter, cinematographer and producer from Oakland, California who is known for directing the James Bond film No Time to Die, Kofi, Beasts of No Nation, Jane Eyre and Sin Nombre. He co-wrote the 2017 film adaptation of the Stephen King ...
83. Makoto Shinkai
Writer | Suzume no Tojimari
Makoto Shinkai is a Japanese director, writer, producer, animator, editor, cinematographer, voice actor, manga artist and former graphic designer. Shinkai studied Japanese literature at Chuo University where he was a member of juvenile literature club where he drew picture books. In 1999, Shinkai ...
84. Ray Yeung
Director | Suk suk
Ray Yeung is known for Twilight's Kiss (2019), Front Cover (2015) and All Shall Be Well (2024).
85. Stanley Kwan
Director | Lan Yu
Stanley Kwan was born on October 9, 1957 in Hong Kong. He is a director and producer, known for Lan Yu (2001), Hold You Tight (1998) and Rouge (1987).
86. Reza Badiyi
Assistant_director | Carnival of Souls
Reza Badiyi was born on April 17, 1929 in Arak, Iran. He was a director and producer, known for Carnival of Souls (1962), Stop Susan Williams (1979) and Get Smart (1965). He was married to Tania Harley, Barbara Turner and Gwendolyn M Dennis. He died on August 20, 2011 in Los Angeles, California, ...
87. Anurag Kashyap
Producer | Gangs of Wasseypur
Anurag Singh Kashyap (born 10 September 1972) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter. Kashyap made his directorial debut with as yet unreleased Paanch, with Kay Kay Menon as the lead. As a filmmaker, he is known for Black Friday (2004), a controversial and award-winning Hindi film ...
88. Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Director | Anand
By no means is he any glamorous director, yet Hrishikesh Mukherjee is one of the most popular and beloved filmmakers in Indian cinema. His magic lay not in the glamor or largeness so often associated with cinema, but in its simplicity and warmth.
He began his career in Bombay, 1951, as an editor and...
89. Yasuharu Hasebe
Director | Sengoku rokku hayate no onnatachi
Yasuharu Hasebe was born on April 4, 1932 in Japan. He was a director and writer, known for The Naked Seven (1972), Sukeban Deka: Dirty Mary (1974) and A Gangster's Morals (1970). He was married to Takako Hasebe. He died on June 14, 2009 in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan.
90. Yasuzô Masumura
Director | Daichi no komoriuta
Born in Yamanashi, Japan, Yasuzô Masumura would become known as a maverick director whose main legacy was films portraying and promoting individualism, which was the opposite of the norm in Japanese society. He earned a law degree towards the end of World War II from Tokyo University, yet joined ...
91. Toshio Masuda
Director | Shaso
Toshio Masuda was born on October 5, 1927 in Kobe, Japan. He is a director and writer, known for Shaso (1989), Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970) and The Battle of Port Arthur (1980).
92. Peter Ho-Sun Chan
Producer | Tau ming chong
Peter Ho-Sun Chan is a Chinese film director, producer and screenwriter. Regarded as one of the most accomplished and successful Hong Kong filmmakers, Chan has directed 18 films, including the critically acclaimed Comrades, Almost a Love Story, Perhaps Love, The Warlords, and American Dreams in ...
93. Takashi Ishii
Writer | Shinde mo ii
Takashi Ishii was born on July 11, 1946 in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan. He was a writer and director, known for Original Sin (1992), Hello, My Dolly Girlfriend (2013) and Gonin Saga (2015). He died on May 22, 2022 in Tokyo, Japan.
94. Kim Ki-young
Director | Goryeo jang
Kim Ki-young was born on October 10, 1919 in Seoul, Korea. He was a director and writer, known for Goryeojang (1963), A Defiance of Teenager (1959) and The Asphalt Pavement (1964). He was married to Yu-bong Kim. He died on February 5, 1998 in Seoul, South Korea.
95. Kihachi Okamoto
Director | Nikudan
Okamoto belonged to what one colleague called "the generation where most of them got killed": the leagues of university graduates who were drafted into and sacrificed to the last years of Japan's war in the South Pacific. Okamoto was drafted during the very worst of it, in 1943, but almost alone ...
96. Kazuhiro Sôda
Producer | Seishin
Kazuhiro Sôda was born on June 12, 1970 in Ashikaga, Tochigi, Japan. He is a producer and director, known for Mental (2008), Peace (2010) and Theatre 1 (2012). He is married to Kiyoko Kashiwagi.
97. Lütfi Ö. Akad
Director | Dügün
Turkish film director, screenwriter, academician. Who directed movies from 1948 to 1990. In 1949, he debuted as a film director with Vurun Kahpeye ("Strike the Whore") an adaptation of Halide Edip Adivar's book of the same title. He became one of the pioneers of the period in the "Director ...
98. Ritwik Ghatak
Director | Jukti, Takko Aar Gappo
Ritwik Ghatak was born on November 4, 1925 in Dacca, Bengal Presidency, British India [now in Dhaka, Bangladesh]. He was a director and writer, known for Jukti, Takko Aar Gappo (1974), Musafir (1957) and The Cloud-Capped Star (1960). He was married to Surama Ghatak. He died on February 6, 1976 in ...
99. Kôzaburô Yoshimura
Director | Anjô-ke no butôkai
Kôzaburô Yoshimura was born on September 9, 1911 in Hiroshima, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Anjô-ke no butôkai (1947), A Night to Remember (1962) and Clothes of Deception (1951). He died on November 7, 2000 in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
100. Kô Nakahira
Director | Yami no naka no chimimoryo
Kô Nakahira was born on January 3, 1926 in Tokyo, Japan. He was a director and writer, known for Yami no naka no chimimoryo (1971), Ore no senaka ni hi ga ataru (1963) and Te jing 009 (1967). He died on September 11, 1978.
Tell Your Friends