Kazuaki Kiriya (紀里谷 å'Œæ˜Ž, Kiriya Kazuaki), born April 20,
1968, is a Japanese photographer and director of films and music
videos. His birth name is Kazuhiro Iwashita (岩下 å'Œè£•, Iwashita
Kazuhiro). He is represented by Paradigm Agency.In 1983, in his second
year of junior high school, he moved to the United States. He attended
Cambridge High School and Northfield Mount Hermon School in
Massachusetts and then the School of Constructed Environments at
Parsons The New School for Design in New York. At first, as a student,
he aimed to enter the business world, but through the experience of
seeing others' pleasure when he communicated through drawing at times
when his English failed him, he came to be more oriented toward the
world of art. Beginning in 1994, he became involved in designing album
covers, photography, and directing music videos for many recording
artists including Hikaru Utada, SMAP, The Back Horn, Mr. Children,
Misia, Southern All Stars, GLAY, and Ayumi Hamasaki.Kiriya made his
feature film debut in 2004, writing and directing the ambitious live
action film adaptation of Casshan. The film was among the first to be
shot on a digital backlot. In 2009, he wrote and directed his second
film, Goemon (a fantasy epic based on the life of Ishikawa Goemon), in
which he also appeared in a cameo as Akechi Mitsuhide. In 2015, Kiriya
directed his first English-language film, Last Knights, a reimagining
of the legend of the forty-seven ronin.Kiriya is a vegetarian. He was
wed to Japanese pop artist Hikaru Utada from September 6, 2002, until
they divorced on March 2, 2007.
1968, is a Japanese photographer and director of films and music
videos. His birth name is Kazuhiro Iwashita (岩下 å'Œè£•, Iwashita
Kazuhiro). He is represented by Paradigm Agency.In 1983, in his second
year of junior high school, he moved to the United States. He attended
Cambridge High School and Northfield Mount Hermon School in
Massachusetts and then the School of Constructed Environments at
Parsons The New School for Design in New York. At first, as a student,
he aimed to enter the business world, but through the experience of
seeing others' pleasure when he communicated through drawing at times
when his English failed him, he came to be more oriented toward the
world of art. Beginning in 1994, he became involved in designing album
covers, photography, and directing music videos for many recording
artists including Hikaru Utada, SMAP, The Back Horn, Mr. Children,
Misia, Southern All Stars, GLAY, and Ayumi Hamasaki.Kiriya made his
feature film debut in 2004, writing and directing the ambitious live
action film adaptation of Casshan. The film was among the first to be
shot on a digital backlot. In 2009, he wrote and directed his second
film, Goemon (a fantasy epic based on the life of Ishikawa Goemon), in
which he also appeared in a cameo as Akechi Mitsuhide. In 2015, Kiriya
directed his first English-language film, Last Knights, a reimagining
of the legend of the forty-seven ronin.Kiriya is a vegetarian. He was
wed to Japanese pop artist Hikaru Utada from September 6, 2002, until
they divorced on March 2, 2007.
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