While at the College of Art at Nihon University, he completed his directorial debut with “Panic High School” on 8mm film, and gained lots of fanatical fans in the process. With “Crazy Thunder Road” (1980), he became the spearhead of the Japanese New Wave. He continued to shoot fresh, avant-garde action films including “Burst City” in 1982 and “Crazy Family” in 1984.

The latter was critically acclaimed both in Japan and abroad, and won the Grand Prix at the 8th edition of the Salso Film Festival in Italy. He shot films one after another, such as the Grand Prix winner of Birmingham Film Festival, “Angel Dust,” in 1994, “August in the Water” in 1995, and the Grand Prix winner of the Oslo Film Festival, “Labyrinth of Dreams,” in 1997.

After releasing the big-budget new-type period piece “Gojoe,” in 2000, he directed “Electric Dragon 80,000 V” (2001). It overwhelmed audiences with its rapid moving images and its fast life-like rock sound, and fascinated many people as a hyper-exciting movie which transcended the genres of film that had existed to that point.

His latest film is “Mirrored Mind” (2005) which he not only directed but was producer and cinematographer.

For most of his career he has been directing original, underground films which have pushed the limits of Japanese cinema.