is a Japanese mainstream film and

adult video Pornographic films (pornos), erotic films, sex films, and 18+ films are films that present sexually explicit subject matter in order to arouse and satisfy the viewer. Pornographic films present sexual fantasies and usually include eroticall ...

(AV) director. Over a career of more than 20 years in adult entertainment, he directed in excess of 200 adult videos.

Life and career

Adult video (AV) director

Morikawa started directing adult videos at least as early as 1989 with starring Asako Sakura for the

Alice Japan was established on April 5, 1986, as the adult video (AV) label for Japan Home Video (JHV). Company information The early AVs produced by JHV went under the Penguin (ぺんぎん) label, the first title being the 30-minute-long softcore ''Asobin ...

studio. In addition to Alice Japan, throughout the decade of the 1990s, Morikawa also directed AVs for several other "Viderin" companies including

VIP A very important person or personage (VIP or V.I.P.) is a person who is accorded special privileges due to their high social status, influence or importance. The term was not common until sometime after World War 2 by RAF pilots. Examples incl ...

Atlas21 , formerly known as VIP, is a Japanese adult video company with headquarters in Tokyo, Japan. Company information VIP The AV company was founded in June 1981 and issued its first video, titled , in December of that same year making it one of t ...

, h.m.p., Kuki, Media Station and

Max-A is a Japanese adult video (AV) studio which is especially known for videos made under its Samansa ("Samantha") and Calen ("Karen") labels which produced a number of innovative and quality AVs in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Company informatio ...

. During this time, he worked with early

AV Idol An or is a type of pornographic film actress in Japan. It is a sub-category of the idol culture in Japanese pop entertainment. AV idols work in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances ...

Rui Sakuragi , is a former Japanese AV Idol, gravure idol and erotic dancer who has been described as a "real AV Queen", the "top Japanese AV idol of the mid-1990s" and the "biggest star" in AV in 1992. She has also appeared widely in mainstream films and vide ...

, Aika Miura,

Yuri Komuro (born July 28, 1976 in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan) is a Japanese actress, author and former AV idol. She was one of the top actresses in the AV field during the late 1990s and in her dominant period from 1996 to 1999 was called "The AV Queen". ...

and

Bunko Kanazawa is a Japanese adult film actress, who was mostly active in the late 1990s and early 2000s. She has been called "one of the biggest AV idols in Japan". Life and career Debut—Cosmos Plan Bunko Kanazawa was born April 4, 1979 in Kanagawa prefe ...

. Outside the AV industry, Morikawa was credited as planner for

Rokurō Mochizuki is a Japanese film director who has worked in pink film, adult videos and mainstream cinema. He won the award for Best Director at the 19th Yokohama Film Festival for ''Onibi (film), Onibi'' and ''A Yakuza in Love''. Life and career Early career ...

's 1991 debut mainstream film ''Skinless Night''. Also in the 1990s, Morikawa wrote and directed three softcore erotic

V-cinema Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...

works, the comedy for Daiei in September 1993, the drama in September 1998 and in February 1999 (co-written with

Masato Ishioka is a Japanese director, screenwriter and business executive who had an early career as an adult video (AV) director. Life and career Masato Ishioka was born in 1960 in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan. He attended Meiji University, graduating in 1983 ...

). Morikawa continued working with Alice Japan and Atlas21 in the 2000s but he also began directing for some of the newer independent AV studios such as

Moodyz , also known as Mr. President, is one of Japan's largest adult video (AV) producers, featuring an extensive catalog of video titles. Company information The Moodyz website, www.moodyz.com, went online in March 2000 and the company released its fi ...

SOD Sod, also known as turf, is the upper layer of soil with the grass growing on it that is often harvested into rolls. In Australian and British English, sod is more commonly known as ''turf'', and the word "sod" is limited mainly to agricult ...

and by early 2006, S1 where he became one of their leading directors. Morikawa directed videos starring a number of prominent AV actresses including

Nao Oikawa is a Japanese actress, TV personality and was also a former AV idol who was very popular in the early 2000s. Life and career Nao Oikawa was born in Hiroshima. Her family moved to Tokyo when she was a little girl. At age 18, when she graduated ...

, Kokoro Amano,

Nana Natsume is a Japanese film actress, a former AV idol and a well-known celebrity in Japan. Life and career Natsume was born on January 23, 1980 in Sakai, Osaka, Japan (Her birthdate has usually been reported as 1982 and it is still listed as such on her ...

Sora Aoi is a Japanese former AV idol, nude model, and film and television actress. Starring in more than 600 adult films between 2002 and 2011, Aoi is widely considered one of the most famous AV idols of the 2000s, with her popularity as an adult video a ...

, Sasa Handa, Kaede Matsushima and

Akiho Yoshizawa , often known simply as Acky (あっきー), is a Japanese former adult video (AV) actress, who also appeared in pink film and mainstream (non-erotic) film, as well as television. With a career spanning over more than 15 years and over 1,000 adu ...

. In 2001, he had a small role playing an AV Director in

's debut mainstream film ''

Scoutman is a 2000 Japanese film written and directed by Masato Ishioka. Plot Twenty-year-old Atsushi and his seventeen-year-old girlfriend Mari arrive in Tokyo from the suburbs with plans to marry despite their parent's objections but they are soon pull ...

'' depicting the adult video industry that both Ishioka and Morikawa worked in.

Mainstream film director

In 2008, Morikawa served as Assistant Director on Toshiyuki Morioka's film ''Koneko no namida'' released by

Kadokawa Pictures Kadokawa Daiei Studio, formerly is the film division of the Japanese company the Kadokawa Corporation. It is one of the four members of the Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan (MPPAJ), and is therefore one of Japan's Big Four film stud ...

and in 2012 made his debut as a mainstream film director (and cinematographer) with . This horror feature was a theatrical sequel to a DVD movie, ''2-channel no Noroi Gekijoban'', produced in 2011, and continues its theme of a cursed website. The film stars Mariya Suzuki from the Japanese girls singing group

AKB48 AKB48 (pronounced ''A.K.B. Forty-Eight'') is a Japanese idol girl group named after the Akihabara (''Akiba'' for short) area in Tokyo, where the group's theater is located. AKB48's producer, Yasushi Akimoto, wanted to form a girl group with it ...

and was released in Japan by JollyRoger on June 2, 2012. Morikawa continued his mainstream directing career with the February 2014 horror film , the focus of the horror being hair extensions torn from living women. The film starred another alumni of

, Tomomi Nakatsuka. At the 2015

Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival The , also sometimes called YIFFF, is held in a resort-like environment in the small town of Yūbari on the northernmost Japanese island of Hokkaidō. From 1990 to 1999, the festival was known as the Yubari International Fantastic Adventure Fil ...

, Morikawa was awarded the Grand Prize in the Off Theater Competition for his film ''Makeup Room'', detailing the offstage drama in the makeup room at the shooting of an adult video.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morikawa, Kei Japanese film directors Japanese pornographic film directors Living people Year of birth missing (living people)