is a Japanese actress, cinematographer, director and writer. Her first role was in the American film '' The Neptune Factor'', but she is perhaps best known for starring in the Japanese

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and c ...

cult film '' Tetsuo: The Iron Man''. More recently she has devoted her time to writing and directing, and is known for her surreal and violent

experimental film Experimental film or avant-garde cinema is a mode of filmmaking that rigorously re-evaluates cinematic conventions and explores non-narrative forms or alternatives to traditional narratives or methods of working. Many experimental films, parti ...

s as well as her experimental theater company Organ Vital.

Biography

Fujiwara was born into a poor family in a rural part of

Kumamoto is the capital city of Kumamoto Prefecture on the island of Kyushu, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 738,907 and a population density of 1,893 people per km2. The total area is 390.32 km2. had a population of 1,461,000, ...

in 1957, and moved to

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

in her early twenties to pursue a career in

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

. Playwright Jūrō Kara wrote roles for her to act in his plays and eventually became her mentor. She spent years creating underground theater companies, and collaborated with

Shinya Tsukamoto is a Japanese filmmaker, film producer, screenwriter, editor, director, cinematographer, art director, production designer and actor. With a considerable cult following both domestically and abroad, Tsukamoto is best known for his body horro ...

in the 1980s on the plays and 8 mm films he created. Becoming closely involved with Tsukamoto's underground theater troupe Kaijyu Theater, she took on the title of his "right hand" woman and played a contributing role in his films ''The Phantom of Regular Size'' (1986), ''The Adventure of Denchu Kozo'' (1987), and '' Tetsuo: The Iron Man'' (1989). For Tsukamoto's film '' Tetsuo: The Iron Man'', she participated both in front of the camera as the unnamed Girlfriend character, as well as behind the camera as the prop artist and one of the cinematographers. In addition, Fujiwara's apartment was used as a primary set for the film, with even her cats appearing in certain scenes. She also engineered '' Tetsuo'''s iconic phallic drill. After the production of ''Tetsuo'', she returned to underground theater and working with Jūrō Kara. She also formed the Organ Vital company, which produced the play ''Organ'' and adapted the play into the film of the same name. When interviewed, Fujiwara has said that the name "Organ Vital" comes from an Antonin Artaud book "...that featured this French term. It meant the vessels of life. When translated to English, I'm told it just becomes, 'vitals of organ,' or something, but in Japanese it is called gozōroppu and to me signifies the corporal. That's the name of my theater company, and it has always been that for me. Born into this three-dimensional world with bodies, we sense and express." Fujiwara returned again as a film actress in '' Organ,'' playing the role of Yoko, the eye-patch wearing sister of organ dealer and high school biology teacher Jun. ''Organ'' and her later 2005 film ''Ido'' never gained financial or critical success, but have become noted examples of the Japanese horror genre. She has continued producing theatre work through Organ Vital: a new "nomadic" theatre project called ''Ibunkitan'' debuted in 2019, and has been presented in shops, salons, and temples. She lives in a remote part of the

Nagano Nagano may refer to: Places * Nagano Prefecture, a prefecture in Japan ** Nagano (city), the capital city of the same prefecture *** Nagano 1998, the 1998 Winter Olympics *** Nagano Olympic Stadium, a baseball stadium in Nagano *** Nagano Universi ...

mountains and operates a cat shelter in her spare time.

Style and themes

Fujiwara's work deals with themes of morality, spirituality, fear, pain (bodily transformation and decay), and pleasure. Her films are known for their graphic depiction of gore and violence and their surreal, experimental style. She states, "I think humans, in order to live, can't cut those away from existence. If you deny desire, you're not human. The existence of such things causes our misery, too. Thus, desire and slaughter are inescapable. My fear and sorrow regarding this, and my questioning what are they anyway. That's what I wanted to portray." She cites the work of

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

novelist

Kenji Miyazawa was a Japanese novelist and poet of children's literature from Hanamaki, Iwate, in the late Taishō and early Shōwa periods. He was also known as an agricultural science teacher, a vegetarian, cellist, devout Buddhist, and utopian social act ...

and manga artists Osamu Tezuka,

Sanpei Shirato , known by the pen name , was a Japanese manga artist and essayist known for his social criticism as well as the realism of his drawing style and the characters in his scenarios. He was considered a pioneer of the controversial ''gekiga'' genre ...

, and Daijiro Morohoshi as being influential to her creative worldview.

Filmography

;As actress *'' The Neptune Factor'' (1973) *''Denchu Kozo No Boken (The Adventure of Denchu Kozo)'' (1987) *'' Tetsuo: The Iron Man'' (1989) *'' Organ'' (1996) *''Ido'' (2005) ;As director *'' Organ'' (1996) *''Ido'' (2005) As cinematographer * '' Tetsuo: The Iron Man'' (1989) * '' Organ'' (1996) * ''Ido'' (2005) As writer *'' Organ'' (1996) *''Ido'' (2005) As costume designer *''Denchu Kozo No Boken (The Adventure of Denchu Kozo)'' (1987) *'' Tetsuo: The Iron Man'' (1989)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Fujiwara, Kei Japanese actresses Living people 1957 births Japanese women film directors Place of birth missing (living people) Japanese women cinematographers Horror film directors