is a Japanese playwright, screenwriter, actor and film director and was previously married to Japanese actress Satomi Kobayashi. He was named after '' Taihō Kōki'', the youngest sumo wrestler to become

yokozuna , or , is the top division of the six divisions of professional sumo. Its size is fixed at 42 wrestlers ('' rikishi''), ordered into five ranks according to their ability as defined by their performance in previous tournaments. This is the o ...

. He studied dramatics at

Nihon University , abbreviated as , is a private research university in Japan. Its predecessor, Nihon Law School (currently the Department of Law), was founded by Yamada Akiyoshi, the Minister of Justice, in 1889. The university's name is derived from the Ja ...

. In an attempt to add his own character to his movies, his directorial approach follows a "one scene = one shot" system, whereby he

pans Cookware and bakeware is food preparation equipment, such as cooking pots, pans, baking sheets etc. used in kitchens. Cookware is used on a Kitchen stove, stove or range cooktop, while bakeware is used in an oven. Some utensils are considere ...

the camera around as opposed to

cutting Cutting is the separation or opening of a physical object, into two or more portions, through the application of an acutely directed force. Implements commonly used for wikt:cut, cutting are the knife and saw, or in medicine and science the sca ...

. He claims this comes from his experience in theatre, where there are no cuts. Mitani does not use a computer.Tanaka, Nobuko,
Japan's Mr. Comedy
, ''

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

'', June 2, 2012, p. 7

Early life

Mitani liked watching TV dramas and puppetries of NHK in his childhood. He was especially interested in works of puppetry such as "

Shin Hakkenden is a Japanese anime is a Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. How ...

" () and '' Sangokushi'' (),

jidaigeki is a genre of film, television, and theatre in Japan. Literally meaning "historical drama, period dramas", it refers to stories that take place before the Meiji Restoration of 1868. ''Jidaigeki'' show the lives of the samurai, farmers, crafts ...

dramas such as '' Tenka Gomen'' () and '' Tenka Dōdō'' (), and

Taiga drama is the name NHK gives to the annual year-long historical drama television series it broadcasts in Japan. Beginning in 1963 with the black-and-white ''Hana no Shōgai'', starring kabuki actor Onoe Shoroku II and Awashima Chikage, the network regul ...

s such as '' Kaze to Kumo to Niji to''. Throughout his life, he has expressed interest in works starring famous detectives, such as the Sherlock Holmes series.『ユリイカ』、青土社、2014年8月増刊、148–154頁
''Eureka'' August 2014 Extra Edition", Tokyo: Seidosha, 2014, pp.148–154. He has collected numerous novel volumes,

pastiche A pastiche () is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking ...

s, and DVDs related to Sherlock Holmes, and in 2014 adapted the story into a

puppetry Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – wikt:inanimate, inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. S ...

set in a

boarding school A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...

. In his high school days, he planned to produce a film featuring a detective, loosely based on ''

And Then There Were None ''And Then There Were None'' is a mystery fiction, mystery novel by the English writer Agatha Christie, who described it as the most difficult of her books to write. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 6 N ...

'', and went on location to

Enoshima is a small offshore island, about in circumference, at the mouth of the Katase River which flows into the Sagami Bay of Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. Administratively, Enoshima is part of the mainland city of Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Fujisawa, and is ...

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

with his friends, though this film was never finished. Mitani has also stated that he enjoys foreign cinema, and is a fan of the films '' 12 Angry Men'', '' The Wages of Fear'', ''

Columbo ''Columbo'' is an American crime drama television series starring Peter Falk as Columbo (character), Lieutenant Columbo, a homicide detective with the Los Angeles Police Department. After two pilot episodes in 1968 and 1971, the show originall ...

'', and the director

Billy Wilder Billy Wilder (; ; born Samuel Wilder; June 22, 1906 – March 27, 2002) was an American filmmaker and screenwriter. His career in Hollywood (film industry), Hollywood spanned five decades, and he is regarded as one of the most brilliant and ver ...

. He has mentioned how he believes Hollywood comedy films are not as funny as those in the

Golden Age The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology, particularly the ''Works and Days'' of Hesiod, and is part of the description of temporal decline of the state of peoples through five Ages of Man, Ages, Gold being the first and the one during wh ...

and as Japanese comedy improves.

Career

Mitani's work has primarily comprised witty comedies which are often parodies. In production, he usually writes scripts visualizing actors and actresses as close to the characters. Mitani is the author of a weekly column in the ''

Asahi Shimbun is a Japanese daily newspaper founded in 1879. It is one of the oldest newspapers in Japan and Asia, and is considered a newspaper of record for Japan. The ''Asahi Shimbun'' is one of the five largest newspapers in Japan along with the ''Yom ...

'' daily newspaper in which he often discusses his favorite films, his writing process, and the actors and actresses with whom he has worked.

Works

Feature films and TV dramas

(Note: Many of Mitani's films began as successful plays.) *'' 12 Nin no Yasashii Nihonjin: 12 Gentle Japanese'' (1991) *'' Furi-kaereba Yatsu Ga Iru'' (TV) *'' Furuhata Ninzaburō'' (TV series) *''

Shinsengumi! is a 2004 Taiga drama historical fiction television series produced by Japanese broadcaster NHK. It was a popular drama about the Shinsengumi, a Japanese special police force from the Bakumatsu period. Actors include Koji Yamamoto (actor), Koji ...

'' (TV series) *'' Sōrito Yobanaide'' (TV series) *'' Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald'' (1997) *'' Minna no Ie'' aka ''Everyone's Home'' (2001) *'' Warai no Daigaku: University of Laughs'' (2004) *'' The Uchoten Hotel'' aka ''Suite Dreams'' (2006) *'' The Magic Hour'' (2008) *'' Gaki No Tsukai Silent Library'' (2008) *'' Walking, Talking'' (2011 TV movie, post-production) *'' Wagaya no Rekishi'' (2010 TV mini-series) *''

A Ghost of a Chance , also known as ''Once In a Blue Moon'' in Japan, is a 2011 Japanese comedy mystery film directed by Kōki Mitani. Plot Emi Hosho, a third-rate lawyer without much of a future, is tasked with defending Goro Yabe, a man arrested for the murder of ...

'' (''Suteki na Kanashibari'', also known as ''Once in a Blue Moon'') (2011 screenplay and direction) *''Daikūkō 2013'' (2013 TV movie) *''

The Kiyosu Conference is a 2013 Japanese period comedy film directed by Kōki Mitani. The film is based on a novel of the same name written by Mitani a year prior, itself a reference to the real-life (''Kiyosu Kaigi'') held on June 27, 1582, the first joint politi ...

'' (2013) *'' Galaxy Turnpike'' (2015) *'' Sanada Maru'' (2016 TV series) *''Fūunji tachi'' (2018 TV) *'' Kuroido Goroshi'' (2018 TV) *'' Hit me Anyone One More Time'' (2019) *'' The 13 Lords of the Shogun'' (2022 TV series) *''All About Suomi'' (2024)

Theatre

*'' The Show Must Go On'' (1991) *'' Warai no Daigaku: University of Laughs'' (2004) *'' Vamp Show'' (2006) *
Talk Like Singing
' (2009)

Puppetries

*''

The Three Musketeers ''The Three Musketeers'' () is a French historical adventure novel written and published in 1844 by French author Alexandre Dumas. It is the first of the author's three d'Artagnan Romances. As with some of his other works, he wrote it in col ...

'' *''

Sherlock Holmes Sherlock Holmes () is a Detective fiction, fictional detective created by British author Arthur Conan Doyle. Referring to himself as a "Private investigator, consulting detective" in his stories, Holmes is known for his proficiency with obser ...

Recurring cast members

Honors

* Medal with Purple Ribbon (2017) * Juzo Itami Award (2023)

Notes

External links

Mitani Koki on IMDB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitani, Koki 1961 births 21st-century Japanese dramatists and playwrights Japanese film directors Japanese film producers Japanese essayists Japanese male actors Nihon University alumni Recipients of the Medal with Purple Ribbon People from Tokyo Living people Juzo Itami Award winners