About Ryuhei Kitamura
Ryuhei Kitamura (北村龍平, Kitamura Ryūhei; May 30, 1969) is a Japanese film director, producer, and screenwriter. Kitamura relocated to Sydney, Australia at age 17 and attended a school for visual arts for two years. In 1997, Kitamura directed and produced the short film Down to Hell, which received a positive response from students, teachers, and an award which motivated Kitamura to seriously pursue a film career. He went on to independently finance and direct his feature film debut Versus (2000). The film proved to be successful within the film festival circuit and opened doors for Kitamura to direct more high-profile films such as Alive (2002), Sky High (2003), Godzilla: Final Wars (2004), The Midnight Meat Train (2008), No One Lives (2012), the live-action adaptation of Lupin the 3rd (2014), and several other Japanese and Hollywood productions. == Biography == === Early life === Ryuhei Kitamura was born in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. Kitamura spent more of his adolescent years at the cinema than school. At the age of 16, he chose to become a filmmaker since he figured he "loved watching movies." The following year, Kitamura dropped out of high school, directly telling his teacher and walking out during class, and moved to Australia a week later. Kitamura chose Australia because most of his influences are Australian, such as George Miller, Russel Mulcahy, Peter Weir, and INXS. Kitamura attended a school for visual arts in Sydney for two years, after he directly asked the principal to simply let him in, "he thought that I was a funny guy, so he let me in." === Career === After graduating, he returned to Japan to establish Napalm Films, his independent production studio. His featurettes Down to Hell and Heat after Dark were successful in film festivals, and he soon found his first mainstream success with the cult film Versus.
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