In between actor Koji Shimizu (left) and cinematographer Masao Nakabori.
Earlier this evening, I attended a special celebration of the late director Akio Jissoji, whose work spanned everything from the Ultra-series to the big-budget fantasy Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis (1988).
Masao Nakabori. Photo by Brett Homenick.
Masao Nakabori is a noted cameraman whose career dates back to the glory days of Tsuburaya Productions, including Ultra Seven (1967-68) and Ultraman Taro (1973-74). His other credits include Silver Kamen (1971-72), Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis, Ultra Q: The Movie (1990), and Hirokazu Koreeda's Maborosi (1995).
Nakabori-san is a true genre legend, and I was privileged to meet him. I was pleased to find that he was approachable and eager to talk about his work. I was particularly interested in hearing about his commercial work with Akio Jissoji on Nikka from the Barrel commercials.
Koji Shimizu. Photo by Brett Homenick.
Also on hand was Koji Shimizu. Shimizu-san played the villainous Mushitaro Kuri in episode 4 of Ultraman Ace (1972-73), one of my favorite episodes of any of the Ultra-series. He also played Katsusuke Atobe in Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha (1980) and Isao Akiba in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003). On TV, he was a regular on the Super Sentai series Choushinsei Flashman (1986-87), portraying the evil Great Doctor Lie Köpflen.
I spent much more of the evening in Nakabori-san's company, but I certainly enjoyed my encounter with Shimizu-san. I first saw his guest appearance on Ultraman Ace in 2005, and it's a performance I've always remembered. I'm glad to have had a chance to tell Shimizu-san how much I enjoyed it.
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