An Evening with an Independent Kaiju Filmmaker and a Tsuburaya Productions Star!

Minoru Kawasaki and Shota Minami. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Earlier tonight (Wednesday, May 3), I attended a special event with independent filmmaker Minoru Kawasaki and actor Shota Minami. It's currently Golden Week in Japan, and the trains were absolutely packed with holidaymakers on the way there. I didn't think things would be so busy!

I arrived late to the event, and the guests were already signing autographs. When Kawasaki-san saw me, he recognized me and waved at me. He asked Minami-san if he knew me, but Minami-san didn't and greeted me as someone he was meeting for the first time. More on that a bit later.

Minoru Kawasaki's keychain gift. Photo by Brett Homenick.

After signing autographs and posing for pics, it was time for the social gathering. Kawasaki-san offered a variety of keychains featuring his likeness from the time he was a boy. I chose the one above. As I recall, the photo was taken when he was in elementary school.

Minoru Kawasaki holds his Suddenly Young Guy pamphlet. Photo by Brett Homenick.

One other interesting item Kawasaki-san pulled out was this Toho-style pamphlet of an amateur movie he made in 1985 -- Suddenly Young Guy. I had a chance to thumb through it, and it was really well done. It really captured the style of the Showa-era Toho pamphlets really well.

Most of the conversation focused on a variety of tokusatsu topics. Kawasaki-san asked me who my favorite tokusatsu actress was, figuring it must be Kumi Mizuno. I told him it was actually Yumi Shirakawa, which prompted Kawasaki-san to discuss not only Shirakawa-san's other tokusatsu roles (especially The Mysterians and The H-Man) but also the career of Hideaki Nitani, her late husband.

We also talked about Tadao Nakamaru, Hiroshi Fujioka, and numerous other topics. It was a fun chat, and I really appreciate the attention Kawasaki-san showed me this evening.

Shota Minami. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Also on hand was Shota Minami. Minami-san played Rei in the TV series Ultra Galaxy Mega Monster Battle: Never Ending Odyssey (2008–09), as well as Mega Monster Battle: Ultra Galaxy Legends - The Movie (2009). Toward the end of the evening, I had the opportunity to pull out the photo I have when he and I met at an event with Koji Moritsugu eight years ago. Suffice it to say, he was surprised to see it. Given that we'd only met once briefly almost a decade ago, it's no surprise he didn't recognize me. 

Minami-san was very friendly, and I got to hang around him much more than I did eight years ago. Overall, it was a wonderful event, and I'm quite glad I decided to go. Let's do it again soon!