An Evening with Two Screenwriters!

 Shoichi Maruyama. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On Saturday, November 9, I immediately left work to attend another special event. This time, the guests on hand were a couple of screenwriters: Shoichi Maruyama and Hiroshi Kashiwabara.

Among Maruyama-san's scriptwriting credits are The Beast to Die (1980), The Last Hero (a.k.a. Dirty Hero, 1982), Kinji Fukasaku's The Triple Cross (1992), Rex: A Dinosaur's Story (1993), and Quill (2004). I was pleasantly surprised that Maruyama-san recognized me from our first meeting, which was about a year and a half ago.

Hiroshi Kashiwabara. Photo by Brett Homenick.

Also in attendance was Godzilla series scribe Hiroshi Kashiwabara, whose screenwriting credits include Godzilla vs. Space Godzilla (1994), Godzilla 2000 (1999), and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000). 

I spent the majority of the evening with Kashiwabara-san, and it was great talking American movies with him. And that's a wrap!

Takin' It Easy with Two Japanese Cinematic Legends

Shoichi Maruyama. Photo by Brett Homenick.

On Saturday night (April 21), I attended a dinner event with two special guests. One guest was completely new to me: screenwriter Shoichi Maruyama. Maruyama-san has enjoyed a lengthy and successful career as a screenwriter. Among his scriptwriting credits are The Beast to Die (1980), The Last Hero (a.k.a. Dirty Hero, 1982), Kinji Fukasaku's The Triple Cross (1992), Rex: A Dinosaur's Story (1993), and Quill (2004).

Maruyama-san also wrote the screenplay for Kazuki Omori's Take It Easy (1986), which was the centerpiece of the evening's event. Also in attendance was director Omori, and while the theme of the evening had nothing to do with his Godzilla films, it was still quite enjoyable.

In particular, I found Maruyama-san to be very kind. When I mentioned to him that I'd seen The Last Hero, he was genuinely surprised that I'd seen his work. We bumped into each other again on the train platform after the event, and he told me what a great time he had had that evening. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed meeting Maruyama-san and hope to get a chance to see him again in the future.