Hirobumi Watanabe

Born in 1982 in Otawara Tochigi prefecture Watanabe Hirobumi graduated in Japanese literature and after graduation entered the Japan Academy of Moving Images His graduation project the 41minute film The Light Pig of August Hachigatsu no Karui Buta received the Grand Prix at the Fuji Film Lovers Festival as well as other awards In 2013 together with his brother Yuji composer of film music he created Foolish Piggies Films in his hometown of Otawara Their first production was also the debut in Watanabes feature film And the Mud Ship Sails Away which was presented at the 26th edition of the Tokyo International Film Festival and had several screenings outside Japan The film was released in Japanese theatres in December 2014 His second film 7 Days won the best film award in the Japanese Cinema Splash section of the 28th Tokyo International Film Festival He has been invited to several other festivals and won the Nippon Vision Jury Award at the 17th edition of the Nippon Connection festival Subsequently Watanabe shot at least one film a year always with his brother Watanabe Yuji as the author of the soundtrack and Bang Woohyun as director of photography However for his most recent film Im Really Good 2020 Watanabe also served as a cameraman This is also his first title in which his grandmother who died last year at the age of 102 does not appear After almost a decade of consistency more or less with the same people in front of and behind the camera Watanabes career seems to have come to a turning point