Yōichi Sai

Director

1949-07-06 – 2022-11-27 · Nagano, Japan

Yōichi Sai (born 6 July 1949 in Nagano Prefecture, Japan) was a Japanese film director. His mother is Japanese, His father is zainichi Korean.

His 2004 film Chi to hone won four Japanese Academy Awards, including two for Sai himself, for Best Director and Best Screenplay. He had previously received two nominations in the same categories for Tsuki wa dotchi ni dete iru. In 1999 he shot Buta no mukui (The Pig's Retribution), a film set in the lavish natural scenery of Okinawa, inspired by the 1996 Akutagawa Prize-winning eponymous novel by Eiki Matayoshi. The film won the Don Quixote prize at Locarno International Film Festival in 1999.

He won the award for Best Screenplay at the 11th Yokohama Film Festival for A Sign Days.

As an actor, he appeared in Nagisa Oshima's 1999 film Taboo. He is the current president of the Directors Guild of Japan.   

• In the Realm of the Senses (1976) — Assistant Director
• Taboo (1999) — Isami Kondo
• Blood and Bones (2004) — Director, Screenplay
• Kamui (2009) — Director, Screenplay
• Quill: The Life of a Guide Dog (2004) — Director
• Soo (2007) — Director, Writer
• The Most Dangerous Game (1978) — Assistant Director
• Doing Time (2002) — Director, Writer
• The Killing Game (1978) — Assistant Director
• The Stairway to the Distant Past (1995) — Chief of Police
• No Grave for Us (1979) — Assistant Director
• All Under the Moon (1993) — Section Chief, Director, Screenplay
• The Mosquito on the Tenth Floor (1983) — Director, Writer
• The Pig's Retribution (1999) — Director, Screenplay
• MARKS (1995) — Screenplay, Director
• Via Okinawa (1989) — Director
• The Lady in a Black Dress (1987) — Director
• Kitamura Tokoku: My Winter Song (1977) — Assistant Director
• Let Him Rest in Peace (1985) — Director
• The Glorious Asuka Gang! (1988) — Director, Screenplay
• Route 225 (2006)
• Someday, Someone Will Be Killed (1984) — Director
• Dansen (1983) — Director
• Sexual Crime (1983) — Director