Anshul Chauhan

Last updated
Anshul Chauhan
Anshul Chauhan at JAPANNUAL 2023-portrait PNrdeg1079b.jpg
Chauhan in 2023
Born1986 (age 37–38)
Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, India
NationalityIndian
Alma mater Rashtriya Military School, Dholpur
Occupation(s)Film director, producer, screenwriter, animator
Notable work Bad Poetry Tokyo , Kontora , December
SpouseMina Moteki

Anshul Chauhan (born 1986) is an Indian film director, producer, and ex-animator in Japan. He is best known for directing films such as December (2022), Kontora (2019), and Bad Poetry Tokyo (2018). Beyond directing, Chauhan has also contributed as an animator to projects such as Final Fantasy XV , Final Fantasy VII Remake , and Tron: Uprising .

Contents

Early life and education

Chauhan was born in Mainpuri, Agra in Northern India in 1986, one day after his grandfather had passed away. [1] His father was a "strict military man" who schooled Chauhan at a military academy in Rajasthan. [2] Chauhan went to university and studied geography. [3] He later developed an interest in animation and Japanese history after being influenced by his favourite anime, Naruto . [4]

Career

After graduating, Chauhan became an animator in 2006 and animated shows such as BBC's children's show Everything's Rosie and Disney's Tron: Uprising . [5] He was also part of the production of Delhi Safari . [6] After relocating to Tokyo in September 2011, He joined Square Enix and animated for video games such as Final Fantasy XV and Kingdom Hearts III along with animating TV shows such as Transformers: Robots in Disguise. [7]

In 2016, Chauhan founded Kowatanda Films, his own production company, to start directing films. [7] Initially, he only made short films. He later went back to India to direct his first feature film with no intention to return to Japan, however, when he finished, he lost the film due to a faulty hard disk drive. [4] He later moved back to Japan and directed his first feature film, Bad Poetry Tokyo (2018), which won him the Best Narrative Feature Film at the Venice Film Week and the Grand Prix for Best Film at the Brussels Independent Film Festival. [3]

Chauhan's second feature film, Kontora (2019), was the first Japanese release to win the Grand Prix Award for Best Film at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. [8] He stated that his inspiration for Kontora was from war diaries of Japanese soldiers. [9]

In 2022, Chauhan directed his third feature film, December (2022), [10] featuring Shogen of Brillante Mendoza’s Gensan Punch . [11] December was nominated for the Kim Jiseok award at the 27th Busan International Film Festival.

Filmography

Film

As director and producer

Chauhan in an interview at the JAPANNUAL 2023 film festival for his feature film December JAPANNUAL 2023 in the Filmcasino in Vienna, Austria - Anshul Chauhan interview-talk rh PNrdeg1074.jpg
Chauhan in an interview at the JAPANNUAL 2023 film festival for his feature film December
YearTitleNotesRefs.
2012Tokyo Apple Short film
2016SoapShort film [12]
What's Left of UsShort film
2017Kawaguchi 4256Short film [12]
2018 Bad Poetry Tokyo Feature film [13]
2019 Kontora Feature film [1]
2021Leo's ReturnShort film [14]
2022 December Feature film [7]

As animator

YearTitleNotesRefs.
2011Lego Hero Factory: Savage PlanetAnimator [15]
2012 Delhi Safari Animator
Gladiators of Rome Animator
2015 Guardians of Oz Animator
2016 Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV Animator
Gantz: O Animator

Television

As animator

YearTitleNotesRefs.
2007–08Back at the Backyard Animator; 5 episodes [15]
2008 FarmKids Animator; 4 episodes
2011 Everything's Rosie Lead animator; 26 episodes
2012 Care Bears: Welcome to Care-a-Lot Animator; 26 episodes
Tron: Uprising Animator; 15 episodes
2013 Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures Animator; 11 episodes
2014–15 Transformers: Robots in Disguise Animator; layout artist; 12 episodes
2018 Record of Grancrest War Animator; 3 episodes

Video games

YearTitleNotesRefs.
2012 UFC Undisputed 3 Animator [15]
Skylanders: Giants Animator
2016 Final Fantasy XV Animator
2019 Kingdom Hearts III Animator
2020 Final Fantasy VII Remake Animator

Related Research Articles

<i>A Page of Madness</i> 1926 film

A Page of Madness is a 1926 Japanese silent experimental horror film directed by Teinosuke Kinugasa. Lost for 45 years until it was rediscovered by Kinugasa in his storehouse in 1971, the film is the product of an avant-garde group of artists in Japan known as the Shinkankakuha who tried to overcome naturalistic representation. The film is set in a mental institution in contemporary Japan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sion Sono</span> Japanese filmmaker, author, and poet (born 1961)

Sion Sono is a Japanese filmmaker, author, and poet. Best known on the festival circuit for the film Love Exposure (2008), he has been called "the most subversive filmmaker working in Japanese cinema today", a "stakhanovist filmmaker" with an "idiosyncratic" career.

Polygon Pictures, Inc. is a Japanese 3DCG animation studio.

<i>Of the Flesh</i> 1983 Filipino film by Marilou Diaz-Abaya

Of the Flesh is a 1983 Philippine horror drama film directed by Marilou Diaz-Abaya. It was adapted and written by Ricky Lee from the legal story "To Take a Life" by Teresa Añover Rodriguez and produced by Benjamin G. Yalung. Set in the 1930s, during the American colonial era, it tells the story of a newly-wed couple Narcing and Puring who arrive from Manila in the town of Mulawin, a place filled with violent and tragic pasts, a place likened to Hell by its storyteller, played by Charito Solis. Settling in Mulawin, they will witness misfortunes and violence, including rape, incest, parricide, and tyranny perpetrated by the cruel Gusting.

Lee Dong-eun is a South Korean film director and screenwriter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mikhail Red</span> Filipino filmmaker

Mikhail Red is a Filipino filmmaker. He is best known for his films Birdshot (2016), Eerie (2019), and Dead Kids (2019), which was the first ever Netflix original film from the Philippines.

<i>Me and the Cult Leader</i> 2020 Japanese documentary film

Me and the Cult Leader (Aganai) is a 2020 Japanese documentary film. The film follows the director, Atsushi Sakahara, a victim of the 1995 Tokyo Subway Sarin Gas Attack, and Araki Hiroshi, a current executive member of the doomsday cult Aleph behind the attack, as they travel to their hometowns in the Kyoto prefecture. It premiered at the Sheffield Doc Fest as part of its Ghosts and Apparitions strand.

Daisuke Miyazaki is a Japanese film director and screenwriter.

A Pencil to the Jugular is a 2021 Mexican-Australian drama film set during the COVID-19 lockdowns in Melbourne. It is the second installment in a 2020 trilogy of feature films directed by Matthew Victor Pastor. The film premiered at the 43rd Moscow International Film Festival in April 2021. The film was co-written by Lorena Zarate.

<i>Gensan Punch</i> 2021 Philippine Japanese biographical film

Gensan Punch is a 2021 Philippine-Japanese sports biographical film directed by Brillante Mendoza. Starring Shogen, Ronnie Lazaro and Kaho Minami, it is based on a true story that depicts Nao Tsuyama, a disabled athlete who refuses to let his artificial leg hinder his dream to become a professional boxer. It premiered at the 26th Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) on October 9, 2021.

Junk Head is a 2021 Japanese stop motion animated science fiction film written and directed by Takehide Hori, based on his 2013 short film Junk Head 1. The film comprises some 140,000 stop-motion shots, and runs for 101 minutes. The story is set in a distant future world where humans have received longevity but lost their fertility, and are nearly extinct by population decline.

<i>Poet</i> (film) 2021 film by Darezhan Omirbaev

Poet is a 2021 Kazakhstani drama film written and directed by Darezhan Omirbaev. Based on The Author’s Evening by Hermann Hesse, the film depicts story of Didar, a poet chained to his day job in a small newspaper. While reading about a 19th century famous Kazakh poet, Makhambet Otemisuly, who was executed by the authorities, he feels deeply shaken, realizing how difficult and fragile is the life of a poet. It had its world premiere at the 34th Tokyo International Film Festival on 31 October 2021, where it won best director award.

Masateru Nagatani, known professionally as Charlie Nagatani, is a Japanese country music singer-songwriter. He started performing music with his band Charlie and the Cannonballs in 1961, which is one of the longest-running music groups in Japanese history.

Tetsuya Mariko is a Japanese film director.

<i>December</i> (2022 film) 2022 Japanese film

December is a 2022 Japanese legal drama film directed by Anshul Chauhan that stars Shogen, Megumi, and Ryō Matsuura. The film follows the subject of juvenile offenders and a girl who gets a retrial after being sentenced to life in prison for a murder she committed at the age of seventeen.

<i>Dreaming & Dying</i> 2023 Singaporean film

Dreaming & Dying is a 2023 Singaporean experimental fantasy drama film directed by Nelson Yeo. The debut feature of Yeo, the film revolves around three middle-aged friends who are meeting for the first time in years and things take a turn when something from their past resurfaces.

<i>Kontora</i> 2019 Japanese drama mystery film

Kontora(コントラ) is a 2019 Japanese drama mystery film written, directed, produced, and edited by Anshul Chauhan that stars Seira Kojima, Wan Marui, and Hidemasa Mase. Kontora is shot in black-and-white. Kontora is Chauhan's second feature film after Bad Poetry Tokyo, preceded by December.Kontora is also the first Japanese film to receive the Grand Prix award at the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival.

<i>Bad Poetry Tokyo</i> 2018 Japanese film

Bad Poetry Tokyo(東京不穏詩) is a 2018 Japanese crime drama romance thriller film written, directed, produced, and edited by Anshul Chauhan that stars Nana Blank, Kento Furukoshi, and Shuna Iijima. Bad Poetry Tokyo is Chauhan's debut film. The film is about abuse against women.

<i>No Ground Beneath the Feet</i> 2021 Bangladeshi drama film

No Ground Beneath the Feet is a 2021 Bangladeshi drama film directed by Mohammad Rabby Mridha with a screenplay by Mohammad Rabby Mridha and Nahar Mridha from a story by Fazla Rabby. Starring Mostafa Monwar, the film depicts the life of Saiful, an impoverished ambulance driver in Dhaka. The film premiered at the 26th Busan International Film Festival in 'out of competition section' on 7 October 2021, and competed for Golden Peacock Award at the 52nd International Film Festival of India in November 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shogen (actor)</span> Japanese actor (born 1978)

Shogen Itokazu (尚玄, born 20 June 1978), known mononymously as Shogen, is a Japanese actor. He is best known for his role as Nao Tsuchiyama in Gensan Punch, which had a joint win for the Kim Jiseok award with The Rapist at the 26th Busan International Film Festival.

References

  1. 1 2 Hadfield, James (18 March 2021). "Pushing against the grain of Japan's film industry". The Japan Times . Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  2. ↑ Wadhwa, Megha (18 March 2020). "An Indian take on making a Japanese film". The Japan Times . Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  3. 1 2 Aiyar, Pallavi (28 March 2020). "The Indian who made a Japanese movie". The Hindu . ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  4. 1 2 Kuwahara, Rika (18 June 2020). "An Indian Filmmaker Brings a Unique Perspective to Japanese Cinema". nippon.com. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  5. ↑ Eagen, Daniel (20 August 2023). "An Indian director's take on Japan's courtroom reality". Nikkei Asia. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  6. ↑ "Festival Scope". pro.festivalscope.com. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  7. 1 2 3 Steen, Emma (5 April 2023). "Now showing: Anshul Chauhan's 'December' is a compelling tale about grief and retribution". Time Out Tokyo. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  8. ↑ Brzeski, Patrick (13 February 2022). "Berlin: Japan-Based Filmmaker Anshul Chauhan Preps Court Room Drama 'December'". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  9. ↑ Jason, Genki (15 July 2020). "Interview with Kontora Director Anshul Chauhan [Osaka Asian Film Festival 2020]". Genkinahito. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  10. ↑ Pryor, VN (6 August 2023). "NYAFF 2023: Interview With Anshul Chauhan, Director of DECEMBER". cinapse.com. Retrieved 9 December 2023.
  11. ↑ Hopewell, John (28 April 2022). "'Gensan Punch' Star, Producer Reteam with SC Films for 'December' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety . Retrieved 10 December 2023.
  12. 1 2 Kotzathanasis, Panos (18 May 2020). "Interview with Anshul Chauhan: I think people tend to mistake love for romance". Asian Movie Pulse. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  13. ↑ Schilling, Mark (16 January 2020). "'Bad Poetry Tokyo': Indian director's first feature reveals major talent". The Japan Times. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  14. ↑ Kotzathanasis, Panos (21 August 2021). "Short Film Review: Leo's Return (2021) by Anshul Chauhan". Asian Movie Pulse. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
  15. 1 2 3 "Anshul Chauhan | Director, Producer, Animation Department". IMDb. Retrieved 11 December 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.