Kiyoshi Kurosawa

The Profile

Kiyoshi Kurosawa (born 1955, Kobe) is a Japanese film director and screenwriter known for psychologically charged horror and genre-defying thrillers. He gained international recognition with Cure (1997) and Pulse (2001). Tokyo Sonata (2008) won the Jury Prize in Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival. He has taught filmmaking at Tokyo University of the Arts.

Renowned figure of J-horror; explores alienation, technology, and the uncanny; frequent collaborator with actor Koji Yakusho; internationally acclaimed for Cure and Pulse; Cannes Un Certain Regard Jury Prize for Tokyo Sonata (2008).

DeBaser’s reviewers celebrate Kurosawa’s genre-bending mastery. Cure is praised as a foundational, chilling rework of the thriller that upends logic and motive. Pulse probes death and solitude through spectral networks and emptied cities. Loft divides opinions for losing narrative focus. Barren Illusion is hailed as extreme, alienating minimalism.