Takashi Yamazaki (山崎 貴 Yamazaki Takashi?) is a Japanese filmmaker and visual effects supervisor. He is best known for multiple sci-fi movies tat use a large amount of visual effects, including Spce Battleship Yamato and Always: Sunset on Third Street. For the Godzilla series, Yamazaki directed and designed the short film Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle in 2021, and the feature film Godzilla Minus One in 2023. He also contributed to the designs of Godzilla, King Ghidorah, and Rodan of the former and Godzilla of the latter.
Filmography[]
Directing and screenwriting credits[]
- Juvenile (2000) - director, writer, and visual effects
- Returner (2002) - director, writer, and visual effects
- Always: Sunset On Third Street (2005) - director, co-writer, and visual effects
- Always: Sunset On Third Street 2 (2007) - director, co-writer, visual effects, and creature designer
- Ballad (2009) - director, writer, visual effects
- Space Battleship Yamato (2010) - director and visual effects
- Friends: Naki on Monster Island (2011)
- Always: Sunset on Third Street '64 (2012) - director, co-writer, and visual effects
- The Eternal Zero (2013) - director, co-writer, and visual effects
- Stand by Me Doraemon (2014) - co-director, writer, and visual effects
- Parasyte: Part 1 (2014) - director, writer, visual and special effects
- Parasyte: Part 2 (2015) - director, writer, visual and special effects
- Fueled: The Man They Called Pirate (2016) - director, writer, and visual effects
- The Great War of Archimedes (2019) - director, writer, and visual effects
- Dragon Quest: Your Story (2019) - co-director and writer
- Lupin III: The First (2019) - director and writer
- Stand by Me Doraemon 2 (2020) - co-director
- Godzilla the Ride: Giant Monsters Ultimate Battle (2021) - director and creature designer
- Godzilla Minus One (2023) - director, writer, visual effects, and creature co-designer
- Ultraman the Ride: The Great Duel of the Century (2023)
- Untitled Godzilla film (TBA)
Special effects credits[]
- The Drifting Classroom (1987)
- A Taxing Woman's Return (1988)
- Sweet Home (1989)
- Daibyonin (1993)
- Uneasy Encounters (1994)
- Eko Eko Azarak: Wizard of Darkness (1995)
- A Quiet Life (1995)
- Eko Eko Azarak II: Birth of the Wizard (1996)
- Supermarket Woman (1996)
- Parasite Eve (1997) - visual effects and storyboarder
Trivia[]
- Prior to his partnership with Toho, Yamazaki designed his own computer-generated version of Godzilla for his 2007 film Always: Sunset on Third Street 2, based on the design from the 2001 film Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah. This Godzilla makes a cameo in the film.
- Godzilla Minus One is the first film Yamazaki and his crew won an Academy award for, specifically for Best Visual Effects.