Director

Takao Okawara

Directing

Career Snapshot

Explained

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Directed credits

Established

Strong directing catalog.

TMDB popularity

0.5

Low visibility

TMDB internal trend index. Higher usually means more searches and page activity now.

Directed movies: 21Directed series: 0All crew credits: 21

TMDB ID: 50651

IMDb ID: nm0645549

Known for: Directing

Born: December 20, 1949

Age: 76

Place of birth: Tokyo, Japan

Gender: Male

Adult content flag: No

Career span: 1973 - 2010

Years active: 38

Average TMDB rating: 7.22

Wikidata: Q2487109

Also known as

Ōkawara Takao • Takao Ohgawara • Takao Ookawara

Frequent jobs

Assistant Director (12)Director (7)First Assistant Director (2)

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Biography

Takao Okawara (born December 20, 1949, in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese film director, writer and producer. Most famous for his entries in the Heisei Godzilla series, Takao Okawara joined Tōhō in 1973, but would not get his first shot in the director's chair until 1980, when he joined Akira Kurosawa and Ishirō Honda on the film Kagemusha (1980). Four years later, he worked as an assistant director for the first Godzilla film of the Heisei series: The Return of Godzilla (1984). Okawara debuted as primary director seven years later on the film Reiko, the Psyche Resurrected (1991), which he also wrote. Okawara is the oldest living Godzilla film director. With Kazuki Omori's death in 2022, he also became the last living director of any pre-Millennium Godzilla movie.

Movies