Shunji Iwai

[Robert Stuhr]

I am looking for more information about Shunji Iwai and his films. I
personally saw "Love Letter" and "Swallowtail Butterfly" on disc, none of
the films having a theatrical release in Germany. "Undo" was shown on the
Berlin Film Festival. But I don't know much about his other films and Iwai
himself. All I have is a small flyer from Hong Kong, were two feature films
and four one-hour films were shown in August at the Broadway Cinematheque.

There it says, Iwai entered TV after graduation from Yokohama University as
a director of TV dramas, MTV and commercials and made his first one-hour
drama "Fireworks" for Fuji TV. Then follows a short description of his films.

Are there any informations available in english? The IMDb doesn't have very
much on Iwai and his films.  

I noticed he has been working with cameraman Noboru Shinoda ever since
"Undo". Is there any special reason for this?
Does anybody know why Iwai cast the japanese rock and pop singer Chara in
"Picnic" and "Swallowtail"?  

Thanks for your help!

Robert Stuhr
stuhr at webtrek.de