Yūdai Yamaguchi

is a Japanese film director who has worked mainly in the comedy and horror genres. He has "made a name for himself by mixing goofy gore with manga-esque escapades and plain utter weirdness".

Life and career Yamaguchi was born in 1971 and attended the . After graduation he won a number of awards at independent film festivals. In 2000 he co-wrote (with director Ryuhei Kitamura) the action-horror film Versus (VERSUS ヴァーサス) starring Tak Sakaguchi. Yamaguchi was also a second-unit director on the movie.

He made his debut as a feature film director with Battlefield Baseball released theatrically in July 2003. This horror-sports-comedy again starred Tak Sakaguchi and the film won the Grand Prize at the 14th Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival held in February 2003. Yamaguchi was a guest at the festival. In late 2004, Yamaguchi was one of the directors of Takashi Shimizu's comedy-horror TV series .

As with Battlefield Baseball, his next feature, Cromartie High - The Movie from July 2005, was based on a manga series (Cromartie High School). This episodic comedy, which made its New York premiere at the 2006 New York Asian Film Festival, revolves around the hapless Cromartie High with a student body composed of thugs, yakuza look-alikes, a giant, a gorilla and an obnoxious robot. Kamiyama, seemingly the only normal student, tries to improve things - but then the aliens invade.

Yamaguchi's September 2006 film Meatball Machine, which he co-directed with Jun'ichi Yamamoto based on an earlier film by Yamamoto, has aliens taking over human bodies and turning them into bio-mechanical monsters. In August 2008, Yamaguchi released Tamami: The Baby's Curse, a horror story about a monster-baby which is a more subdued work than his previous manic comedy efforts.

In a change of pace, Yamaguchi left the horror aspects behind to direct a straight comedy in the February 2009 release Elite Yankee Saburo with special makeup effects by Yoshihiro Nishimura. The film followed a Japanese TV comedy shown on TV Tokyo in 2007 which was itself based on a manga by Shuji Abe about a nerdy boy entering high school who because his older brothers were delinquents is also labeled a troublemaker - an "elite yankee". The movie retained the original cast from the TV series including lead actor Hideo Ishiguro.

Filmography Year Title (English) Title (Original) Occupation 2000 Versus VERSUS ヴァーサス (VERSUS Vāsasu) Writer 2002 Alive ALIVE アライヴ (ALIVE Araivu) Writer 2003 3 On 3 スリー・オン・スリー (Surii On Surii) Writer 2003 Battlefield Baseball 地獄甲子園 (Jigoku Kōshien, "Hell Stadium") Director-Writer 2004 Hole (1 of 4 parts) 穴 (Ana) Director 2004 Babaa Zone 漫☆画太郎SHOW ババアゾーン (Man*Ga Tarou Show: Babaa Zōn) Director 2005Cromartie High - The Movie 魁!!クロマティ高校 THE★MOVIE (Sakigake!! Kuromati Kōkō the Movie, "Charge! Cromartie High School: the Movie") Director 2005 Kazuo Umezu's Horror Theater: Present 楳図かずお恐怖劇場 プレゼント (Umezu Kazuo: Kyōfu gekijō - Purezento) Director 2006 Meatball Machine ミートボールマシン (Mītobōru Mashin) Director 2006 Ten Nights of Dreams (episode: The Tenth Dream) 夢十夜 (Yume jūya) Director 2008 Tamami: The Baby's Curse 赤んぼ少女 (Akanbo shōjo, "Baby Girl") Director 2009 Elite Yankee Saburo 激情版 エリートヤンキー三郎 (Gekijōban: Eriito Yankii Saburō, "Elite Yankee Saburo: the Movie") Director 2011 Yakuza Weapon 極道兵器 (Gokudô Heiki) Director-Writer 2011 Deadball デッドボール (Deddobōru) Director 2022 1%er: One-Percenter 1%er Director