Yoshihiro Nishimura

Yoshihiro Nishimura
Nishimura at the 2010 Sitges Film Festival.
Born	(1967-04-01) April 1, 1967 (age 49) Japan
Occupation	Make-up artist Special effects Film director Screenwriter
Years active	1995 –

Yoshihiro Nishimura (西村喜廣, Nishimura Yoshihiro^?) is a Japanese film director, special effects and makeup effects artist, and a screenwriter who has worked predominantly in the horror genre. Nishimura has been described as "a legendary director and effects artist" and "the Tom Savini of Japan" with "talent to burn".

Nishimura, born on April 1, 1967, had been interested in film from childhood but a major influence on his career was a painting by Salvador Dalí with distorted human bodies that he saw when in elementary school. He majored in law in college. Nishimura has said that he doesn't watch much television or movies but reads horror magazines and gets much of his inspiration from his dreams.

He started making films while in junior high school by teaching himself about filming, lighting, special effects and modeling. In 1995 with a small crew he made the independently produced movie Anatomia Extinction (Genkai jinkō keisū). Nishimura wrote the screenplay, directed, and did the special effects. The film was shown at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival in February 1995 where it won a Special Jury Award. The film would later form the basis for Tokyo Gore Police.

For several years, Nishimura did special effects and special makeup effects for a number of movies including the controversial thriller from Sion Sono, Suicide Club, and Noboru Iguchi's 2003 comedy-romance-horror A Larva to Love (恋する幼虫, Koi-suru Yōchū^?). In 2005, he did the special effects for the science fiction horror film Meatball Machine (ミートボールマシン, Mîtobōru mashin^?) directed by Yūdai Yamaguchi and Jun'ichi Yamamoto. One review of the film says "the makeup and special effects that the film is sold on are solid. Produced on a very meager budget, the make-up appliances look great."