After graduating from high school, he saved money to make films by working as a construction worker and a truck driver, using his childhood friends as actors. For three years, using an 8mm camera, he spent his weekends making his first film, Above the Clouds, which was released independently in 2003. With the 1,500,000 yen he won from an award for this film, together with Toranosuke Aizawa he wrote Off... see more