Naoki Katō

アブラクサスの祭

Naoki Katô

Manami Honjô, Hidetoshi Hoshida

Former punk rocker Jonen, now a Buddhist priest, seems to have lost the meaning of his life. His manic depression handicaps him further. Music seems to be the only solution for him to exorcise his demons, against all obstacles and sound volume controllers.

2045 Carnival Folklore

Naoki Katô

Ryosuke Hayashi, Junya Ishii

Like a noise rock Brave New World with echoes of Alphaville, this gorgeous black and white vision of Japan after a nuclear disaster pits chaos against control and secret agents against an oppressive government agency.

A Bao A Qu

Naoki Katô

Hideo Nakaizumi, Toshiki Hirose

Hasegawa is writing a sequel to his previous novel, based on a true character who murdered 9 people on the street, with the premise that the killer had a brother. The main character in his new novel, Harumi, drops out of high school and leads a quiet life, unable to understand his brother. He is scared that the same blood runs in his veins but is also enraged by the fact that his brother’s life is consumed as material for novels by many writers. A novelist, Hasegawa faces limitations in making being able to make fiction as real and cruel as it is in reality. Hasegawa hears from a witness how a murder happened but he cannot be sure if it is a true event or from her imagination. One day, Hasegawa encounters Harumi… This is an obscure yet attractive film that extends its style from Kurosawa Kiyoshi to David Lynch. The title, A Bao A Qu, comes from a shapeless being that earns its shape as the pilgrim of a true heart near him featured in Indian religion and The Arabian Nights.

Echo Never Goes Out

Naoki Katô

A short story by Naoki Kato produced as a part of Sendai Short Piece Film Festival's movie production project “3.11 Tomorrow”. A 3 min 11 sec piece captured in film, driving nearly 1000 km in the land of Fukushima, which also was a location for Kato's commercial movie debut “Abraxas no Matsuri”.

FRAGMENTS Tokyo murder case

Naoki Katô

Toshiyuki Ozu, Keisuke Masuda

A film unique of it's contrast, capturing a day of an ordinary college girl, eventually overwhelmed by the flooding sound of noise . The noise continues to over flood the peaceful mid day in Ikebukuro public park, until it is shut down by an arrival of a sudden unexpected death. The sound continues to resonate within each and everyone who was at the spot, even after the noise had died out.