Meet Yuto Shimizu

 

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Yuto Shimizu. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Yuto below.

Yuto, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.

As a filmmaker, the word “suicide” has always been constant in my career, and that feeling continues to stay with me. When I express this, it often carries a negative connotation, but I believe that the phrase “I want to die” has a dual meaning—it is simultaneously an expression of the desire to live. Just as people say that the opposite of love is not hate but indifference, I believe that the opposite of suicide desire is also indifference—that is, living each day without thinking about anything at all. A life that is aware of death, I believe, coexists with a strong desire to live.

There was a time when I felt utterly alone in Los Angeles, reaching my limit. One night, I drove alone into the hills where the Hollywood sign stands. I remember stopping at the edge of a cliff, gripping the accelerator, ready to press down. With music blasting, I had driven up the hill in a trance. When I finally turned off the engine and the headlights, the sudden darkness engulfed me, and in that moment, fear overtook me. Like a flashback, the faces of mentors who had helped me and people I cared about came rushing into my mind. In the end, I restarted the engine and turned back the way I came.

I understand, to some extent, the feelings of those people who want to die. The crushing pain that tightens your chest, the breathlessness, the overwhelming nausea that hits you the moment you step into your home out of sheer relief—I have experienced all of it. But in those moments, I often thought, “If I’ve gone this far, it means I actually want to live.” And I comforted myself with that realization.

That is why I don’t want to create works that simply dismiss suicide as “wrong.” If I may speak without fear of being misunderstood, I actually want my films to create a “space where suicide is allowed.” I believe that such works can serve as a refuge for those in pain—a place where they can release their suffering and frustration. If a piece of art denies their emotions, then those who are already struggling in reality might feel like they have no place left to exist. Because they cannot die in reality, I want to allow them to “die” within the realm of fiction. At the very least, that is the purpose how I, myself, want to keep shooting narrative films.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

Yuto Shimizu is a screenwriter and film director based in Tokyo and Los Angeles. As he was little, was born and raised in Gifu, surrounded by mountains and rivers, he kept shooting movies with other students by using his parents’ handycam.

Saved by movies in the past, he dropped out of high school and moved to Los Angeles at the age of 18. He graduated from Santa Monica College with a degree of film production. In Los Angeles, he wrote and directed “The Soloist (2022)” and “Vanitas (2023),” which won the Best J. Horror Award at the Japan Film Festival Los Angeles 2022. In 2023, he wrote and directed his first feature film “My Fireworks (2025)” under the producing of Ken Ochiai, which will be released in domestic theaters in June 2025 by the distribution company AYA PRO.

In 2024, he establied Tokyo-based film production campany, Arct’4 Film. In the same year, he wrote and directed his second feature film, “TOKYO NIGHTFALL (2025),” on the theme of suicide prevention, which is scheduled for completion in 2025 April.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

Human connections, Knowing oneself, observation in daily life

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

As I mentioned, I established a film production company based in Tokyo, Japan, and trying to shoot a first co-produced movie across countries. Also I would like to distribute my two feature films “My Fireworks (2024)” and “TOKYO NIGHTFALL (2025)” across different countries.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

The first 6 photos are from the behind the scene of “TOKYO NIGHTFALL (2025)”.
The main picture and the last 2 photos are from the behind the scene of “My Fireworks (2024)”.

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