Japanese director Takashi Shimizu's first experience in film was working part-time at a Kyoto movie theater, while writing scripts in his spare time. Several years of freelancing as an assistant director followed and in 1997 he enrolled at the Film School of Tokyo.

A short film project he did for school attracted the attention of director Kyoshi Kurosawa and screenwriter Hiroshi Takashi. They introduced him to producer Taka Ichise, who had been asked to produce a series of horror stories for a cell phone company. He asked the young director to give him some ideas of what might scare him and this process launched the beginning of the Ju-on horror movie series.

Four Japanese Ju-on movies later, Shimizu directed his first American-produced feature -- The Grudge (2004), an English-language version of his hit film, Ju-on: The Grudge -- starring Sarah Michelle Gellar as an American in Japan.

Shimizu won a Crystal Skull Award at Screamfest for Ju-on: The Grudge (2003). 

Credit: tribute.ca