We have learned the very sad news this week that Japanese splatter master Yoshihiro Nishimura has passed away at just 59 years old after a battle with cirrhosis of the liver.
The news comes courtesy of Robert Rhine from Girls and Corpses Films, the label behind Yoshihiro Nishimura’s brand new upcoming action/horror movie Geisha War.
Yoshihiro Nishimura is known for his gory blasts of insanity including Tokyo Gore Police, Helldriver, and Mutant Girls Squad, as well as the more recent film Holy Mother.
Nishimura was known by many as “the Tom Savini of Japan” thanks to his gory special effects makeup in both his own movies and countless movies made by other filmmakers.
As an effects artist, Nishimura worked on films including Suicide Club, Meatball Machine, Exte: Hair Extensions, The Machine Girl, RoboGeisha, and the list goes on and on.
Nishimura had just completed and edited his latest film Geisha War, an American/Japanese co-production between his company Eixo Film and producer Robert Rhine of Girls and Corpses Films. “I will be finalizing Geisha War in Nishimura’s memory and we will find a great distributer for this amazing film, Nishimura’s last, to show to the world,” assures Rhine.
“I am devastated by the sudden loss of my great friend Yoshihiro Nishimura who only two weeks ago was on a live Zoom call with us following the screening of our film Geisha War,“ Robert Rhine tells us. “It had been a dream of mine to work with Nishimura and I flew to Kyoto last October (with our lead actor Costas Mandylor) to film at Hikone Studios. Nishimura was a brilliant filmmaker and true artist who inspired many filmmakers, such as Quentin Tarantino. It is a great loss for the indie horror community and Nishimura’s fans around the world.”
We send our deepest condolences to Yoshihiro Nishimura’s family, friends, and fans.
