About the Ishii-gumi
Ishii-gumi is an independent filmmaking collective founded in 1992 by actor Seiichi Ishii, who was then a member of the Seinenza Theatre Company.
He brought together fellow actors and artists to create films independently.
Director Seiichi Ishii also wrote the screenplays for the group’s original films, RESERVE and BOURBON, as well as a number of short films shot on video cameras.
For their third film, WIND BLOWS, Ishii deliberately chose the demanding 8mm film format, driven by his desire to capture the unique texture and tactile quality of film.
In 2004, after overcoming countless difficulties and spending four years from the initial conception of the project, Ishii-gumi completed its first full-length feature film, OTOKO-TACHI NO KYO.
The film was selected for the 2004 Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival, where it received a World Premiere screening. Although it did not make the competition lineup, it ranked fourth in the festival’s audience popularity poll, performing remarkably well against the three commercial films that occupied the top three positions.
Representative of Ishii-gumi / Screenwriter & Director: Seiichi Ishii
OTOKO-TACHI NO KYO
SAMURAI MAD FELLOWS
Feature Film | Japan | 2004
OTOKO-TACHI NO KYO is Ishii-gumi’s first feature film, an independently produced work created over four years by writer-director Seiichi Ishii and his filmmaking collective.
Completed in 2004, the film premiered at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival 2004, where it was presented as a World Premiere. Although it narrowly missed the competition lineup, it ranked fourth in the festival’s audience popularity poll, competing alongside three commercial productions.
The film subsequently received an official invitation to the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival 2004 in South Korea, marking Ishii-gumi’s first international festival appearance. It was also presented at FILMART Hong Kong 2004.
In Japan, the film opened theatrically in 2005 at Fantastic Theater in Yurakucho, Tokyo, setting an attendance record for the venue. It later enjoyed a successful late-night theatrical run at Cinema Artone Shimokitazawa, followed by encore screenings and special engagements at other venues.
Produced within Japan’s emerging independent digital cinema movement of the early 2000s, OTOKO-TACHI NO KYO represents Ishii-gumi’s determination to create uncompromising genre cinema outside the conventional studio system.
The film was subsequently released on home video in 2006.
OCHIMUSHAGARI
The Hunt for the Fallen Samurai
Short Film | Japan | 2026
Japan, 1582.
Only eleven days have passed since the Honno-ji Incident, the upheaval that shook the country and altered the course of Japanese history.
In the aftermath of the chaos, fallen warriors are hunted down across the countryside.
OCHIMUSHAGARI takes place just five minutes before the events of Ishii-gumi’s forthcoming feature GAMUSHARA. Conceived as “Episode Zero” of the feature, the short introduces the world, atmosphere, and characters that will lead directly into the larger story.
Rather than presenting the Sengoku period as romanticized swordplay, Ishii-gumi seeks a raw and visceral vision of a society in which survival could depend on a single decision.
Historical authenticity is pursued not as museum-piece reconstruction, but as a means of making the audience feel the physical reality of the era—its danger, uncertainty, brutality, and human desires.
OCHIMUSHAGARI is both a standalone short film and the first spark of Ishii-gumi’s return to filmmaking after two decades.
OCHIMUSHAGARI the short film teaser
GAMUSHARA
Feature Film | Japan | In Development
Japan, 1582. Eleven days after the Honno-ji Incident.
The country is descending into chaos.
Power has shifted. Loyalties are uncertain. Samurai and commoners alike are forced to navigate a world in which yesterday’s rules no longer apply.
Set just eleven days after the Honno-ji Incident, GAMUSHARA is a historical action drama written and directed by Seiichi Ishii.
But this is not a conventional samurai film.
Rather than glorifying swordplay or reproducing the familiar imagery of the Sengoku period, GAMUSHARA focuses on the people caught inside the violence of history—their ambitions, fears, loyalties, desires, and desperate attempts to survive.
At the heart of the film is Ishii’s distinctive dialogue-driven drama, in which tension builds not only through physical confrontation but through words, choices, deception, and the constant possibility of betrayal.
The action is intended to feel immediate and physical: not stylized chanbara, but a visceral struggle in which every encounter carries the possibility of death.
While grounded in the historical atmosphere of sixteenth-century Japan, GAMUSHARA is not bound by historical orthodoxy. Ishii-gumi approaches the period as a cinematic world in which history and imagination can collide.
The result is intended to be a visceral, contemporary period film—one that uses the chaos of the Sengoku era to ask a question that remains urgently relevant today:
How do we live in a world where anything can happen?
GAMUSHARA marks the return of Ishii-gumi after a twenty-year hiatus and represents the collective’s ambition to bring its uncompromising independent filmmaking spirit to an international audience.
Please feel free to contact "Ishii-gumi" via email or the contact form below regarding our productions and activities.
We are also constantly seeking individuals interested in filmmaking, as well as volunteer staff to assist with activities such as filming and pre-production preparations.
We look forward to hearing from you!