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BIO

KEN IMAI

A video artist focused on underground cultures.

A space geek & music geek
A professional skier in Japan in the past, simultaneously I established Japanese first riders-leading film company "Dominant Films"
and launced 6 movies as a director and a videographer.
After breakup, I participated in "Seven Samurai", Japanese snowboard crew leading by 5 Olympians and released 2 movies.
Recent year I have focused on making music videos with CG.

At the beginning, I made VFX movies, but one time,

I knew Japanese style animation could be made by using current CG technology. I'm working on creation to explore the possivility.

In 2015, My first CG animation with Cel shading, "LED ROCK" was selected by 6 film festivals around the world.

2nd Phase: 

Snowboard Movies / Seven Samurai

I made snowboard movies with Seven Samurai Entertainment,includes world famous Kazu Kokubo, 

Takaharu Nakai and 3 more Olympians.

# 008

2009

Solitary Island

Kazu Kokubo / Takaharu Nakai

Masaomi Harada / Daisuke Murakami

Fumiyuki Murakami / Akihiro Sato

Yuta Kiyohara / Kohei Kudo

Hiroumi Fujimoto / Masai

# 007

2008

The Catcher on the Line

Kazu Kokubo / Takaharu Nakai / Masaomi Harada / Daisuke Murakami / Fumiyuki Murakami / Akihiro Sato

Yuta Kiyohara / Hiroumi Fujimoto

Masai / Kohei Kudo

My Work

3rd Phase: Music Videos

I shifted my style from live action to 3DCG.

​I explore the possibility of Japanese-style CG Animation

HIFANA_MEC.png

# 011

2019

TEJIME

Directed by Ken Imai

Charecter Design: MAHARO

All CG Works: Ken Imai
Huge Mecha design: TKO

# 010

2015

LED ROCK

Directed by Ken Imai

Charecter Design: TKO

Visual Effects: Takumi Yuto

Robot Design & All CG Works: Ken Imai

The first CG animation and

the first film festival exhibition.

Election to Official Selection 

at Film Festival in 6 overseas cities.

​Participated in the Manchester Film Festival.

# 009

2013

Return of the Golden Age

Directed by Ken Imai

Cast: DJ Yasa, DJ HI-C, Neil Hartmann

Cinematography: Tack Narita, Nobuhiko Tamaki

All CG Works: Ken Imai

After CG introduction, the first music video.

Besides being recorded on DVD, it was screened in over dozen cities in Japan.

1st Phase:

Ski Movies / Dominant Films

The origin of video production

I established "Dominant Films" with Nobuhiko Tamaki

and we released 6 ski movies.

We were making movies while acting as professional skiers.

# 006

2007

Stone Cold

Directed by Ken Imai & Nobuhiko Tamaki

Nobuhiko Tamaki / Daisuke Nishikata Shoya Okazaki / Taisuke Kusunoki Yuta Ueno / Hirofumi Ishikawa Keiji Saito

# 005

2006

Hey! Dude

Directed by Ken Imai & Nobuhiko Tamaki
Nobuhiko Tamaki / Taisuke Kusunoki
Shoya Okazaki / Yuta Ueno
Yuki Ikeda / Jo Kikuchi

# 004

2005

Never Mind

Directed by Ken Imai & Nobuhiko Tamaki
Shoya Okazaki / Daisuke Nishikata / Yuta Ueno
Nobuhiko Tamaki / Naoki Sekizuka
Hirofumi Ishikawa / Yusaku Araki
Toru Tachibana / Taisuke Kusunoki
Kentaro Tsuda / Ken Imai / Naoyuki Okumura
Ryuta Iwasaki / Katsumi Honma / Shinji Osada

# 003

2004

Good Bye to your Ski Movies

Directed by Ken Imai & Nobuhiko Tamaki
Nobuhiko Tamaki / Shoya Okazaki
Daisuke Nishikata / Junpei Endo
Naoki Sekizuka / Keiji Saito
Shinji Osada / Taisuke Kusunoki
Yosuke Nagahama / Yuta Ueno

# 002

2003

One on the Ground

Directed by Ken Imai & Nobuhiko Tamaki
Nobuhiko Tamaki / Shoya Okazaki
Daisuke Nishikata / Naoki Sekizuka
Ken Imai / Keiji Saito / Shimo
Yosuke Nagahama / Hirofumi Ishikawa

# 001

2002

Act Fore

Nobuhiko Tamaki / Ken Imai Keiji Saito

Takuya Nakagawa Hirofumi Ishikawa

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