Kenji Tanigaki
Birthdate: Oct 13, 1970
Birthplace: Nara Prefecture, Japan
Kenji Tanagaki is one of the few Japanese filmmakers to have trained and developed not in the Japanese film industry but in Hong Kong, where he launched his career in 1993 as an extra and leading into martial arts fight and stunt performing and choreography based on his training in shorinji kempo and love of Chinese kung fu via the movies of Jackie Chan.
Tanagaki has been either stunt coordinator or action director since 1996 to the present in over 40 features including Donnie Yen’s Legend of the Wolf (1997), Ballistic Kiss (1998), The Twins Effect (2003), Sakra (2023) and The Prosecutor (2024); his first Hollywood movie, the Guillermo del Toro-directed Blade II (2002); Wilson Yip’s SPL: Sha Po Lang (2005) and Flash Point (2007); the Jackie Chan-starring Shinjuku Incident (2009); Andrew Lau’s Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen (2010); Soi Cheang’s The Monkey King (2014); Sion Sono’s sequel, Shinjuku Swan II (2017); 7); the Hollywood-backed sequel, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins (2021); and Soi Cheang’s Twilight of the Warriors: Walled In (2024).
Tanagaki made his feature debut as a director/writer of the Japanese martial arts movie, Master of Thunder (2006), starring Sonny Chiba and Yasuaki Kurata and released by Amuse Soft Entertainment. Tanagaki was co-director of the Hong Kong/Japanese martial arts comedy, Enter the Fat Dragon (2020), starring and produced by Donnie Yen, with Teresa Mo and Niki Chow, and grossing $5.3 million globally for Mega-Vision Pictures.
Kenji Tanagaki directed his first English-language Hong Kong action movie, The Furious (2025), co-starring Mo Tse and Joe Taslim, produced by Bill Kong, Frank Hui, and Shan Tam, premiering at the Toronto Film Festival before a wide release by producer Edko Films (Hong Kong)/Lionsgate Films (International).
Personal life
Kenji Tanagaki was born and raised by his parents in Japan’s Nara Prefecture. Tanagaki was married in the late 1990s. He and his family live in Hong Kong, where he’s lived since 1994.
Known For
Rurouni Kenshin: Final Chapter Part I - The Final
(2021)
Kenji Tanigaki Movies
director
Upcoming (1)
- 2026 |
Previous (1)
- 2020 |
Enter the Fat Dragon
A cop is assigned to a case of escorting a criminal to Japan while dealing with relationship problems, and his enormous change in appearance as a result of being dumped.
actor
Previous (5)
Facts About Kenji Tanigaki
Mentor: Kenji Tanagaki studied under the mentorship of Japanese martial arts movie star Yasaku Kurata.
Japanese in Hong Kong: Tanagaki has been a rare Japanese member of the Hong Kong Stuntmen Association.
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