Kazuaki Takano emerged from the film industry to become a bestselling author. He began making films for himself when he was only in grade school, and as an adult worked for a time under the director Kihachi Okamoto. After dropping out of university in Japan to gain first-hand experience in film and television production, he went to college in Los Angeles and worked in the movie industry there before returning to Japan. His debut as a writer came in 2001 with Jusan no kaidan (Thirteen Steps), which delves into the system of capital punishment; the novel won the Edogawa Rampo Award and sold over 400,000 copies. Jenosaido (Genocide) was short-listed for the Naoki Prize in 2011, received the 2011 Yamada Futaro Prize, and took first place in the 2012 Konomys rankings for mystery writers. Among his other works is the novel Gureibu Digga (Grave Digger), a tale of indiscriminate mass murder. He is known for producing highly entertaining blockbusters that boast a grandness of scale. |
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