Nishi-Kawaguchi is my story about an American living in Japan who gets mixed up with a crooked loan shark. Martial Arts with some humor but I also want some drama!
Nishi-Kawaguchi is the city my partner Becca and I lived in while we were teaching English in Japan, it’s in Saitama Prefecture. It really is a wonderful place that has anything and everything we ever dreamed of. It is unfortunate that I am exploiting one of the more popularized, although over-hyped perspectives of Nishi-Kawaguchi, the Yakuza presence because I always felt right at home. Everyone was kind to us, it was easy to make friends, and the food was delicious.
Toru Matsumura really was amazing on this project, he helped me with the Japanese speaking parts of the script and drove an hour to act in the shoot. His acting really is spot on, I couldn’t be happier with his performance.
Lok Hwa is the Lead Lighting Artist for DreamWorks Animation and is in high demand these days. We were lucky to have him work on this project. He was instrumental on set.
All-Star Cast:
Takeshi Yamamoto – Toru Matsumura
Bozu – Alan Godshaw
Patrick McPheron – Director of Photography
Lok Hwa – 1st AD
Chris Dowske – Sound
Becca Hunter – Script Supervisor
Toru Matsumura – Script Supervisor (Japanese)
Please enjoy,
西川口
Alan