Born 1949 (age 76) · Tokyo, Japan
Appears in 22 titles

Takao Okawara (born December 20, 1949, in Tokyo, Japan) is a Japanese film director, writer and producer. Most famous for his entries in the Heisei Godzilla series, Takao Okawara joined Tōhō in 1973, but would not get his first shot in the director's chair until 1980, when he joined Akira Kurosawa and Ishirō Honda on the film Kagemusha (1980). Four years later, he worked as an assistant director for the first Godzilla film of the Heisei series: The Return of Godzilla (1984). Okawara debuted as primary director seven years later on the film Reiko, the Psyche Resurrected (1991), which he also wrote. Okawara is the oldest living Godzilla film director. With Kazuki Omori's death in 2022, he also became the last living director of any pre-Millennium Godzilla movie.

Filmography

Godzilla 2000: Millennium
6.9
Godzilla 2000: Millennium
1999
Director
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
7.8
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
1995
Director
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II
Godzilla vs. Mothra
6.9
Godzilla vs. Mothra
1992
Director
Orochi, the Eight-Headed Dragon
Reiko, the Psyche Resurrected
Abduction
8.5
Abduction
1997
Director