---
name: "Hideo Nakata"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/hideo-nakata"
fi1m_id: "hideo-nakata"
imdb_id: "nm0620378"
tmdb_id: 26875
wikidata_id: "Q533492"
roles: ["Director"]
born: "19 July 1961"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
average_as: "director"
average_over: 1
updated: "2026-09-26T02:59:40.581865+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Hideo Nakata

## Identity

Hideo Nakata

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/hideo-nakata
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** hideo-nakata
- **IMDb ID:** nm0620378
- **TMDB ID:** 26875
- **Wikidata ID:** Q533492
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Nakata, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q533492, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0620378/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/26875

Director. Born 19 July 1961 in Konkō, Okayama, Japan.

## Details

- **Work:** Director
- **Born:** 19 July 1961, Konkō, Okayama, Japan
- **Also known as:** 中田 秀夫
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hideo_Nakata, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q533492, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0620378/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/26875

## Streaming the US now

- **The Roku Channel:** [*Ring*](https://film.one/film/ring.md) (84)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on Hideo Nakata

> Hideo Nakata makes ordinary rooms and familiar technology feel unsafe, giving us time to imagine what might happen. We rate his patient horror highly, though *Ring* also shows how easily an investigation can become a chore.

In *Ring* (1998), a cursed videotape comes with a one-week deadline, and Nakata lets that knowledge do much of the frightening work. He gives us time to look without continually prompting us to be alarmed. We were frightened by the waiting: the deadline stays in mind even when the investigation slows. That patience is his strength, though it asks for more concentration than the detective work always repays.

*Don’t Look Up* (1996) had already linked film stock with the paranormal before *Ring* established Nakata in J-horror. Screenwriter Hiroshi Takahashi was an important early collaborator, and *Ring* draws on Kōji Suzuki’s novel. Nakata makes film and video themselves seem suspect, without needing graphic violence. His restraint helps because he leaves us room to worry for ourselves, rather than supplying a fresh shock at every opportunity.

His long-standing collaboration with cinematographer Jun’ichirō Hayashi includes *Ring*, *Dark Water* (2002) and *Kaidan* (2007). Water and recorded images recur in Nakata’s work, but so do women facing isolation or neglect. *Dark Water* brings parental anxiety and institutional neglect into its ghost story, giving the fear a melancholy that fits the domestic setting. It is the next film we would try after *Ring*, for the attention paid to family strain as much as the haunting.

The sequels took him from *Ring 2* (1999) to *The Ring Two* (2005), his English-language Hollywood debut and a sequel to the American remake. That film’s muddled narrative and uneven effects expose problems that a restrained director cannot simply wait out. Nakata has also worked across thrillers, dramas and documentaries. We would be wary of treating every return to horror as a return to the assurance of *Ring*.

For a starting point, we would still choose *Ring*, with a little tolerance for the detective work. The curse and the prospect of a cure supply enough urgency; the explanations sometimes make following it harder than it needs to be. Its quiet stretches deserve attention. Save it for an evening when nobody intends to talk through them.

## Biography

Hideo Nakata (中田 秀夫) is a Japanese film director. Born on 19 July 1961 in Konkō, Okayama, he trained as an assistant director at Nikkatsu and Toei studios before making his directorial debut with the television anthology *Curse, Death & Spirit* (1992). His first theatrical feature was *Don't Look Up* (1996).

Nakata is best known for directing *Ring* (1998), an adaptation of Kōji Suzuki's novel that helped popularise J-horror internationally. He also directed its sequel *Ring 2* (1999) and *Dark Water* (2002). Later credits include the Hollywood film *The Ring Two* (2005), *Death Note: L Change the WorLd* (2008), *Chatroom* (2010) and *THE DAYS* (2023). He has additionally made documentaries, including one on Joseph Losey.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Ring* (1998), Fi1m 84, Director — [page](https://film.one/film/ring.md)

## Complete filmography (60)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *The Consultant* (2026), series, Director
- *Stigmatized Properties: Possession* (2025), Director
- *The Supernatural Sweet Shop: The Movie* (2024), Director
- *Stolen Identity: The Last Hacker* (2024), Director
- *The Forbidden Play* (2023), Director
- *THE DAYS* (2023), series, Director
- *It's in the Woods* (2022), Director
- *Shōtai* (2022), series, Director
- *Usogui* (2022), Director
- *嘘喰い -鞍馬蘭子篇／梶隆臣篇-* (2022), series, Director
- *Fear Newspaper* (2020), series, Director
- *Stigmatized Properties* (2020), Director
- *Remotely Killed* (2020), Director
- *Remotely Killed: Behind the Scenes of Murder* (2020), Director
- *Stolen Identity 2* (2020), Director
- *Sadako* (2019), Director
- *The Woman Who Keeps a Murderer* (2019), Director
- *Stolen Identity* (2018), Director
- *Life in Overtime* (2018), Director
- *Lovers in the Attic* (2017), series, Director
- *Hideo Nakata: Ghosts, Rings and Water* (2016), Actor
- *White Lily* (2016), Director
- *Like a Girl Playing House* (2016), series, Director
- *Beautiful 2016* (2016), Director
- *Somewhere in Kamakura* (2016), Director
- *Tales of the Bizarre 25th Anniversary Autumn Special: Film Directors Collection* (2015), Director
- *Ghost Theater* (2015), Director, Original Film Writer
- *Ghost Theater* (2015), series, Director, Creator
- *Words with Gods* (2014), Director, Writer
- *Monsterz* (2014), Director
- *Shinigami-kun* (2014), series, Director
- *The Complex* (2013), Director, Writer
- *The Complex: Prologue* (2013), series, Director, Executive Producer, Creator
- *The Incite Mill* (2010), Director
- *Chatroom* (2010), Director
- *Don't Look Up* (2009), Story, Original Film Writer
- *Foreign Filmmakers' Guide to Hollywood* (2009), Director
- *Death Note: L Change the WorLd* (2008), Director
- *The Man who was Made a Fool by L the Most - Detective Matsuda's Case File* (2007), Director
- *Kaidan* (2007), Director
- *Kaiki Daisakusen - Second File* (2007), series, Director
- *The Ring Two* (2005), Director
- *Last Scene* (2002), Director
- *Dark Water* (2002), Director, Screenplay
- *Sadistic and Masochistic* (2001), Director, Cinematography
- *Gore from Outer Space* (2001), Actor
- *Chaos* (2000), Director
- *Take It* (2000), Director
- *Sleeping Bride* (2000), Director
- *Ring 2* (1999), Director
- *Joseph Losey: The Man with Four Names* (1998), Director
- *Ring* (1998), Director — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/film/ring.md)
- *Tokyo Fair Weather* (1997), Actor
- *School Ghost Story F* (1997), Director
- *Don't Look Up* (1996), Director, Story
- *(Ura) Tôsatsu nanpa-dô* (1996), Director
- *Female Teacher Diary: Forbidden Sex* (1995), Director, Screenplay
- *Curse, Death & Spirit* (1992), Director
- *Rinbu* (1988), Assistant Director
- *Woman in a Box: Virgin Sacrifice* (1985), Assistant Director

## Gallery

- ![Hideo Nakata](https://film.one/media/person/1001173/gallery-0b9b9cb7f808.jpg) Hideo Nakata — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Shimazaki_Haruka_%26_Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival_%2822242680869%29_%28cropped%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/1001173/gallery-d9a4ae11a2c0.jpg) 第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015) — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/36/Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/1001173/gallery-76c7786175f5.jpg) 第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015) — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9b/Shimazaki_Haruka_%26_Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival_%2830002183521%29.jpg/1280px-Shimazaki_Haruka_%26_Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival_%2830002183521%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/1001173/gallery-0fd4f288f728.jpg) 第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015) — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/96/Shimazaki_Haruka_%26_Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival_%2822241513090%29.jpg/1280px-Shimazaki_Haruka_%26_Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival_%2822241513090%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![Hideo Nakata](https://film.one/media/person/1001173/gallery-a7d226152e07.jpg) Hideo Nakata — Image via TMDB
- ![Hideo Nakata](https://film.one/media/person/1001173/gallery-e20c0bdc702b.jpg) Hideo Nakata — Image via TMDB
- ![第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/1001173/gallery-9281cf267f3c.jpg) 第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015) — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Shimazaki_Haruka_%26_Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival_%2829458105773%29.jpg/1280px-Shimazaki_Haruka_%26_Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival_%2829458105773%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015)](https://film.one/media/person/1001173/gallery-d4fde6267b45.jpg) 第28回 東京国際映画祭 オープニングセレモニー 島崎遥香 中田秀夫 (劇場霊) (2015) — Dick Thomas Johnson from Tokyo, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/dd/Shimazaki_Haruka_%26_Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival_%2822242680869%29.jpg/1280px-Shimazaki_Haruka_%26_Nakata_Hideo_%22Ghost_Theater%22_at_Opening_Ceremony_of_the_28th_Tokyo_International_Film_Festival_%2822242680869%29.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/hideo-nakata