Biography
Takao Okawara is a Japanese film director. He joined Tōhō in 1973 and worked as an assistant director on films including Kagemusha (1980) and The Return of Godzilla (1984).
Okawara made his debut as a director with Reiko, the Psyche Resurrected (1991), which he also wrote. He is best known for directing four entries in the Godzilla series: Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992), Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993), Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) and Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999). He is the only director to have worked on both the Heisei and Millennium eras of the franchise.
Okawara is the oldest living director of a Godzilla film and, following the death of Kazuki Ōmori in 2022, the last living director of any pre-Millennium Godzilla movie.
