Born in
Wakayama Prefecture, Sabu studied at an
Osaka fashion school before deciding to go to
Tokyo to become a professional musician. It was suggested he try acting and in 1986 he made his film debut in
Sorobanzuku. He earned his first starring role in the 1991
World Apartment Horror, a live-action film directed by
Katsuhiro Ōtomo of
Akira fame. Working from a script he wrote himself, he made his directorial debut with the 1996
Dangan Runner, a film that set his early style of "quirky action-comedies propelled by characters who hurtle headlong though squirming narratives steered more by the forces of incidence and coincidence than the actions of the protagonists themselves."
Shin'ichi Tsutsumi played the lead in Sabu's first five films.
Blessing Bell, starring
Susumu Terajima (who has played minor roles in nearly all of Sabu's films), was a turn away from his kinetic, parodic, and black comedy narratives, and earned the
NETPAC Award at the 2003
Berlin Film Festival. Later films featured the
J-pop band
V6. In 2009, he directed
The Crab Cannery Ship, a modern adaptation of a classic of
Japanese proletarian literature written by
Takiji Kobayashi. He has continued to work as an actor, such as in
Takashi Miike's
Ichi the Killer (2001). His film ''
Chasuke's Journey'' was selected to be screened in the main competition section of the
65th Berlin International Film Festival. ==Selected filmography==