Sakamoto is a Japanese director and screenwriter. As a student he assisted directors such as Sogo Ishii and Kazuyuki Izutsu. He made his debut as a director with the film Knockout (Dotsuitarunen, 1989), for which he won the award as Best Young Director at the Film festival in Yokohama. His other films include Checkmate (Ôte, 1991), action drama Tokarefu (1994) for which he again won the award as Best Director at the Film festival in Yokohama, comedy Biriken (1996), An Angel with Many Scars (Kizu darake no tenshi, 1997), The Goofball (Orokamono: Kizu darake no tenshi, 1998), Face (Kao, 2000) for which he won the award for Best Director from the Japanese Academy as well as Best Director and Best Screenplay in Yokohama. He also made the drama Another Battle (Shin jingi naki tatakai, 2000), KT (2002) based on true events; the comedy My House, (Bokunchi, 2003), drama Out of This World (Kono yo no sotoe - Club Shinchugun, 2004), war drama Bôkoku no îgisu (2005), family drama Tamamoe! (2007), Chameleon (2008) and Yami no kodomotachi (2008). In 2010, he made Zatôichi, story about a blind samurai, Japanese writer Kan Shimosawa’s famous character. His last two films are Strangers in the City (Yukizuri no machi, 2010) and Someday (Ooshikamura soudouki, 2011).