Monarch: Legacy Of Monsters' Tomomi Kamata Tribute, Explained

Since directing 13 episodes over two seasons of "Selena: The Series" five years ago, director Hiromi Kamata has steadily booked work on critically acclaimed television series. The Japanese-Mexican helmer has credits on "Let the Right One In," "The Night Agent," and "Shōgun" (her episode, "Ladies of the Willow World," earned her a Directors Guild of America Awards nomination for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series). She also directed two episodes for the first season of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters," and has returned for two more episodes in the show's currently running second season.

Being a director was not a lifelong dream for Kamata. In an interview with the Television Academy, she revealed that, inspired by Sidney Lumet's classic "12 Angry Men," she initially wanted to be a lawyer. A viewing of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" briefly shifted her focus to archaeology, but Kamata quickly realized her passion was not the occupations depicted in these films, but filmmaking itself. She broke into the industry by working as a first assistant director on films like "Bandidas," "Miss Bala," and "Gringo," and eventually found her way into the director's chair proper. Later this year, she'll seek to freak you out with an episode of the Mike Flanagan-produced series adaptation of Stephen King's "Carrie."

It's interesting that Kamata resisted the call of filmmaking for so long, given that her father, Tomomi Kamata, was a talented cinematographer. While he wasn't crazy about his daughter getting involved in the entertainment industry, he nevertheless was a huge influence on her life, as evidenced by the tribute paid to him in the credits of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters."

At the end of the third episode of "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters" season 2, after Cate (Anna Sawai, pictured above) helps "Monarch" beat the MCU at its own game, there's a tribute that reads "In Memory of Tomomi Kamata." Hiromi's father was born in Japan in 1949, which is where he began his career in motion pictures. He eventually moved to Mexico, where he was a cinematographer on features like "Lecumberri, the Dark Palace," "La ilegal," and "Gertrudis." His most prominent credit might be as a supervising producer on "Run," a remake of Robert Rodriguez's "El Mariachi" starring Leon Lai and Veronica Yip.

When Hiromi expressed a desire to pursue a career in filmmaking, Tomomi attempted to steer her back toward law school. Rather than put his foot down, he let his daughter intern at his production company for a summer. He might've hoped that she'd be put off by the challenging nature of the work. If so, his plan backfired. "I fell in love with it," Hiromi told the TV Academy. "So he had no choice."

Tomomi Kamata died in 2024, meaning he lived long enough to see Hiromi thrive in their chosen industry. The world is full of lawyers (and movies about lawyers), but forever in need of talented directors. Thank you, Mr. Kamata, for allowing your daughter to indulge her passion.