 Along with Noboru Iguchi, Yamaguchi directed the fake TV commercials for good friend Yoshihiro Nishimura's cult horror film "Tokyo Gore Police" after Yamaguchi suggested that it might balance out the dark tone of the movie.In a change of pace, Yamaguchi left the horror aspects behind to direct a straight comedy in the February 2009 release "Elite Yankee Saburo" with special makeup effects by Yoshihiro Nishimura.The film followed a Japanese TV comedy shown on TV Tokyo in 2007 which was itself based on a manga by Shuji Abe about a nerdy boy entering high school who because his older brothers were delinquents is also labeled a troublemaker - an "elite yankee".