Other directors with whom he frequently worked include Toshio Masuda, Kazuo Kuroki, Kei Kumai and Kaizo Hayashi.

A graduate of Aoyama Gakuin University with a background in theatre, Kimura joined the Nikkatsu Company's scenography department in 1941.

A counteroffer of three was accepted and Nikkatsu merged with Daito and Shinko, the first shutting down their film production unit, and the new company was named Daiei.

They worked to refine their style which consisted of more artistry and symbolism than studio bosses generally preferred to see in their action films.

[4][7] Among their best known collaborations are Gate of Flesh (1964) and Tokyo Drifter (1966), on which The Japan Times' Mark Schilling wrote, "Who can forget the all-white nightclub in the latter film, with the huge donut-shape, color-shifting mobile – like nothing in real life but expressive of the film's go-go-era, anything-can-happen world.

He was also included in Hachirō Guryū, the joint pen name for the writing group which formed around Suzuki in the mid-1960s, along with six assistant directors, most prominently Atsushi Yamatoya and Chūsei Sone.

[4][9][10] The Japanese film industry lost much of its viewership to television through the 1960s and, in order to avoid bankruptcy, Nikkatsu shut down regular productions in August 1971, and in November began producing low cost Roman Pornos, romantic softcore pornography films.

[5][12] Stylistically, he continues to vary between the surrealistic, as in his subsequent collaborations with Suzuki, and the realistic, including his films with Kei Kumai.

[3] Kimura directed two short films in 2004,[13] and the release of Mugen Sasurai (2004) afforded him the oldest directorial debut at age 86.

[16] He won the 1981 award for Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction for An Ocean to Cross, Zigeunerweisen, A Long Way for a Motor Car and The Woman.

[17] The following year, he was nomination in the same category for Kei Kumai's Willful Murder,[18] and again in 1983 for the international co-production The Go Masters and Yukko no okurimono: Cosmos no yō ni.