His first movie was a social soap opera, " Ikitoshi ikeru mono (All living things)" (main actor was So YAMAMURA), whose original author was Yuzo YAMAMOTO, he also directed "Tokyo no hito" (a person from Tokyo) (main actress was Yumeji TSUKIOKA) and "Utsukushii Ionushi-san" (The beautiful master of a hermitage) (main actor was Akira KOBAYASHI) as his first movie with Nikkatsu, it was needless to say that those movies had a strong 'Obune' flavor, movies such as "Ore no Kokyo wa Daiseibu" (my hometown is big old western America) (main actor was Koji WADA) in 1960 which had a 'Nikkatsu flavor' was a different movie than Nishikawa's movie.
山本有三原作による社会派メロドラマ『生きとし生けるもの』（主演山村聡）を第1作に、日活での初期作としては『東京の人』（主演月丘夢路）、『美しい庵主さん』（主演小林旭）などがあるが、当然のように「大船色」が濃く、「日活っぽい」昭和35年の『俺の故郷は大西部』（主演和田浩治）は西河作品としては逆に異色である。