Trivia

Leading director of low-budget 'pink movies' ("pinku eiga"), usually on erotic or political themes.

Assisted in producing and writing Nagisa Oshima's infamous In the Realm of the Senses (1976).

Yakuza Ties: Before becoming a filmmaker, he dropped out of an agricultural high school, moved to Tokyo at age 17, and joined a yakuza syndicate.

Mob Film Liaison: His first exposure to a film set was actually on behalf of the mob. The yakuza sent him to film sets to act as a thug and debt collector from production companies.

Prolific Output: He was highly prolific, directing over 100 feature films throughout his 50-year career. Between 1963 and 1965 alone, he directed 20 exploitation films for Nikkatsu Studio.

The Pinku Eiga Pioneer: He is widely regarded by film historians as the most important and influential director in the history of Japanese pinku eiga (pink film/low-budget softcore sexploitation), using the genre to smuggle in radical left-wing political messaging.

U.S. Travel Ban: Because of his open support for radical political organisations—specifically his 1971 documentary Red Army/PFLP: Declaration of World War, which he shot in Lebanon with the Japanese Red Army and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine—the United States government placed a permanent travel ban on him.

Pseudonym: He frequently wrote his screenplays under the pen name Tora Osugi.

Birth Name: His real birth name was Takashi Ito.

Tragic Passing: He died at the age of 76 on 17 October 2012, after being struck by a taxi in Tokyo. At the exact time of his fatal accident, he was returning from a political meeting regarding his next intended film project: an expose tracking the nuclear lobby and Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) following the Fukushima disaster.