Shunya Ito
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Shunya Ito (伊藤俊也 Itō Shun'ya) is a Japanese film director famed for starting the Sasori (Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion, etc.) series of 1970s exploitation films based on Toru Shinohara's manga and starring Meiko Kaji. Ito worked for Toei Company for most of his career.
He won Best Picture at the Japanese Academy Awards in 1985 with his film Gray Sunset, a story of a man suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This thus became Japan's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film instead of Akira Kurosawa's Ran, which caused a slight uproar in Western media as many critics thought Ran had a real chance of winning whereas Gray Sunset was not even shortlisted. (Galbraith)
His most recent films are the 1995 anime movie in the Lupin III series: Lupin III: Farewell to Nostradamus, and the 1998 World War II drama Pride: The Fateful Moment presenting a humane view of Hideki Tojo on trial at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East.
[edit] Selected filmography
- Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972) (女囚７０１号 さそり)
- Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972) (女囚さそり 第４１雑居房)
- Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973) (女囚さそり けもの部屋)
- To Trap a Kidnapper (1982) (誘拐報道)
- Gray Sunset (1985) (花いちもんめ)
- Labyrinth of Flower Garden (1988) (花園の迷宮)
- Lupin III: Farewell to Nostradamus (1995) (ルパン三世 くたばれ！ノストラダムス)
- Pride: The Fateful Moment (1998) (プライド 運命の瞬間)
[edit] References
- Stuart Galbraith IV. The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. Faber & Faber, 2002. ISBN 0-571-19982-8
[edit] External links
- Shunya Ito at the Internet Movie Database
- JMDb Listing (Japanese)
