is a Japanese
exploitation film
An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...
director. He has worked prolifically in the genre of ''
pinku eiga
in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equiv ...
'' films, which refers to Japanese films that prominently feature nudity or sexual content. His best-known works are the 1992 pink film ''The Bedroom'' and the 1996
V-Cinema
Direct-to-video or straight-to-video refers to the release of a film, TV series, short or special to the public immediately on home video formats rather than an initial theatrical release or television premiere. This distribution strategy was p ...
splatter film
A splatter film is a subgenre of horror films that deliberately focuses on graphic portrayals of wikt:gore, gore and graphic violence. These films, usually through the use of special effects, display a fascination with the vulnerability of the h ...
''
Splatter: Naked Blood''. He is known for his "sledgehammer" filmmaking style, and using his exploitation career to tackle serious subjects like obsession,
alienation,
perversion
Perversion is a form of human behavior which deviates from what is considered to be orthodox or normal. Although the term ''perversion'' can refer to a variety of forms of deviation, it is most often used to describe sexual behaviors that are c ...
and
voyeurism
Voyeurism is the sexual interest in or practice of watching other people engaged in intimate behaviors, such as undressing, sexual activity, or other actions of a private nature.
The term comes from the French ''voir'' which means "to see". ...
.
He has been likened to Canadian director
David Cronenberg due to his penchant for
body horror
Body horror or biological horror is a subgenre of horror that intentionally showcases grotesque or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body. These violations may manifest through aberrant sex, mutations, mutilation, zombification, ...
. Along with fellow directors
Kazuhiro Sano
is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and actor best known for his '' pink films'' of the 1990s. Along with fellow directors, Takahisa Zeze, Toshiki Satō and Hisayasu Sato, he is known as one of the . Sano's films differ from those of o ...
,
Toshiki Satō
a.k.a. , , ''and'' is a Japanese film director and screenwriter best known for his '' pink films'' of the 1990s. Along with fellow directors, Takahisa Zeze, Kazuhiro Sano and Hisayasu Satō, he is known as one of the .
Life and career
Toshiki ...
and
Takahisa Zeze
is a Japanese film director and screenwriter first known for his soft-core pornographic ''pink films'' of the 1990s. Along with fellow directors, Kazuhiro Sano, Toshiki Satō, and Hisayasu Sato, he is known as one of the . In recent years, he ha ...
, he is known as one of the .
Life and career
Satō is a very prolific director, having directed about two dozen films in 1988 and 1989. To date, he has directed more than fifty films dealing with eroticism, sadism, and horror among the lower classes of Japan. He is famous for his "guerilla shooting technique" in which his actors appear on location in public and incorporate unknowing bystanders into the film.
One notorious example of this technique can be seen in ''
Widow's Perverted Hell'' (1991) in which the lead actress, nude and bound in S&M gear, appears in a busy downtown location and begs confused passers-by to help her masturbate.
[Weisser, p.471.] Allmovie comments, "Like
Divine
Divinity or the divine are things that are either related to, devoted to, or proceeding from a deity.[divine< ...](_blank)
's memorable strut through the streets of
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
in ''
Pink Flamingos
''Pink Flamingos'' is a 1972 American film directed, written, produced, narrated, filmed, and edited by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes '' Female Trouble'' (1974) and '' Desperate Liv ...
'', this scene was shot guerrilla-style, with no planning, and some of the reactions from unsuspecting pedestrians are priceless. Intended as a dark meditation on the unhinging effects of grief, the mondo aspects of its climactic scene makes the rather lackluster ''Mibojin Hentai Jigoku'' worth seeing."
Satō's 1987 film ''Temptation of the Mask'' was important for several reasons. One of the first gay films produced by a major pink film director, the film also brought together three members of the ''shitenno'' for the first time.
Takahisa Zeze
is a Japanese film director and screenwriter first known for his soft-core pornographic ''pink films'' of the 1990s. Along with fellow directors, Kazuhiro Sano, Toshiki Satō, and Hisayasu Sato, he is known as one of the . In recent years, he ha ...
worked as Satō's
assistant director for the film, and through him began hiring future-director
Kazuhiro Sano
is a Japanese film director, screenwriter and actor best known for his '' pink films'' of the 1990s. Along with fellow directors, Takahisa Zeze, Toshiki Satō and Hisayasu Sato, he is known as one of the . Sano's films differ from those of o ...
as an actor in his films. Zeze later recalled, "I remember once there was a gay pink film, and Satō wanted to use Sano, so I was the go-between and negotiated with him to appear in it. That's how we all started working together."
Satō's second gay-themed film was ''Muscle'', also known as ''Mad Ballroom Gala'' (1988),
a tribute to Italian director
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...
. For this film, Satō was awarded the grand prize at the Berlin Gay and Lesbian Festival in 1993. From this and later films like ''Hunters' Sense of Touch'' (1995), Satō has gained a reputation as one of the few directors who can competently alternate between gay and heterosexual-themed pink films.
Satō's 1990 film, ''
Horse and Woman and Dog
''aka'' ''and'' is a 1990 Japanese '' pink film'' directed by Hisayasu Satō.
Synopsis
Three social outcasts who live near the seaside interact with each other in increasingly disturbing ways. The trio of characters are a woman who has kille ...
'', another film featuring Kazuhiro Sano, became a success due to its scandalous scenes involving
bestiality between the three characters in the film's title. Another controversial, but highly regarded film from Satō is ''Promiscuous Wife: Disgraceful Torture'' (1992), for which the director hired the Paris cannibal,
Issei Sagawa
also known as Pang or The Kobe Cannibal, was a Japanese murderer, cannibal, and necrophiliac known for the killing of Renée Hartevelt in Paris in 1981.
Sagawa murdered Hartevelt then mutilated, cannibalized, and performed necrophilia on her ...
(aka Kazumasa Sagawa) to appear in a cameo role.
Famed for the offensiveness of his films, ''
Lolita: Vibrator Torture'' (1987), dealing with a homeless man who rapes and murders women, is often singled out as Satō's most repulsive film. In his later works, Satō has collaborated with the female pink film writer, Kyoko Godai. While the violence in his films has sometimes been less extreme since this collaboration,
the Weissers, in their ''Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films'' call Godai and Satō's work on ''Uniform Punishment: Square Peg in Round Hole!'' (1991) "Perhaps the most mean-spirited satire on film.".
The film deals with a religious cult who worships a maniacal young woman who spends her nights hunting the city for people to rape and kill with the help of a male slave.
Allmovie judges the film a "perversely entertaining jet-black satire" and a "dark but highly watchable softcore effort."
Yoshiyuki Hayashida
Yoshiyuki is both a masculine Japanese given name and a Japanese surname.
Possible writings
Yoshiyuki can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples:
*義幸, "justice, happiness"
*義之, "justice ...
, editor of ''P*G'' magazine—currently the leading journal on pink film—and founder of the
Pink Grand Prix
The or is an annual Japanese film award ceremony which recognizes excellence in the pink film genre. Referred to by Miho Toda as the "Academy Awards of the Pink Film", the ceremony attracts a diverse audience of industry personnel, film scholar ...
, became a fan of Satō's work and wrote a script using many of Satō's major themes. Satō filmed the script as ''Uniform Masturbation: Virgin's Underpanties'' (1992). Though Satō's style seems to have softened somewhat as the 1990s progressed, he was still capable of producing such works as ''
Splatter: Naked Blood'' (1996),
[ which, Allmovie warns, "contains one of the most appalling scenes in Japanese horror, with a young woman mutilating and eating her own body."]
Partial filmography
Notes
Bibliography
* Hunter, Jack. "Abnormal Ward: The Forbidden Visions of Hisayasu Sato" in Andy Black (ed), ''Necronomicon: The Journal of Horror and Erotic Cinema: Book Two'', London: Creation Books, 1999, pp. 30–39.
*
* Seveon, Julien. ''Le cinema enrage au Japon''. France : 1st edition : Sulliver 2006 / 2nd edition : Rouge Profond 2009.
* Seveon, Julien. USA : "Interview with Hisayasu Sato" in ''Asian Cult Cinema'' #34, 1st quarter 2002.
*
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sato, Hisayasu
1959 births
Japanese film directors
Pink film directors
Living people
People from Shizuoka (city)