is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and

actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is (), li ...

. He is one of the group of '' pink film'' directors collectively known as the , a group which also includes Toshiya Ueno, Mitsuru Meike,

Shinji Imaoka a.k.a. is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of a group of '' pink film'' directors of the 2000s known collectively as the , which besides Imaoka, also includes Toshiya Ueno, Mitsuru Meike, Yūji Tajiri, Yoshitaka ...

Yoshitaka Kamata Yoshitaka is a masculine Japanese given name and a Japanese surname. Possible writings Yoshitaka can be written using many different combinations of kanji characters. Here are some examples: *義孝, "justice, filial piety" *義隆, "justice, no ...

, Toshirō Enomoto and Rei Sakamoto.

Life and career

Yūji Tajiri was born in a small town in Hokkaido in 1968. His main interest as a youth was watching movies, and he began writing his own film scripts and making 8mm films while a teenager. At this time he began sneaking into adult theaters, and was impressed by director Kichitaro Negishi's

Roman Porno 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 equi ...

film '' Crazy Fruit'' (1981)-- a ''pink'' remake of ''

Crazed Fruit , also known as ''Juvenile Jungle'', is a 1956 Japanese Sun Tribe film directed by Kō Nakahira. It is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by Shintaro Ishihara, the older brother of cast member Yujiro Ishihara,Marc Moha"Crazed Fruit: ...

'' (1956). Tajiri moved to Tokyo and, while attending

Teikyo University is a private university headquartered in the Itabashi ward of Tokyo, Japan. It was established in 1931 as Teikyo Commercial High School (帝京商業高等学校). It became Teikyo University in 1966. It is part of Teikyo Group, a multinational ...

, continued his movie-going habits. He was impressed with

Hisayasu Satō is a Japanese exploitation film director. He has worked prolifically in the genre of '' pinku eiga'' films, which refers to Japanese films that prominently feature nudity or sexual content. His best-known works are the 1992 pink film ''The Bedr ...

's '' Lolita: Vibrator Torture'' (1987), an independent ''pink film'' which he saw on a triple-bill with two

Nikkatsu is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...

films. After he found an advertisement from Shishi studios for assistant director positions, he researched the studio. It had been founded by '' pink film'' veteran Kan Mukai and Satō had made ''Lolita: Vibrator Torture'' there. Shishi accepted Tajiri, and he began working at the studio as an assistant director in 1990. Starting as an assistant director, he worked with such directors as Satō 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 ...

. Tajiri's directorial debut was with the 1997 film . His second film, , was chosen as the Best Film of the year at 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 ...

, and Tajiri was given the Best Director award. The mainstream "Japanese Film Professional's Award" also awarded the film, choosing it as the seventh best release of the year. Tajiri's 2004 film, '' Twitch – You Are My Toy'' about erotic complications in the photography industry, won the bronze prize at the Pink Grand Prix. The film also won awards for Best Actress and Best Cinematography.

Bibliography

English

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Japanese

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References

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, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Tajiri, Yuji Japanese male film actors Japanese film directors Pink film directors Japanese screenwriters 1968 births Living people