is a

Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture ** Japanese diaspor ...

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

and

screenwriter A screenplay writer (also called screenwriter, scriptwriter, scribe or scenarist) is a writer who practices the craft of screenwriting, writing screenplays on which mass media, such as films, television programs and video games, are based. ...

Life and career

Yoshikazu Katō was born in

Kyoto Kyoto (; Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in Japan. Located in the Kansai region on the island of Honshu, Kyoto forms a part of the Keihanshin metropolitan area along with Osaka and Kobe. , the ci ...

in 1972, and became a fan of the ''

pink film 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 ...

'' while still in junior high school. He graduated from the Nikkatsu Visual Arts Academy in 1993, and began working in the film industry in 1995. He worked as assistant director on nearly 100 ''pink film''s beginning 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 Bedro ...

's (1995), for the gay-themed ENK studio. His directorial debut was at Ōkura Pictures (OP Eiga) with , filmed in 2001 and released in 2002. Also at OP Eiga he filmed '' Molester's Train: Sensitive Fingers'' (2007) which was given the Best Film award 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 which won Katō the award for Best Director. At the

Kansai region The or the , lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropolita ...

Pinky Ribbon Awards The are a Japanese cinema awards ceremony which recognizes excellence in the ''pink film'' genre. The award is held by , a Kansai region paper covering the ''pink film'' industry. Readers of the paper elect the winners of the awards, which have ...

the film was also given the top award, the Gold Prize.

Ninja films

Katō directed the

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 ...

ninja A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance In military operations, reconnaissance or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enem ...

sexploitation A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition of non-explicit s ...

series in 2006 and 2007. The films featured

AV idol An or is a type of pornographic film actress in Japan. It is a sub-category of the idol culture in Japanese pop entertainment. AV idols work in the pornographic business, often both as an actress as well as a model as the video performances ...

s as

Kunoichi is a Japanese cant term for . In popular culture, it is often used for female shinobi or practitioner of ninjutsu (''ninpo''). The term was largely popularized by novelist Yamada Futaro in his novel ''Ninpō Hakkenden'' (忍法八犬伝) in 1964 ...

protagonists and were later released in the United States by Switchblade Pictures.* *''Twin Blades of the Ninja'' ( Risa Kouda) *''Ninjaken: The Naked Sword'' (Kaede Matsushima) *''Ninja She-Devil'' (

Yuma Asami , is a Japanese actress, singer, and a former adult video (AV) actress and model. Starring in more than 600 adult films between 2005 and 2013, Asami was widely recognized as one of Japan's most famous and acclaimed adult film actresses with her p ...

) *''I Was a Teenage Ninja'' ( Saki Ninomiya)

Award-winning films

"Ten Best" films, Pink Grand Prix

* 2007 1st place:

Pinky Ribbon Awards

* 2007 Gold Prize:

Bibliography

* * * *

References

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, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Kato, Yoshikazu Japanese film directors Pink film directors Japanese screenwriters 1972 births Living people People from Kyoto Prefecture