Shunya Itō

Shunya Itō (伊藤 俊也, Itō Shun'ya, born February 17, 1937) is a Japanese film director known for starting the Sasori / Female Prisoner Scorpion series of 1970s exploitation films starring Meiko Kaji. Itō worked for Toei Company for most of his career. In 1972, he won a Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Citation for his first film, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion.[1]

Shunya Itō
Born (1937-02-17) February 17, 1937
OccupationFilm director

He won Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards in 1985 with his film Gray Sunset,[2] 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)

In 1995, he directed Lupin III: Farewell to Nostradamus. In 1998, he directed the World War II drama Pride: The Fateful Moment, presenting a sympathetic view of Hideki Tōjō on trial at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, attracting accusations of revisionism.

Selected filmography

Notes
  1. "Nihon Eiga Kantoku Kyōkai Shinjinshō" (in Japanese). Directors Guild of Japan. Archived from the original on 22 November 2010. Retrieved 11 December 2010.
  2. "Awards for Hana ichimonme (1985)" (in Japanese). Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2009-05-05.

References
  • Galbraith, Stuart, IV. The Emperor and the Wolf: The Lives and Films of Akira Kurosawa and Toshiro Mifune. Faber & Faber, 2002. ISBN 0-571-19982-8
  • Shunya Ito at IMDb
  • JMDb Listing (Japanese)
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