Toshiharu Ikeda
| Toshiharu Ikeda | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 23, 1951 Yamagata, Japan |
| Died | December 26, 2010 (aged 59) |
| Occupation |
Film director Screenwriter |
| Years active | 1980–2010 |
Toshiharu Ikeda (池田敏春 Ikeda Toshiharu?) (23 February 1951 – 26 December 2010) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter who worked in pink film and mainstream cinema. He won the award for Best Director at the 6th Yokohama Film Festival for Mermaid Legend.
Ikeda graduated from the literature department of Waseda University in 1974, but became involved in filmmaking while still a student. According to Ikeda, his entry into the film industry was accidental, the result of a drunken barroom bet. His first job was at a small independent production company, Ishihara Productions, but he later moved to the major studio Nikkatsu, which at the time produced only films of the Roman porno genre, big budget versions of the pink film. At both companies, he began working as an Assistant Director, whose duties could include anything from cleaning floors to shaving actresses at a time when it was illegal to show even the slightest hint of pubic hair in Japanese media. Ikeda continued as an Assistant Director at Nikkatsu throughout the 1970s in such films as Flower and Snake (1974), Wife to be Sacrificed (1974) and Noble Lady: Bound Vase (1977), all directed by Masaru Konuma.
Ikeda made his debut as a director at Nikkatsu with the 1980 film, Sukeban Mafia which the Weissers call "satirical, rousing, sexy and character-driven." Later in 1980, Ikeda directed his second Roman porno feature for Nikkatsu, Sex Hunter, which the studio considered too rough and vulgar. For "penance", Nikkatsu sent him to Okinawa and told him to include some romance for his next film, Blue Lagoon: A Summer Experience, which had a standard boy-girl plot. Ikeda's last project for Nikkatsu was the 1981 Angel Guts: Red Porno, the fourth film in the nine part Angel Guts series. Ikeda was brought in at the last minute when the original director dropped out and had only a month to shoot the film. Ikeda had a dispute with actress Jun Izumi about a nude shot in the film and when Nikkatsu cut the scene, Ikeda left the company feeling that they had failed to support him.
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