Kōichi Saitō (斎藤 耕一, Saitō Kōichi, 3 February 1929 – 28 November 2009) was a Japanese film director and photographer.

Kōichi Saitō
Born	(1929-02-03)3 February 1929 Tokyo
Died	28 November 2009(2009-11-28) (aged 80)
Occupation	Film director, photographer

Career

Born in Tokyo, Saitō started studying at Rikkyo University but ended up graduating from the Tokyo College of Photography (currently Tokyo Polytechnic University).[1][2] He was initially a movie stills photographer at Nikkatsu before launching his own production company, Saito Productions, and directing his first film, Sasayaki no Jō, "a low-budget, independent film with a visual flair that earned comparisons with Claude Lelouch and with Richard Lester’s Beatles films, including A Hard Day’s Night".[2] Some of his first films were youth movies featuring Group Sounds music. He came to prominence in the early 1970s with a series of movies about young people escaping to or searching for their identity in the countryside. He won the best director award at the 1972 Mainichi Film Awards.[3] His Tsugaru Jongarabushi was selected the best film of 1973 in the Kinema Junpo poll of critics.[4] Saitō continued directing into his seventies and also made some documentaries.[2] He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (4th Class, Gold Rays with Rosette) in 2000.[5]

Selected filmography

• Sasayaki no Jō (1967)
• Chiisana sunakku (1968)
• Yakusoku (1972; The Rendezvous)
• Tabi no omosa (1972)
• Tsugaru jongarabushi (1973; Tsugaru Folk Song)
• Yadonashi (1974; The Homeless)

References

External links

• Koichi Saito (I) at IMDb
• Saitō Kōichi at the Japanese Movie Database (in Japanese)