Banmei Takahashi (高橋伴明, Takahashi Banmei) (or Tomoaki Takahashi)[1] is a Japanese film director. Takahashi started his career in the pink film industry, making his directorial debut in 1972 with Escaped Rapist Criminal. Due to a disagreement with his producer, Takahashi quit the film industry for a couple years.[2] He joined pink film pioneer Kōji Wakamatsu's production studio in 1975, working as a script-writer until Wakamatsu produced Takahashi's second film, Delinquent File: Juvenile Prostitution (1976). For the next few years Takahashi averaged five films annually at Wakamatsu's studio, until Takahashi left to start his own production company in 1979.[2]
Takahashi married Nikkatsu Roman Porno and pink film actress Keiko Sekine who then changed her name to Keiko Takahashi and starred in several of Takahashi's films.[3] Sekine appeared in Takahashi's Tattoo Ari (1982), a mainstream box-office hit which won Takahashi the award for Best Director at the 4th Yokohama Film Festival.[4][5] With the success of this film, Takahashi dissolved Takahashi Productions to focus on mainstream filmmaking.[2] Takahashi's 1994 film Ai no Shinsekai, inspired by photographer Nobuyoshi Araki's work, is significant as the first Japanese production to play uncensored and unfogged domestically.[6]
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