a.k.a. is a Japanese

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, and actor. He is one of a group of ''

pink film refers in Japan to movies produced by independent studios that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. Many pink films would be a ...

'' directors of the 2000s known collectively as the , which besides Imaoka, also includes

Toshiya Ueno (2 October 1963 – 15 April 2013) was a Japanese film director, actor, screenwriter, and producer. He is one of the ''pink film'' directors known collectively as the , a group which comprises Ueno, Mitsuru Meike, Yūji Tajiri, Shinji I ...

Mitsuru Meike is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor. He is one of the group of prominent ''pink film'' directors known collectively as the which comprises Meike, Toshiya Ueno, Yūji Tajiri, Shinji Imaoka, Yoshitaka Kamata, Toshirō Enomoto ...

, Yūji Tajiri, Yoshitaka Kamata, Toshirō Enomoto and

Rei Sakamoto is a Japanese tennis player. He has a career high Association of Tennis Professionals, ATP singles ranking of world No. 330 achieved on 17 March 2025. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of No. 848 achieved on that same date. Career 2 ...

Life and career

Shinji Imaoka was born in Osaka in 1965. He attended

Yokohama City University is a public university, in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. As of 2013, YCU has two faculties with a total of around 4,850 students, 111 of whom are foreign. YCU also has four campuses (Kanazawa-Hakkei, Fukuura, Maioka and Tsurumi) and two ...

, but dropped out in 1990 in order to pursue a film career. He entered the film industry as an assistant director at ''

'' pioneer Satoru Kobayashi's Shishi Productions. There he worked principally under Hisayasu Satō, and also with such directors at

Takahisa Zeze is a Japanese film director and screenwriter first known for his soft-core pornographic ''pink films'' of the 1990s. Along with fellow directors, Kazuhiro Sano, Toshiki Satō, and Hisayasu Sato, he is known as one of the . In recent years, he ...

and Mototsugu Watanabe. In December 1994 he worked as assistant director to the esteemed

Nikkatsu is a Japanese film studio located in Bunkyō. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Motion Pictures". Shareholders are Nippon Television Holdings (35%) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (28.4%). ...

Roman Porno director

Tatsumi Kumashiro Tatsumi Kumashiro (; 24 April 1927 – 24 February 1995) was a Japanese film director and screenwriter known for his critically acclaimed, award-winning '' Roman Porno'' films. Kumashiro was the most highly acclaimed director of the early Nikk ...

on his last film, . Imaoka's directorial debut film was a.k.a. ''Waiting for the Comet'' (1995). In his ''Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema'', Jasper Sharp writes that Imaoka's style is quite different from that of his mentor, Hisayasu Satō, and that his approach to the ''pink film'' is much closer to

Toshiki Satō a.k.a. , , ''and'' is a Japanese people, Japanese film director and screenwriter best known for his ''pink films'' of the 1990s. Along with fellow directors, Takahisa Zeze, Kazuhiro Sano and Hisayasu Satō, he is known as one of the . Life and ...

. Like Toshiki Satō, Imaoka's sex scenes are often sparser than the norm for a ''pink film'', and not given much emphasis. According to Sharp, " maoka'sfilms possess the same deadpan comic touch that masks a painfully honest emotional core, although Imaoka's peculiar brand of pathos is less wry and more sentimental." Further, he writes, "Imaoka's particular strength is his understated depiction of characters trapped in a rut, desperately reaching out for something they secretly know they can't have."Sharp, p. 324. While Imaoka's approach to the sex scenes has not won him favor with the traditional ''pink film'' audience and theater owners, his films have been praised by critics. He has been awarded Best Director 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 two of his films have been voted the Best Film of the year at the ceremony. In 2000, the Tokyo Athénée Français gave Imaoka a career retrospective tribute which broke the institution's record for attendance.

Partial filmography

Top-ten films, Pink Grand Prix

*1996 Honorable Mention: *1999 Honorable Mention: *1999 1st place: *2005 1st place: *2005 8th place: a.k.a.

Pinky Ribbon Awards

*2006 Silver Prize: a.k.a.

Bibliography

English

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Japanese

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References

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, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Imaoka, Shinji 1965 births Japanese male bloggers Japanese male film actors Japanese film directors Pink film directors Japanese screenwriters Living people People from Sakai, Osaka 21st-century Japanese screenwriters