Satoru Kobayashi (director)

Satoru Kobayashi
Japanese pink film pioneer, Satoru Kobayashi
Born	August 1, 1930 Nagano Prefecture, Japan
Died	November 15, 2001(2001-11-15) (aged 71)
Occupation	Film director
Years active	1959–2001

Satoru Kobayashi (小林悟, Kobayashi Satoru^?) was a Japanese film director most famous for directing the first pink film, the type of softcore pornographic films that became the most prolific film genre in Japan during the 1960s and 1970s. Japanese sources claim that Kobayashi directed over 400 pink films between 1960 and 1990, making him possibly the most prolific Japanese film director.

Satoru Kobayashi was born in Nagano Prefecture on August 1, 1930. His family owned a hot-spring resort hotel. As a teenager during World War II, Kobayashi was involved in anti-war activities, resulting in his torture by the Japanese military police. In an interview with the Director's Guild, Kobayashi claimed that it was this first-hand experience with torture that gave him his interest and adeptness with the sado-masochistic genre of pink film in which he often worked.

Kobayashi left Nagano for Tokyo, where he studied theater. He became involved with butoh, worked as a set designer, and wrote theatrical criticism while in university. In 1954 he joined Shintoho studios as an assistant director. Here he worked under ero guro masters Teruo Ishii and Hiroshi Shimizu, as well as Kinuyo Tanaka, Japan's first female director. Kobayashi's directorial debut was with the independently produced Crazy Desire (狂った欲望, Kurutta Yokubō^?) (1959). For Shintoho Kobayashi made ten more films with such exploitable titles as Dangerous Temptation, Three Women Burglars and Phantom Detective: Terrifying Alien (all 1960).