今岡信治

Shinji Imaoka (b. 1965, Osaka, Japan) belongs to a group of Japanese erotic filmmakers designated as the Seven Lucky Gods (shichifukujin), who debuted in pink film at the end of the 1990s. After graduating from university, he began working as an assistant to Hisayasu Sato and other directors of Shishi Pro, a pink film production company. In 1995 he debuted as a director for Kokuei productions with the erotic movie Waiting for the Comet (Suisei-machi). His dryly humorous pink movies, containing uncommonly few sex scenes and focusing on tragicomic characters who desperately seek an escape from their stereotypical lives, have been successful at foreign festivals and with domestic audiences. Lunch Box (Tammono, 2004) and Frog Song (Kaeru no uta, 2005) even made it into wider distribution in Japan.

46. IFF Karlovy Vary