BIOGRAPHY
Koji Wakamatsu (born 1 April 1936, in Wakuya, Miyagi, Japan) moved to Tokyo at the age of 17 and after a series of small jobs became a yakuza. Following a fight, he was sent to prison where he learned that power leads to repression and brutality. After his release, he wrote a book about his experience and found in filmmaking a way to expose the abuse of power. In 1959, he worked in television and four years later shot his first film. He was granted total artistic freedom as long as sex and violence predominated. His “pinku eiga” (erotic Japanese films) attracted a lot of attention and step by step he realized that eroticism was necessary to the development of his political discourse; thus the original constraint had become a necessity. In 1965 he created his own production company Wakamatsu Production and directed Secrets behind the Wall. The film was submitted to Berlin Film Festival that same year and was nominated for the Golden Bear. Its controversy led to a diplomatic incident between Germany and Japan; Wakamatsu’s camera had thus become an active political weapon exposing the faults of a hypocritical government and the mouthpiece of the identity crisis of young people (Go Go Second Time Virgin, Sex Jack). In the 1960s-1970s, Wakamatsu’s films, shot frenetically (around ten films a year) with a simplistic touch in their bare staging that was reminiscent of Jean-Luc Godard, but with sexual excesses and brutality that were typical of exploitation films, are virulent anarchist manifestos that maddened Japanese authorities and also got him banned from American and Russian territories. In 1971 Wakamatsu gained international notoriety at Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes Film Festival with Violated Angels (1967) and Sex Jack (1970). Five years later he joined Nagisa Oshima’s The Realm of Senses on the latter’s request as the executive producer. His latest film, United Red Army, was selected at Berlin Film Festival in 2008 (Forum section) and critically-acclaimed worldwide.

SELECTIVE FILMOGRAPHY
Secrets Behind The Wall (1965, b&w, 75’) Berlin Film Festival 1965
The Embryo Hunts in Secret (1966, b&w, 72’)
Violated Angels (1967, b&w, 56’) Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight 1971
Season of Terror (1969, b&w/color, 78’)
Violent Virgin (1969, b&w /color, 66’)
Running in Madness, Dying in Love (1969, color, 72’)
Naked Bullet (1969, b&w /color, 72’)
Go Go Second Time Virgin (1969, b&w /color, 65’)
Violence Without a Cause (1969, b&w /color, 72’)
Sex Jack (1970, n&b/color, 70’) Cannes Film Festival Directors’ Fortnight 1971
Shinjuku Mad (1970, b&w /color, 66’)
The Woman Who Wanted To Die (1970, b&w /color, 71’)
Red Army / PFLP: World War Declaration (1971, b&w, 80′)
Ecstasy of The Angels (1972, b&w /color, 89’)
A Pool Without Water (1982, color, 103′)
Landscape of a 17-Year-Old (2004, color, 89′)
United Red Army (2008, b&w /color, 190′)