Kōichi Saitō

Who is Kōichi Saitō?

Kōichi Saitō is a Japanese cinematographer who has often worked with "Four Heavenly Kings of Pink" pink film directors Takahisa Zeze and Hisayasu Satō. Saitō also worked with all nearly every director of the post-Heavenly King generation at Kokuei studio.

In his Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, Jasper Sharp writes that Saitō is probably the best cinematographer currently working in the pink film genre. He is most closely associated with the work of Takahisa Zeze, and Sharp credits Saitō with helping the director bridge the gap between pink and mainstream film. For his work in Zeze's Upcoming Scenery, Saitō was given a special award for Best Cinematographer at the Pink Grand Prix.

Sharp judges that Saitō's work in Zeze's Woman with Black Underwear: Snake-Headed Fish is his "crowning achievement". In their review of Zeze's Crevice of Skin, cinematopics.com notes that the beautiful imagery captured by the cinematography of Zeze's "partner", Saitō, adds to the power of the work. Bashing, a film Saitō photographed, was shown in the competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.