Teruo Ishii was a Japanese film director best known in the West for his early films in the Super Giant series, and for his
films in the Ero guro ("erotic-grotesque") subgenre of pinku eiga such as Shogun's Joys of Torture. He also directed the 1965
film, Abashiri Prison, which helped to make Ken Takakura a major star in Japan. Referred to in Japan as "The King of Cult",
Ishii had a much more prolific and eclectic career than was generally known in the West during his lifetime.
