K?ichi Sait?

K?ichi Sait? ?? ?? Sait? K?ichi 3 February 1929 28 November 2009 was a Japanese film director and photographer Born in Tokyo Sait? started studying at Rikkyo University but ended up graduating from the Tokyo College of Photography currently Tokyo Polytechnic University He was initially a movie stills photographer at Nikkatsu before launching his own production company Saito Productions and directing his first film Tsubuyaki no J? a lowbudget independent film with a visual flair that earned comparisons with Claude Lelouch and with Richard Lesters Beatles films including A Hard Days Night Some of his first films were youth movies featuring Group Sounds music He came to prominence in the early 1970s with a series of movies about young people escaping to or searching for their identity in the countryside He won the best director award at the 1972 Mainichi Film Awards His Tsugaru jongarabushi was selected the best film of 1973 in the Kinema Junpo poll of critics Sait? continued directing into his seventies and also made some documentaries He was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun 4th Class Gold Rays with Rosette in 2000