Shunya Itō

is a Japanese film director known for starting the Sasori / Female Prisoner Scorpion series of 1970s exploitation films starring Meiko Kaji. Itō worked for Toei Company for most of his career. In 1972, he won a Directors Guild of Japan New Directors Citation for his first film, Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion.

He won Picture of the Year at the Japanese Academy Awards in 1985 with his film Gray Sunset, a story of a man suffering from Alzheimer's disease. This thus became Japan's entry for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film instead of Akira Kurosawa's Ran, which caused a slight uproar in Western media as many critics thought Ran had a real chance of winning, whereas Gray Sunset was not even shortlisted.

In 1995, he directed Lupin III: Farewell to Nostradamus. In 1998, he directed the World War II drama Pride: The Fateful Moment, presenting a sympathetic view of Hideki Tōjō on trial at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, attracting accusations of revisionism.

Filmography Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion (1972) Female Prisoner Scorpion: Jailhouse 41 (1972) Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (1973) , aka Curse of the Dog God (, 1977) To Trap a Kidnapper (1982) Hakujasho (1983) Gray Sunset (1985) , aka Labyrinth of Flower Garden (, 1988) (, 1989) Lupin III: Farewell to Nostradamus (1995) Onimaro zanshinken, aka Demon Slayer Sword (1995, TV movie) Pride: The Fateful Moment (1998) , aka Eiga kantoku tte nanda! (, 2006 documentary) , aka Lost Crime, aka Rosuto kuraimu: Senkô (, 2010) Hajimari mo owari mo nai, aka No Beginning, No End (, 2013) (, 2020)