Toshiya Fujita

, also known as , was a Japanese film director, film actor, and screenwriter. He is well-regarded in Japan for his youth films but is best known abroad for Lady Snowblood and Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance, films not typical of his usual style.

Life and career Fujita was born in Pyongyang, Korea. His first film, about a juvenile delinquent, Hikō shōnen: Hinode no sakebi, won him the 1967 New Directors Award from the Directors Guild of Japan. After a successful sequel, Hikō shōnen: Wakamono no toride , Fujita was tapped by Nikkatsu to direct two installments in their youth-oriented Alleycat Rock series which had been initiated in 1970 by director Yasuharu Hasebe with Alleycat Rock: Female Boss. Fujita's two episodes, Stray Cat Rock: Wild Jumbo and Alleycat Rock: Crazy Riders '71, both starred actress Meiko Kaji.

Fujita's August 1971 film for Nikkatsu, Wet Sand in August, a melodramatic look at disenchanted youth in a beach setting, was both a popular hit and a major critical success. Three months later Nikkatsu inaugurated their Roman porno era of big budget softcore pink films. Fujita stayed on with Nikkatsu and his two sequels to Wet Sand in August, the 1972 Scent of Eros in August and the 1973 Sweet Smell of Eros were both produced as part of the Roman porno line. He returned to his early roots in juvenile delinquent dramas with Female Delinquent: A Docu-Drama (1977) based on the autobiography of real life bad girl Mako Minato. His 1978 film Kaerazaru hibi told the story of a teenaged boy returning to his home town after the death of his father. while Tenshi o yūwaku is a serious portrayal of the problems faced by a young couple (Momoe Yamaguchi and Tomokazu Miura) in the suburbs. He returned to Nikkatsu for the 1983 film Double Bed about a disillusioned group of friends in their thirties and their illicit affairs.