Banmei Takahashi

{{short description|Japanese film director (born 1949)}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Banmei Takahashi

| image = Takahashi Banmei from "DOOR" at Red Carpet of the Tokyo International Film Festival 2022 (52461034021) (cropped).jpg

| caption = Takahashi in 2022

| alt = Takahashi in three-quarter profile at press event wearing black suit and black shirt and glasses

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1949|5|10}}

| birth_place = Nara, Nara, Japan

| death_date =

| death_place =

| other_names =

| occupation = Film director

| years_active = 1975–present

| spouse = Keiko Takahashi

| website =

}}

{{Nihongo|Banmei Takahashi|高橋伴明|Takahashi Banmei}} (or Tomoaki Takahashi){{cite book |last=Weisser|first=Thomas|author2=Yuko Mihara Weisser|title=Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films|url=https://archive.org/details/japanesecinemaen00weis|url-access=limited|year=1998|publisher=Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications|location=Miami|isbn=1-889288-52-7|pages= [https://archive.org/details/japanesecinemaen00weis/page/n184 183], 234 }} is a Japanese film director. Takahashi started his career in the pink film industry, making his directorial debut in 1972 with Escaped Rapist Criminal. Due to a disagreement with his producer, Takahashi quit the film industry for a couple years.Weisser, p. 234. He joined pink film pioneer Kōji Wakamatsu's production studio in 1975, working as a script-writer until Wakamatsu produced Takahashi's second film, Delinquent File: Juvenile Prostitution (1976). For the next few years Takahashi averaged five films annually at Wakamatsu's studio, until Takahashi left to start his own production company in 1979.

Takahashi married Nikkatsu Roman Porno and pink film actress Keiko Sekine who then changed her name to Keiko Takahashi and starred in several of Takahashi's films.Weisser, pp. 253, 234. Sekine appeared in Takahashi's Tattoo Ari (1982), a mainstream box-office hit which won Takahashi the award for Best Director at the 4th Yokohama Film Festival.{{Cite web |url=http://homepage3.nifty.com/yokohama-eigasai/04-1982/04_1982_shou.html |script-title=ja:第４回ヨコハマ映画祭 １９８２年日本映画個人賞|accessdate= 2010-01-14|language= Japanese |publisher= Yokohama Film Festival}}Weisser, p.427. With the success of this film, Takahashi dissolved Takahashi Productions to focus on mainstream filmmaking. Takahashi's 1994 film Ai no Shinsekai, inspired by photographer Nobuyoshi Araki's work, is significant as the first Japanese production to play uncensored and unfogged domestically.Weisser, pp. 291-292.