Maki Tsutsumi

Maki Tsutsumi (堤 真希) was a Kowloon-based Japanese film producer and activist who notoriously specialized in 'road show' exploitation Z movies during the 1960s and martial arts films during the 1970s to the 1980s.

Bio
Tsutsumi was born in Isesaki, Gunma Prefecture on August 11, 1939. Her mother was a Korean woman who lived in Gunma Prefecture at the time, while her father was a Japanese soldier from Okinawa.

During her high school years, Tsutsumi had a crush on classmate Tsutomu Sasaki. Though ordinary-looking in comparison to her friends Kayoko Sato and Kazuhiro Asagami, Tsutsumi harbored a very short temper, prone to tantrums and acted of violence in order to avoid humiliation; even assaulting a police officer to keep her yaoi manuscript from being discovered. She often had to humor Sato to make her happy. Being a talented artist, she occasionally drew homoerotic pictures of Sasaki in her notebooks and, under a male pseudonym, had entered several erotic manga into contests that promised serialization to the winner.

In December 1960, Tsutsumi and her family went to Kowloon for a Christmas vacation. In November 1963, Tsutsumi joined the film industry as a film producer, with the first film she produced being Man-Hei or Man-Wai.

Personal life
In her high school years, Tsutsumi was smart and excelled in academics. She was also a talented manga artist who would occasionally draw ecchi yaoi in her notebooks, including dubious pictures of her crush, Tsutomu Sasaki. She was very sensitive about these drawings because she thought that her life will be ruined and that people would not see her in the same way if they were to find out about them. Her friends eventually do find out but don't mind it. Tsutsumi was easily angered when her sister Kyoko or fellow classmate Kayoko Sato does something weird.

Death
On November 21, 1990, Tsutsumi died from cerebral infarction in her Yau Tsim District home.