Masao Adachi is a Japanese filmmaker, screenwriter, and actor whose work has been central to Japan’s radical experimental and political cinema since the 1960s. He began making films while studying at Nihon University and collaborated closely with Nagisa Oshima and Koji Wakamatsu. His films, including Female Convict 701: Scorpion and Red Army/PFLP: Declaration of World War, challenge conventional forms of narrative and documentary filmmaking, linking cinema with political struggle. After decades away from filmmaking, Adachi returned with The Prisoner (2006) and has continued to make politically engaged work, including Escape (2025).