Biography
Takao Saitō (also credited as Takao Saito or 斎藤 孝雄) was a Japanese cinematographer. He joined Toho Studios in 1946 as a camera assistant and worked on numerous films directed by Akira Kurosawa, initially as an assistant or on secondary cameras.
He served as cinematographer or co-cinematographer on Kurosawa films including Sanjuro (1962), High and Low (1963), Dodes'ka-den (1970), Kagemusha (1980), Ran (1985) and Dreams (1990). Saitō received an Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography for Ran. He died in 2014.
