audiences with The Guy Who Started a Storm which was released during the 1957 New Years season. Theatre owners were displeased that there were no further Ishihara films scheduled before Golden Week of the following year. The studio then order Masuda to make a film with Ishihara in 10 days. Producer Takiko Mizunoe brought him a script by Shintarō Ishihara. Masuda found it much too long to be completed in the given time, rewrote it and then completed the film within 12 or 13 days. Many of the settings and style he used in his films came from European and Hollywood cinema, but he framed it all in a Japanese context, in the spirit of "borderless" action cinema. He did not want to make typical films and the more European flavour of his work set him apart from many of his contemporaries. He made many yakuza films but considered them "youth films" put in a yakuza setting, favouring human drama over verisimilitude. The actors also were favoured over a distinctive visual style which, as writer Jasper Sharp suggested, may have accounted for his popular success in the star-based studio system. Despite production line genre work forming the bulk of his oeuvre, Masuda has always been able to express his views, even subversive ones, and reflect on societal issues through his films. Legacy Within the studio system, Toshio Masuda was a major figure in defining the Nikkatsu Action style. He has been called the studio's top action director and worked with the studio's biggest stars. He produced box office hits which are fondly remembered by Japanese fans into the 21st century and are regarded as genre landmarks by Japanese critics. Masuda developed a reputation as a "pro's pro", who delivered consistently strong work in the difficult, fast-paced, production line environment of the Nikkatsu Company and did so on time and within budget. His films from this period remain little known outside Japan, largely eclipsed by the cult fame of Nikkatsu enfant terrible Seijun Suzuki. While preparing a Nikkatsu Action Cinema retrospective for the 2005 Udine Far East Film Festival, author and critic Mark Schilling found it likely that none of the five Masuda films he selected previously had been screened abroad. though Velvet Hustler was released on VHS cassette by Home Vision Entertainment on September 21, 2001 in North America. After the collapse of the studio system, Masuda's career continued unabated.