[1] His father owned a neighborhood movie theater, giving the young Watanabe an early interest in and a familiarity with the cinema.
When he died of tuberculosis in 1941, Watanabe inherited his older brother's large collection of movie memorabilia, including film scripts and magazines.
[4] Two decades later, through his Film Workers Production Company, he gave help to the careers of Kazuo "Gaira" Komizu and Kazuhiro Sano, both of whom would become leading pink film-makers of the 1980s and 1990s.
[7] Among their collaborations, Secret Hot Sprint Town: Nightly Starfish (1970) is notable for its striking use of color sequences within a predominantly black and white film.
[11] It was at this time that he befriended Kazuo "Gaira" Komizu, who wrote the script to Watanabe's Uniform Virgin Pain (Seifuku shojo no itama, 1982), and Kazuhiro Sano.
[12] Also in 1982, with director Chūsei Sone, Watanabe started the Film Workers Production Company as an outlet for more mainstream projects.