The high-minded fare of the film festival circuit and the cheap thrills of B-movie pulp couldn't seem farther apart, but the circuit will be closed when king of the B-movies Roger Corman heads the competition jury at this year's Tokyo International Film Festival.

Corman is a legendary producer and director, whose decades-long career has produced dozens of B-movie classics, ranging from biker flicks ("The Wild Angels"), hippie-era sex-and-drugsploitation ("The Trip," "Women in Cages"), punk rock (The Ramones' "Rock 'n' Roll High School"), and a slew of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations with Vincent Price.

It was under Corman's tutelage that a bevy of stars got their first break on some el-cheapo production; alumni include Jack Nicholson, Pam Grier, Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Francis Ford Coppola and James Cameron, to name but a few.