Liquid-crystal shutter

A liquid-crystal shutter, comprising:

• a pair of transparent film substrates, a transparent electrode and an orientation film being formed in sequence on each of said pair of transparent film substrates;
• and
• a liquid crystal inserted between said pair of transparent film substrates,
• wherein:
• an orientation process is performed on each of the orientation films such that a visual-angle direction in which a maximum contrast is obtained is a six-o'clock direction or a twelve-o'clock direction based on a direction of the short hand of a clock;
• and
• each of said pair of transparent film substrates is an optically anisotropic body such that refractive indexes thereof in thickness directions and plane directions differ, and has a retardation value or retardation values in the range of 5 to 30 nm in the plane of the transparent film substrate, wherein, assuming that long-axis directions denote directions parallel to the longest side of the periphery of said liquid-crystal shutter, the lagging-axis directions in the plane of the transparent film substrates are approximately parallel to the long-axis directions of said liquid-crystal shutter.