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THE
NIKKATSU ROMAN PORNO TRAILER COLLECTION
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Review
by
Brian Lindsey
Film:6
DVD:6
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| Preparatory
to their release of some of these titles on DVD in 2012, the folks
at Impulse Pictures have assembled an eyebrow-raising, often jawdropping
collection of Japanese "Roman Porno" ("romantic
pornography") trailers from the heyday of Nikkatsu Films'
sexploitation era. |
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Between
1971 and 1988, Nikkatsu — Japan's oldest movie studio, at one
time considered the most prestigious — cranked out nearly a thousand
of these softcore T & A flicks (commonly referred to as "Pink"
films). Economic survival was the reason, as the Japanese public
was abandoning the cinema in favor of television shows. Box-office
receipts for conventional fare was plummeting, so Nikkatsu's solution
was to provide a segment of that disaffected public something
they couldn't get on TV — sex. The "Pink" film
was certainly not a new phenomena at the time, but the genre was
entirely the purview of quickie, low-budget indie filmmakers.
Along with far superior production values Nikkatsu brought a modicum
of respectability to what was considered tawdry, lower-class entertainment.
This proved to be a successful formula and the decision to 'go
pink' a very profitable one. |
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The
surprising thing about these films, at least from a Western standpoint,
is their blatant fixation on fetishism. A naked woman is a naked
woman, of course, but the kind of kinky shenanigans that permeate
these "Roman Porno" movies were mostly relegated to
hardcore, XXX-rated pictures in America. Bondage, role play and
especially 'fantasy' rape (the female victim either secretly desires
to be sexually violated or discovers that it turns her on) are
common elements of the Nikkatsu milieux. I'm aware that cultural
factors were partly responsible for this; Japanese women are (or
at least were) much more subservient than their Western counterparts
and the feminist movement was slower to make strides in traditionally
male-dominated Japan. This makes for an oddly fascinating comparison...
American softcore sex flicks of the same period could show full-frontal
nudity, yet the vast majority of them were still of the relatively
innocent "nudie-cutie" persuasion. ("Roughies"
weren't the norm.) In the realm of the Japanese Roman Porno, however,
the depiction of pubic hair is an unbreakable taboo — although
rape, torture and water sports are no big deal. |
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Which
means that the filmmakers had to be fairly imaginative (not to
mention painstakingly exact) when it came to camouflaging the
offending genitalia, otherwise resorting to optical fogging. These
techniques are amply demonstrated in the assembled trailers, which
also lay bare just how freakin' kinky supposedly mainstream Japanese
sex films were in the 1970s-'80s. Below is the full list of trailers
included in the collection, in the order they appear on the disc: |
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Female Teacher: Dirty Afternoon
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Female Teacher Hunting
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Female Teacher: In Front of the Students
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Female Gymnastics Instructor: Jump and Straddle
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Zoom Up: Beaver Book Girl
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Zoom In: Rape Apartments
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Debauchery
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She Cat
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Sex Hunter: Wet Target
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I Love It from Behind!
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Nurses Gone Wild!
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Nurse Diary: Beastly Afternoon
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Nurse Diary: Mischievous Fingers
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Nurses'
Dormitory: Assy Fingers
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New Company Girls: 9 to 5
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Office Love: Midday Sanctuary
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Rape Me!
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Rape
Shot: Momoe's Lips
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Pearl Divers: Tight Shellfish
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It Happened One Summer: Blue Coral Reef
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Affair in the Early Afternoon: Kyoto Tapestry
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Sex Fiend
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Sayuri Ichijo: Wet Lust
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Oh! Women: Dirty Songs
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Apartment Wife: Afternoon Affair
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Coed Report: Yuko's White Breasts
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The Lovers Are Wet
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Embraced By the Darkness
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Confidential Report: Prostitute Torture Hell
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Wet Lust: 21 Strippers
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Painful Bliss! A Surprise Twist
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Wet Lips
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Race Across the Drenched Wasteland
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Love Hunter
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Rape!
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Love Hotel
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Nympho Diver: G-String Festival
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Sex Hunter |
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Personally,
having viewed these trailers I can say that the ones involving
crime and/or action look the most interesting; others have a decidedly
art-house feel, touting some arresting visuals. (The slapstick
comedies look pretty stupid, though.) All told, this compilation
provides a good overview of the Nikkatsu Roman Porno world for
anyone who might be curious. |
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| Unlike
many such compilations, the trailers in this collection are all
in terrific shape.
They're presented 1.78 anamorphic; for the few that are 2.35:1
the aspect ratio is preserved, without stretching, via letterboxing.
The Japanese-language Dolby Mono audio track is also of good quality.
Removable English subtitles translate all the dialog and nutty
screen captions (with the exception of the actor's names). Since
the trailers add up to only a little more than an hour's running
time, a 30-minute short, Ryoko's Lesbian Flight, is included
as a bonus feature. (Although carrying the Nikkatsu imprimatur,
this tale of two flight attendants getting it on is actually atypical
of the showcased trailers, since it's shot on video instead of
film.) A 4-page booklet of liner notes announces Female
Teacher: Dirty Afternoon and Debauchery
as the first titles to be released by Impulse, sometime in 2012,
and offers a concise introduction to Nikkatsu and its Roman Porno
films. 12/14/10 |
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