DEBAUCHERY

Japan | 1983 Directed by Hidehiro Itô Starring Ryoko Watanabe Serina Nishikawa Mizuho Nakagawa Color | 70 Minutes | Not Rated Format: DVD (R1 - NTSC) Impulse Pictures

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		Review by Doug Red Film:6 : DVD:6

Remember Russ Meyer, the noted breast-loving independent filmmaker who gave the world Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Up? Well, I read the theory once (maybe in Jimmy McDonough's Big Bosoms and Square Jaws) that his films were all about the laws of the universe according to Russ, which I like to imagine was brought to him by a vision of a DDD-busted angel and inscribed on a golden bra. In Russ's world, if a woman wasn't sexually satisfied by her man she would stray, pole-dancing through a succession of lovers looking for the physical gratification she craved. It was the weakness of the man unable to please his woman that was at the heart of films in the Russ Meyer universe, with infidelity the price paid for the man's crime. Director Hidehiro Itô's 1983 magnum opus of sexual excess Debauchery seems to show that Russ was tapping into a universal understanding of the filmic libido shared by men around the world.

Debauchery stars mega-babe Ryoko Watanabe (Female Prisoner: Cage) as Ami, a jaded housewife. She has a successful doctor husband, a nice house, and plenty of leisure time. Unfortunately, what she doesn't have is any excitement between the sheets. Any efforts Ami makes at getting her hubby to notice that she's a woman in need of a tune-up and lube job go ignored by her yuppie better half whose work and mild nature leaves him with no time for his husbandly duties. This passionless marriage sets the stage for action when Ami hears about an establishment where many bored housewives get to indulge in the pleasurable side of life as high class hookers. Ami initially thinks it's a bad idea, partially because it was brought up by her husband's creepy friend who claimed to have gone there but once. It sticks in her mind, however, and before long Ami is standing in front of the Madame Machiko Society Club, signing up as the newest hooker housewife.

Fortunately for the sexually frustrated Ami (and the audience!), it's no time at all before she is encountering her first customer, who goes after her back door doggie style and with a fair amount of corporal punishment. Ami is shattered by the experience, but only long enough to recuperate and realize that she loved the thrill. During her next session, she is picked by a man of great appetites, who bears an uncanny resemblance to the old Hawaii 5-0 villain Wo Fat. The immodest 'Wo' wastes no time giving Ami the business, from chokings to beatings, to anal beads up the poop chute to spankings, and lots of moves and positions that stretch the human body to its limits. Wo even has the strength to pull off a standing sixty-nine without diminished ardor. This sequence is the first that features an appearance by the UFO — the Unidentified Fuzzy Object. In Japan there were (and still is) degrees of what is acceptable to see in a sexual situation. One of the big no-nos is public hair, which cannot be shown. Thus, the UFO effect appears wherever naughty bits threaten to show up on screen. This is helpful in avoiding a Full Monty from the sensual sumo, but it's a pity that we miss seeing all of Ami nooks and crannies. We still see plenty of Ryoko's physical real estate, from her Eiffel Towers to her hot crossed buns, and what is viewable is certified Grade-A 100% hot. After feeling that she was almost split in two by the previous Kama Sutra of punishing love, Ami decides to keep on the sensual path and gets another partner, who turns out to be her husband's friend, the one who said he had been to Madame Machiko's club in the first place. To the surprise of no one, it turns out that he wanted Ami to go so that he'd get to bone her, and the rest of the film is filled with one more extreme act after another, including the arrestingly hot scene where Ami gets walked through the streets of the city on a leash wearing but a few strips of leather.

Of course, all that unrestrained passion has to lead to an explosive conclusion. Will the husband ever service his wife or has his twig & berries atrophied with lack of use? Will Ami become a kinky monster living only for the thrills? How many other genitals will the UFO obscure? All will be revealed at the end.

Debauchery's strength is that it is a solid erotic entertainment. Sex scenes and scenarios are all shot with imagination and fervor, the ladies are all strikingly beautiful, and the storyline makes sense. It is more along the lines of depraved relations than tender love, so expect a solid onslaught of kinkiness, though oddly not enough to make it into a specialist bondage film. The UFO thing will be galling to some viewers, but it makes sense to just accept it and move on, and most scenes are filmed to avoid needed to employ the UFO in the first place. Finally, Ryoko Watanabe shows legitimate acting chops as the woman who just can't get enough of that funky stuff... Even when her back door is being made into Wo Fat's personal bead storage unit, she projects a real human being who is being equally repulsed and turned on by what is transpiring, and you'll want to know how she comes through these trials in the end.

Impulse Pictures new release of Debauchery (as part of its Nikkatsu Erotic Films Collection) looks great in its 16x9/1.85:1 presentation with fine crisp Japanese 2.0 Mono sound. Other than the enforced blurring effect on a few instances of genital viewing (the UFO) the image looks like a big budget production with lavish lighting and authentic looking sets. The extras are few on the disc, basically the removable English subtitles and the film's trailer. There is a printed supplement, however: liner notes by Jasper Sharp that describes the genre that Debauchery is a part of, the "Roman Porno", as well as discussion of the film, its director and cast.

With any luck, Impulse will be able to keep up a steady stream of releases in the same unnatural way that Wo Fat maintained his libido. 4/19/12

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