Yesterday I shot some more Single-8 (the superior Japanese equivalent of Super 8) footage around the city's remaining 35mm adult movie theatres. While I did make many 16mm films at film school and a little bit of stop-motion Super 8 in junior high, I had never shot Single-8 and I'm still getting used to the camera, so we'll see how it turns out. In the meantime, I captured a bit of mobile phone video inside the Shimbashi Roman Gekijô, which is under the tracks of the Yamanote Line (hence the arched ceiling). Hearing moans of pleasure combined with trains rumbling directly overhead is quite something. Click on the image above to see a short video of the curtain call, signalled by an elegant buzzer system. Dig the geezer who goes to the little boys room just as the show begins (QuickTime, 57s, 3.29Mb).
It's always a triple bill at these cinemas. When I walked in, the third feature was just ending. It was basically SM hardcore porn, based on a novel by Dan Oniroku. Strangely, it was shot on video that was transferred to 35mm. This must have been something producer/distributor Xces Film had experimented with at some point (?). By the way, a lot of this company's films can be viewed online for 500 yen (or downloaded for 980 yen). But as usual, Macintosh users are left out in the cold (it costs more to include Mac in the DRM protocol). 
The first film was Kateinai sex: Yurushite, otôsama! (see left) which centered around a father-daughter incest theme. The second film, which I didn't stay all the way through, was Wafuku gibo: Tsuya ni musuko to, part of the horny widow subgenre, and which featured the late Hayashi Yumika (林由美香) in a supporting role (see one obit here).
A few years ago, when Jasper Sharp of Midnight Eye lived in Tokyo, he started work on a documentary about pinku eiga (see here and there). I served as the editor and one of the videographers. We shot a lot of interviews with people such as Japanese cinema guru Prof. Roland Domenig, Donald Richie, as well as some of the actors that star in pink films, but the financing fell through. It will instead be a big book, set for publication next year. At the time, I cut together a 14-minute promo reel for potential producers, which I exhumed off my media drive. I had to compress it quite a bit but you'll get the idea. Click the frame grab at right to check it out (QuickTime MPEG-1, 14m18s, 144.6Mb). Viewer Discretion Advised.Related links:
Pink Films Special - Round-up of reviews by Jasper Sharp on Midnight Eye.
Pink film - Wikipedia entry.
Pink Screen - Tokyo resident Stephane is an absolute pinku eiga maniac. This extensive review database is only in French.
9 comments:
thanks for the 'behind the pink curtain' promo real. downloading it now. shouldn't take long.
anyway, looking forwards to jasper sharps book arriving. i, like many, found something that's of great interest to me when i first started to pick through snippets of the genre. thankfully, as this is a common experience, those that have more experience have made some good choices for films released (subbed) and they're been forgiving of my ignorance. would love to have an easy read on the subject, get something nearer to the sense of the stuff which i would love to be able to leap towards with regards any aspect of japanese film - that's a leap i don't think's that easy without knowing the language and perhaps having some professional opening which allows access to more of the stuff... it will probably remain a niche unless japan focusses more on representing its product to a global audience from its home releases.
logboy
What a shame you couldn't finish the documentary.
It would have been great if Domenig did the naration. Had some drinks with him and a good friend of mine twice and always love to hear him speaking. He's really a human encyclopedia. In 2005 he did a live dub via headphones for
Atsushi Yamatoya's Sex Doll of Wastelands (Koya no datchiwaifu) at the Viennale. Although sceptical at first, most people, including myself, were really enthusiastic afterwars.
Do you mean he spoke all the characters' lines as the film played? Interesting.
In the interview footage he comes across like a Rhodes Scholar of pink, an expert witness of pink...a Mad Doctor of pink.
I'm quite sure his extensive knowledge will figure into the book.
Yeah, he translated everything live. Did a really great job on this.
I also remember him in another documentary which I saw last year on french/german Tv-Station "arte", about Japan's sexworld.
Arte, who are known for being open to the kind of programming you mentioned, was one of the potential investors. I can't remember why, but it didn't work out.
Jasper -- if you're out there, how about a few words?
Ok, I’ll take the bait Jason and finally get round to posting something on your blog!
Ah yes, the Roman Gekijo – happy days! This was right down from the school where I was teaching, so before lessons I often used to fit in a triple bill of films like Lolita Vibrator Torture, No Pants Tour Conductor, and Pink Consulting Room: Physical Check Up. Great place to go people watching too. The audience make up was quite something.
Also very interesting seeing the Behind the Pink Trailer again – its been year hasn’t it? Well, shame the doc never quite came together in the end, but never say never, I’d say. The book will be out next year, as Jason said, and yes, I’ve been getting a little help from Roland in terms of facts and figures. It’s a fairly labyrinthine subject, especially in its first few decades. Roland’s knowledge is not only specific to pink, I should add, as hopefully the Sex Documentary article on the current Midnight Eye should prove. Actually, he’s not just the Dr Ruth of the Japanese film world either – he’s just as knowledgeable outside of sex films, a walking encyclopedia of all sorts of obscure knowledge about every aspect of Japanese film of the type that has never appeared outside of the Japanese language. He should of course write his own book, but since that’s never going to happen (its bloody hard work writing books) you’ll have to make do with mine instead!
Finally, just to add Xces is not the only of the major pink companies with their own Video on Demand service. OP Eiga and Shintoho also have theirs, and there’s also DMM, which even has Roman Porno films on it. It would be great if they put subtitles on these – I think the market is potentially big enough to make it worthwhile, especially compared with the shrinking DVD market.
(Look forward to various pink events around Europe next year…)
i would love an 'encyclopedia of japanese film' - it's a fantasy : one book, easy to read, no more books to buy and no more knowledge to find. if it happened, and it worked, it would take a lot of the joy out of it. maybe not. maybe so. studio backgrounds, genres, timelines, influences, poster designers, obscure-but-famouse workers within different fields, business aspects... the list of potentially informative aspects which might affect what we choose to watch must be endless...
logboy
Hey, Jasper. It only took you a few years to pipe up.
Roman Gekijo is not a bad little cinema, all trains considered. Not as grungy as Shinjuku's Kokusai Gekijo. As long as they're non-smoking, I don't mind squalor. Did you ever check out the houses in Osaka?
I'd like to watch some of Nikkatsu's films via DMM, but again, Macs are computer non grata.
Anyway, looking forward to the tome -- I haven't forgotten about that help you need -- just let Cannes blow over first.
I liked the Roman Gekijo - the train's reminded me of the legendary scala cinema in Kings Cross, London. Unlike the Kokusai Gekijo, they at least turn the lights off and the sound up to a level where you can here it (the Shinjuku Kokusai dont, apparently, trust their patrons to behave themselves in the dark!) I never went to any in Osaka, which boasts Japan's first gay cinema, the Umeda Rose, just above another place showing Nikkatsu stuff, but I did visit the local porno house in Beppu.
There's not much point in checking out the Roman Porno stuff on DMM if you live in japan, because Geneon put out hundreds of films on DVD last year, which should all be in Tsutaya I guess. More useful for checking out obscure Shintoho/Op/Xces films.
Thanks for the help offer - after Cannes then, ne?
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