Jon Pais - July 19, 2009, 10:58pm

The Brutal Hopelessness of Love. Takashi Ishii’s film amazed me with his great eye for color and camera angles, and his way with the female body.

No Shit. I thought I’d take your rec and give it a go. I think I may have scanned one or two of the Angel Guts movies in some investigative time passed, have seen the Flower and Snake films and came up empty, BUT this one is good. Kudos to Mai Kitajima for her involved and gutsy performance. Maybe the film within a film within a film mixing with real and fantasy life doesn’t hold up to careful scrutiny but it works on the surface enough to provide an adequate oomph of plot to elevate this beyond simple exploitation/erotica. Even the occasional censoring was artistically done. I really liked this film.

sitenoise - August 15, 2009, 10:14am

Jon Pais - July 19, 2009, 10:58pm

The Brutal Hopelessness of Love. Takashi Ishii’s film amazed me with his great eye for color and camera angles, and his way with the female body.

No Shit. I thought I’d take your rec and give it a go. I think I may have scanned one or two of the Angel Guts movies in some investigative time passed, have seen the Snake of June films and came up empty, BUT this one is good. Kudos to Mai Kitajima for her involved and gutsy performance. Maybe the film within a film within a film mixing with real and fantasy life doesn’t hold up to careful scrutiny but it works on the surface enough to provide an adequate oomph of plot to elevate this beyond simple exploitation/erotica. Even the occasional censoring was artistically done. I really liked this film.

Glad you enjoyed it. Takashi Ishii must be one of the great stylists of pink, even if his shortcomings in the scriptwriting department are readily apparent. Incidentally, Not One Less is my favorite Zhang Yimou film after his crowning achievement, To Live. It has the look of the Italian realist filmmakers that must have momentarily interested him.

First, I have to say that I finally finished reading Jasper Sharp’s “Behind the Pink Curtain”, and found it really informative—especially the pages covering pink cinema from the 90s onward, and in particular his profiles of the “four devils”: Hisayasu Sato, Kazuhiro Sano, Toshiki Sato; and the “seven lucky gods”, a group that inlcudes Shinji Imaoka, Mitsuru Meike Yuji, Tajiri and Toshiya Ueno.

And since you mention Angel Guts, I hope readers don’t mind if I re-post something I’d posted three years ago, prior to writing a review of Chusei Sone’s Angel Guts: Red Classroom, an experience that left me shell-shocked.

Aside from logboy’s impassioned posts of the latest releases from the Artsmagic, Synapse and other labels, there hasn’t been much discussion in the forums concerning ‘roman porno’ and ‘pink’ films emanating from Japan as of late. I’m curious to know myself exactly what other readers think of these types of films, whether they’ve watched any, and what their thoughts are, especially in relation to mainstream and arthouse films. So this post is basically a call for discussion. It does very well appear, as logboy has already remarked, that this long-neglected ‘genre’ is at last making inroads into the States and elsewhere, and that in the next couple of years it is easy to imagine several hundred titles being released by directors up til now unheard-of. As of yet, there is next to no available information, either on the Web or in published form, which makes this field all the more exciting, in that each viewer can approach the work fresh, without decades of preconceptions and value judgements layered into the experience.

When one considers that, at its peak, the Japanese film industry produced as many as 535 films per year, and that even now that figure probably hovers around 250, it becomes painfully evident just how ignorant we in the West must be about even the Japanese mainstream market. Up until recently, the cost of obtaining Japanese DVDs was prohibitive, but now they are becoming increasingly available in modestly-priced editions in Hong Kong, Korea, Great Britain and the United States. However, the market in the US and in the UK has become artificially skewed by distributors, who have felt it necessary to create ‘niche’ lines in order to boost sales. Consequently, labels like ‘Tokyo Shock’ and ‘Asian Extreme’ are born, leaving many films that defy easy categorization by the wayside.

Logboy has said repeatedly that one compelling argument for exploring ‘pink’ and ‘roman porno’ films is that they offer the film lover a greater variety than is available in Japanese mainstream and arthouse films. Not having seen enough of either, I’m in no position to take a stand on this issue, but from what I’ve read, a few major studios are controlled by aging conservative gentlemen who determine the types of films seen in the majority of theatres in Japan. As if recognizing the danger of stagnation in a market where domestic films account for only 30% of tickets sold, the Japanese government has felt obliged to step in and take measures to support independent filmmakers. Even so, from the miniscule number of films with English subtitles available to the collector overseas, this supposed homogeneity is not immediately apparent. Films like Rampo Noir, Vibrator, Taste of Tea, Stereo Future, The Choice of Hercules, Kamikaze Taxi, Tony Takitani and A Snake of June are as different from one another as Brokeback Mountain is from Punch Drunk Love. The Korean film industry, frought with similar fears of a stagnating market, regularly uses screenplays based on manga, successful Japanese films or popular novels.

One of the major hurdles the critic has to overcome in discussing ‘pink’ films is the built-in resistance to any dialogue surrounding films whose content is centered around sex. I will admit that, until quite recently, I had the same prejudice, and never read a single review of an x-rated film, let alone the ‘pink’ films of Japan. In preparation for writing this article, I took a look at some of the DVD reviews at Sancho does Asia (French) and found the discussions to be quite thought-provoking as well as informative. A great deal of what I learned so far has been from listening to the interviews and commentaries found on the Artsmagic DVDs. Nevertheless, much remains to be done in terms of marketing and educating the public about the nature of these works. Still, years down the road, once scholars and critics have examined and recorded every possible interpretation and judgement about ‘pinku eiga’ and ‘roman porno’; when the names of the authors of these films become better known; and when all the titles have been carefully catalogued and tabulated—a little bit of the joy of discovery will have disappeared.”

—September 25, 2006

And here’s my review of Sone’s Red Classroom, the strongest entry in the Angel Guts series, as well as being the darkest, most disturbing and most powerful work to come out of Nikkatsu’s roman porno line,

Synopsis
Muraki, a photographer for a pornographic magazine, develops a morbid infatuation for a young woman while watching her take part in a stag film, in which she is raped by three students. He eventually learns of her whereabouts, and arranges to meet with her in an isolated park. Upon discovering that she was the victim of an actual gang rape, Muraki, overcome with compassion, confesses his love for the young woman, whose name he learns is Nami. The two make plans to see one another the following evening but the next day, police raid Muraki’s apartment and take him into custody, forcing him to miss his engagement. This missed date is to have dire consequences for both Muraki and Nami.  Angel Guts, a series of five films produced by four different directors, occupies an important place in the history of Japanese erotic cinema, and Red Classroom stands out as the most accomplished of the series.

Chusei Sone
If Nikkatsu’s hiring Ishii seemed a risky proposition, the decision to have Chusei Sone direct the first two episodes of the series was considerably less surprising. Almost ten years older than Ishii, Sone brought a certain maturity of vision to the young artist’s work.  Joining Nikkatsu shortly after graduating from Tohoku University in 1962, Sone started off as an assistant director to the celebrated director Seijun Suzuki. It didn’t take long before Sone was creating his own films, making his debut with the period drama Sensual History: A Female Artist of the Floating World. Sone eventually gravitated toward more contemporary subject matter with Nymphomaniac Sisters in 1972, in which three armed delinquent sisters run rampage. Sone was rapidly beginning to earn a reputation as one of Nikkatsu’s top roman porno directors. By the late 70s, he had acquired somewhat of a reputation for his hard-core exploitation films, with work such as My Sex Report: Climax Point (1976) and Shinjuku Mixed-Up Street: Wait Till I Come (1977). This made him the perfect choice to direct the first adaptation of Takashi Ishii’s Angel Guts manga series, High School Coed, in 1978. Sone also directed the next in the series, Red Classroom (1979), after which he continued to make several more films for Nikkatsu.

Sone’s style
The chiaroscuro-lighted rooms and the palette of reds and greens with which Sone liberally paints his rich, multi-layered canvases, are eminently suited to the surreal and nightmarish world of Ishii’s Angel Guts. The film bares traces of German expressionism (not so far-fetched, when one considers that Ishii and his colleagues were greatly influenced by the works of Kafka) not only in the visual components—liberty with color, strong diagonals, etc.—but also in its detailed examination of corruption, decline of virtue, and the darker side of the human psyche. Sone, accustomed above all to adapting literary works for the silver screen, has managed to translate the universe of the manga onto celluloid, while at the same time creating a look that is striking in its modernity. Enormous tension is created by the use of tightly confined, almost claustrophobic spaces, which becomes all the more apparent when compared to Tanaka’s Nami, in which the hand-held camera moves about freely—out-of-doors, through dark alleys, crowded train stations, and isolated fields. In Red Classroom, composition, camera angles and color are calculated as much for aesthetic as for psychological impact. The rooms themselves are as articulate as the characters that inhabit them. An outstanding visual stylist, Sone—one of the most talented in a roster that includes Ishii, Tatsumi Kumashiro, Noburu Tanaka and Masaru Konuma—mixes traditional and more experimental imagery with ease. Other films in the series may contain individual powerful scenes, have greater camera movement, utilize more exterior shots and boast more shocking images but, of the three I’ve seen so far, none has the cumulative power of Red Classroom, where the sum of the parts is greater than the whole, and where every millimeter of the Scope frame is so painstakingly composed.

Sex
I once read a review in which the critic wrote that he fast-forwarded through the sex scenes so he could continue on with the story, but in Angel Guts: Red Classroom, the sex scenes are as essential to the development of the plot and an understanding the characters as are the less explicit sorts of human interaction. Nikkatsu might have demanded the sex scenes, but there is nonetheless considerable license in the way each director chose to accomplish this. In any case, the directors as a whole were more interested in the whole range of human behavior, as it expressed itself in relationships between couples, with intimacy at the core. If the notion of a major studio filming sex was both revolutionary and controversial, one would think that the idea of sensationalizing rape must have met with considerable opposition. In fact, as Tanaka points out during his interview, rape has formed a part of Japanese literature for ages, and even Kurosawa’s Rashomon was about a woman who is raped in front of her own husband. Because of strict censorship, the display of genitalia and pubic hair is absolutely forbidden. As a result, adult filmmakers have resorted to fetish, violence, S&M, bondage, rape, ingenious camera angles, editing and even judiciously placed flower vases. In Red Classroom, violence, like love, is just another facet of the human condition, and Sone doesn’t flinch from portraying it. To Western eyes, such graphic depictions of bestiality may be difficult to stomach. In Hollywood, the search for the criminals would become the focus of the story, the wrongdoers sought out and punished. Yet these films are not so much about obtaining any sort of justice for the victims as they are an examination of the emotional toll exacted on them, and how they find the inner strength to go on living.

After writing the above review, I went ahead and watched a few more pink films, then gave up, believing that nothing would ever equal Sone’s achievement. This year however, after concluding that Japanese independent filmmaking was all but dead, I decided to go back and see if maybe pink film had anything else different and noteworthy. In the past months, I must have watched over 25 Japanese roman porno, pinky violence and pink films, as well as a handful of Korean releases of Japanese titles (some with Korean subs only). But the most amazing discovery was a group of seven films released by UK distributor Salvation by some of the 4 Angels and 7 Heavenly Gods mentioned in Jasper’s book. In the next weeks, I’ll be sharing my thoughts on some of these films, as well as a bunch of others that should be on their way soon.

BTW, shouldn’t this Asian film thread be in the “What DVDs have you been watching lately?” thread?

There have been a few of these films Midnight Eye have covered which have caught my interest, though they never seem to turn up on DVD. Most of the roman porno/pinku stuff simply doesn’t interest me because no matter the technical and/or artistic aptitude of the director there’s nothing about them which makes me personally feel as if they’re going to be anything more than tarted-up skin flicks, to put it bluntly. I do admire your writing on the subject, Jon - it’s a hell of a lot more literate than I can usually manage - yet at the same time you still don’t sell me any more than Jasper Sharp or Tom Mes do. Whether that means I’m horribly repressed or that films largely written around sex just aren’t for me I don’t know. 

On the other hand I do count A Snake of June as one of the greatest films ever made, so hey.

Ooops! I’ve edited my previous post to say Flower and Snake films instead of Snake of June films.

Eight Rooks - August 16, 2009, 6:28pm

There have been a few of these films Midnight Eye have covered which have caught my interest, though they never seem to turn up on DVD. Most of the roman porno/pinku stuff simply doesn’t interest me because no matter the technical and/or artistic aptitude of the director there’s nothing about them which makes me personally feel as if they’re going to be anything more than tarted-up skin flicks, to put it bluntly. I do admire your writing on the subject, Jon - it’s a hell of a lot more literate than I can usually manage - yet at the same time you still don’t sell me any more than Jasper Sharp or Tom Mes do. Whether that means I’m horribly repressed or that films largely written around sex just aren’t for me I don’t know. 

On the other hand I do count A Snake of June as one of the greatest films ever made, so hey.

That’s one of the frustrating aspects of pink films for the collector—that the majority of those reviewed in the pages of sites like midnight eye, sancho does asia and the bulletsnbabes forums aren’t available on English - friendly DVD. And if you happen to arrive late on the scene, many of the distributors of English subbed discs have either folded, or the DVDs have gone OOP. Other useful sites with reviews of English-subbed discs include 10,000 bullets and the grindhousedatabase. And Snowblood Apple has reviews of many of the Salvation titles that blew me away (and which I hope to cover more in the forums).

As far as my own interest in pink film, Snake of June was pivotal in my viewing experience—proof, if any was needed, that films dealing with erotic subject matter can transcend the limitations of the genre. Later on, the outstanding omnibus Rampo Noir introduced me to two pink directors, Akio Jissoji and Hisayasu Sato, whose contributions convinced me that some extremely talented directors must indeed be active in the field. Still, after watching the latter’s Survey Map of a Paradise Lost, with its hard-to-stomach scenes of bondage, I pretty much lost interest in pursuing it any further, and I believe Norifumi Suzuki’s School of the Holy Beast and Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom were among the last I watched. That was already a few years ago.

So that was your other gateway drug? I must get myself a copy of Rampo Noir at some point, I did always mean to watch it. I’m not much of a gorehound, either, though again in the right context and/or well presented it doesn’t bother me so much.

Eight Rooks - August 17, 2009, 8:08am

So that was your other gateway drug? I must get myself a copy of Rampo Noir at some point, I did always mean to watch it. I’m not much of a gorehound, either, though again in the right context and/or well presented it doesn’t bother me so much.

I can’t exactly remember the order everything occured in (I’d have to go through all the forum archives for that), but I’m fairly sure Tsukamoto and Rampo Noir had something to do with it. And of course, I’d never in my life seen anything like the Angel Guts series. Getting back to what you were saying about Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp, I also had very strong doubts, even after reading some 2/3 thirds of Jasper’s book. It was only after I actually watched the Salvation DVDs (and a bunch of Korean editions of Japanese pink, some of it unsubtitled) as well as the omnibus Female, that I realized that there is no question about there being some very worthwhile work that merits looking into. In truth, most of the Salvation films I watched could hardly be called erotic at all—they’re just damn good dramas that happen to have some sex scenes (some very little, most of it simulated, and no graphic sex).

Off subject, I just finished Ivy Ho’s Claustrophobia. Highly recommended stuff. The ‘making-of’ with director and crew interviews is subtitled, but unfortunately, the director commentary track is not. Strangely enough, this is the first disc that would not play in my Oppo (my cheapo Toshiba handled it no problem). The picture looks very good, just a few dust specks here and there, and the black levels were about on par with other Hong Kong DVDs I’ve watched, which is to say, a touch weak. No heavy drama, no big romance, no big plot arcs, just a very grown-up kind of character study. Glad I picked this one up.

Watched Jacob Cheung’s Ticket - so this is what he usually does, rather than dusty period martial arts epics? Slick, professional and oh my God so very, very dull. I might write a review to get it in the archives, but Christ, it was a struggle to sit through; never outright bad, but it pretty much proves what I said about The Horse Thief - you can’t just point a camera at some pretty scenery, press record and end up with a masterpiece. Bland, saccharine, tedious and occasionally bordering on offensively preachy.

Also Ma Liwen’s Lost and Found (aka I Am Lue Yuejin) - why the hell was this not made available with subs? I don’t know if I’ll write a review since it was a struggle to follow - a fairly twisty, jet black caper comedy about the eponymous migrant worker who gets caught up in criminal intrigue in Beijing’s underbelly. I would like to shout about it on the front page, though - hugely entertaining, with this really weird direction, fairly rushed and sloppy, but almost intentionally so, and very cinematic with it. It’s the first mainland film I’ve seen with the same sort of, I don’t know, sweaty, nervous energy and edginess of Hong Kong’s golden age. Li Yixiang was absolutely fantastic in the lead; first Blind Shaft, then One Foot Off the Ground, now this. Loved it.

In my efforts to see Zhou Xun’s entire body of work: A West Lake Moment

This is a ONE STAR film without Zhou Xun. She is a joy to watch even with a co-star (Kun Chen) who is frighteningly bad. The guy’s not an actor; he mugs his way through the film like his appearance is a gift. The direction is downright silly at times with meaningless repetitive jump cuts and other random shenanigans. The script is immature and, frankly, stupid. I can’t get behind a story that sets up a charming and beautiful woman with an adorable best (male) friend (Yim Linq) who desires her and is good to her but she won’t reciprocate because he’s a few years younger than her and she’s got the hots for some pig of a selfish man (Chen). The film resolves horribly. It’s one really gross male fantasy. Whoever wrote this movie is an idiot.

Haven’t seen it yet myself, but the few critical responses I found didn’t seem to think it was much more than a bland romantic melodrama. Eh, she’s had her fair share of misses, anyone who’s seen more than a few of her films knows that… but it’s always a shame to see her wasted. Still, like you, I might watch it for the sake of being a completist.

I wouldn’t bash Chen Kun like that, though. Go watch Baober In Love, The Knot, The Door or even The Music Box (though unfortunately Baober and The Door are not available with subs…) and tell me he’s awful - hell, didn’t you like Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress? I’ll admit he and Liu Ye seem to have studied at the same school of overacting, but the man has talent.

I don’t mind bland romantic melodrama but this film was a little offensive in its attempt. You know the story: nice don’t finish; women like jerks. Maybe Chen Kun did a good job with his character. Zhou Xun certainly did with hers. Outstanding performance. I’d say a must-see for fans. The film hints at something interesting with Zhou initially engaged to a white guy (for security) but promptly dropped the notion and focused on the her infatuation with Chen. Zhou’s other suitor is an environmentalist, creating opportunity for another interesting thread which does get some reasonable treatment. There are some worthwhile ideas in the film but they all seemed strangled by the weight of the misguided love story.