Bumpkin Soup — Bumpkin Soup( Blu Ray)
Japanese films are often known for their bizarreness, but I’d have to say Bumpkin Soup is one of the more truly weird, erratic, and downright puzzling films I’ve seen from the country. The mid-80s film is classified as a pink film due to its random/ sudden moments of nudity/ sexual activity, but, what it is, is a decidedly off-kilter mix of teen drama, surreal comedy, and impromptu/wonky musical. Here from Third Window Films as part of their Director's Company Collection, which focuses on the legendary 1980s Japanese production company, is a recent Blu-Ray of the film, taking in a new scan of the film, a commentary track, a director interview, and a visual essay.
Bumpkin Soup (aka Do-Re-Mi-Fa Musume No Chi Wa Sawagu, The Excitement of the Do Re Mi Fa Girl) is from the year 1985. It was directed/ co-written by Kobe-born Kiyoshi Kurosawa. Between the 1970’s and 2010’s he had thirty-six feature films to his name- going from crime drama Vertigo College (1980), gory haunted house horror Sweet Home (1989), coming out of a coma comedy-drama License To Live (1998), dead contacting the living through the internet horror/ triller Pulse (2001), and psychological horror/ thriller Cloud (2024).
The one hour twenty-four-minute film opens with the tartan patterned A-line skirt wearing Akiko (Yoriko Dôguchi) making her way onto a university campus with a small tape recorder in hand. As she walks along, we get an effective bit of unbalancing shot use, as people with objects pass in front of her and behind her. She stops ever so often to ask people if they know where Yoshioka is, before pressing play on the tape recorder which plays a snippet of wonkily played rock music.
As the film unfolds, we go from debates on why you shouldn’t ask why, as a woman in a red dress does interpretive dance & a small crowd of people look on. There are soapy drama debates which suddenly shift to naked female pleasuring on a red leather couch with a red bulb. There are sudden wavering and awkward attempts at teen love songs- that have weird and nonsensical lyrics. Someone buys flowers from a flower seller while jaunting brass music goes on, to then gift the flowers back to her. A topless woman sits in a wheelchair as her pants are cut off, while cream is sprayed in her gentile area as others watch via strange contraptions. We have seemingly meaningless walking through grass fields, as people are gunned down. And very amateurish/theatrical VHS quality flashbacks, as Akiko plays awkward college sweethearts, though they are dressed in/ act like they are from the 60’s, and the film is set in the 80’s.
The film sort of drifts with moments of reason, story, and structure, but then all of a sudden this will all drop out, the father you get in the more often this happens. I’m still rather on the fence to whether I liked the film or not. But you can most certainly say that Bumpkin Soup is truly a weird/one-off experience- which truly has to be seen to be believed.
This recent region free release features a well-balanced and even print of the film. I’m not exactly sure what they have done to the print, but it certainly looks good for an 1980's picture.
The release has a few new extras, first we get a commentary track from genre expert/ author Jasper Sharp, and as we’ve come to expect from him, it's a very well researched/information-packed affair. He opens by declaring he may have set himself up for fall doing a track for the film, as it’s tricky to put into one genre- often wilfully dodging logic and sense. He says if you’ve come here for understanding/ break down of what’s happening with the film, you are going to be disappointed. He moves on to discuss whether it’s a pink or Roman porno film, and he once again says it’s difficult to say- as it started off been commissioned as a Roman Porno for Nikkatsu studio- but after they saw it, they refused to release it- so the director brought the rights and released it independently- so in theory it should be counted as a Pink film. We find out the film had a limited release on the 3rd of November 1985 in Japan, seemingly just playing in a small cinema chain connected to shopping malls. We find the film has had very limited releases in Japan since its initial release. He talks about how the director took a five-year break from making films after Bumpkin Soup, and he touches on the possible reason for this. He points out notable actors as they appear, often detailing other worthy films they’ve been in. Later on, he discusses some of the films' more intriguing casting choices. He talks about the director's other early work in the Pink and Roman Porno genres, as well as how the pink genre links into mainstream Japanese cinema.
Next, we have an on-screen interview with lead actress Yoriko Doguchi (15.09). She starts off by talking about at the time of making the film, she was more interested in music instead of film- being a big fan of the Merseybeat genre. She then moves on to talk about how she got into working in film, and how she got signed up for the film to hand. She talks about how she felt the script was unusual for a Roman Porno film- hence she found the project interesting. Chats about acting nervous on the film, and a few more things.
Lastly, we have a video essay (9.43) from Jerry White, author of “The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa : Master of Fear”. He talks about the director's early pink films, which weren’t really very sexy/ passionate, even though they were in the pink genre. And discuss how elements in these films can be seen as building blocks to his later horror films.
The finished release features a slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju, and ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring an insert by Jasper Sharp.
If you enjoy the more weird/downright puzzling side of Japanese cinema, then Bumpkin Soup is something you need to experience. This new Third Window Films release takes in a decent scan, and a small-but-worthy selection of extras…this release is limited to 2000 copies worldwide, so if you think this might be for you, act sooner, than later.