Nikkatsu Erotica: Volume One — Nikkatsu Erotica: Volume One (Blu Ray box)
Nikkatsu Erotica: Volume One is a new Blu-ray box set from Australia’s Imprint, as part of their Imprint Asia sub-label. It brings together two rather creative, well-shot & well-acted examples of Japanese Roman porno from Nikkatsu, one of the country's biggest studios. Between the early 70s and late 80’s, they completely switched over their production to producing softcore adult films, which would become known as Roman Porno- the company produced around 800 to 1000 of these titles. This boxset features a commentary track from genre expert Jasper Sharp for each title, a few video essays, trailers and two classy ‘n’ crisp HD scans.
The films, each in their own Blu-ray cases, come in the label's house-style take-off-the-top hard box. This has a purple and pink colour scheme, with a collage of scenes from both films.
Both films featured were directed/ written by Saga, Japan-born Tatsumi Kumashiro. He had thirty-seven feature-length credits to his name. The first few decades of his career featured a fair few sleazy titles like Wet Lips (1972), Invitation To Lust (1975), and Pleasure Campus & Secret Games (1980). With detours into genre blending, like the excellent Woods Are Wet (1973), which mixed disquiet-led mystery & low-key horror into an S&M-focused Pink film. Later moving on to more formal filmmaking with the likes of crime-drama Mister, Missus, Miss Lonely (1980), leukaemia-focused drama Love Letter (1985), and Yaksua-focused crime drama Like A Rolling Stone (1995).
First up is 1972’s Wet Lust (Nureta Yokujô, Ichijo's Wet Lust), which gives us a snapshot of the life and lovers of an inner-city stripper. It blends in touches of drama and smutty humour, with the film featuring moments of jarring editing and quirky creativity.
The film is set in an intercity/ built up area, and homes in on the square-fringed Harumi (Hiroko Isayama), who works in one of the area's strip joints. When we first meet her, she’s awaiting the return of her tubby, crew-cut boyfriend, who has been away in prison for murder.
The strip joint is run by a stocky, limping, and side-burned guy who basically gets his girls to do a bit of everything- tidying up, finding props, etc. Also working at the same place is Sayuri Ichijo- who, as far as I can gather, was a real life stripped- she does a rather painful-looking dripping-wax-on-her-breast routine, as well as a lesbian route with Harumi. The latter results in one of the film's most amusing smutty humour moments, when Harumi bemoans the smell of females, and how she hates having to deal with that smell of another.
Anyway, Harumi's boyfriend appears- and he’s a decidedly on-edge character. And as the film unfolds on the fleshy side of things, we get an energetic session on a revolving bed, several encounters with strip joint punters as they get their heads close up to the strippers' bare crotchets, a rather risky bounding on a bus merry-go-round in the daytime, and a few others.
As for the film's more quirky/ creative elements- on two occasions we get darts into more serious ticker-tape crime reporting. Throughout the film there’s a weird ritual chanted song about noses, belly buttons, and knees- either sang acapella or with bashing drum/ gong backing. We get sudden rapid-cut shots of pigeons flying off, oh, and the film's title comes from Harum trying to make her genitals as damp as possible (I think by putting a small bit of soap inside herself)
As you’d expect with a Roman Porno, there’s a swift runtime of one hour and nine minutes- and it remains an entertaining, if slightly wacky slice of Japanese sleaze.
On the extra side for this disc, we get two new things- first, we have a commentary track from genre expert/ author Jasper Sharp, who penned the definitive book on Japanese sex films, Behind The Pink Curtain, which has recently got an updated release on Fab Press. He opens by talking about the variants of the film's title, and we find out it was first released in Japan on the 7th of October 1972. We find out the film's exteriors were all filmed in Osaka, with some interiors shot in Tokyo at Nikkatsu studios. He talks about how the film at hand is seen as an early classic of the Roman Porno- which saw the form gain a large audience. At the time of release, the film got largely good reviews from the critics, going on to make the top eight film of the year on one list, and the second on another. Later on, he talks about how many of the crew were with the studio before they switched to purely adult films. He touches on the different sub-genres/ themes within Roman Porno as a whole, and how the form largely puts female characters to the fore. He discusses male actors in general in the genre- before talking about the actor who played the club owner/ pimp in the film, who we find out also sang the film's folk song. He talks about Sayuri Ichijo- who was indeed a real-life stripper- we find out that some of the scenes were filmed in the real club she worked in. As always, a most informative/ entertaining track from Mr Sharp. Otherwise, we have That’s Reality (19.49), which finds film critic/ author Midori Suiren discussing the picture. We find out the film had a budget of 7.5 million yen and a few other things related to film, before moving on to more general commentary about the genre as a whole, how Nikkatsu got taken to court for obscenities due to a few of the genre films, and more. This is a fine video essay- though I wish it had focused on the film to hand more.
The second film is 1973’s Lovers Are Wet (Koibito-tachi Wa Nureta). This is somewhat of a glum and troubling tale of a young, ragged-haired, and skinny drifter who lands up in a seaside town. He’s working at a porn theatre and starts having an affair with the middle-aged female owner, which leads to a troubling sexual awakening.
The film has a runtime of one hour and sixteen minutes, and it opens by introducing us to our lead character Katsu (Tetsu Ôe), a tall, thin, army-jacketed man in his early twenties. He rides a bike along a harbour road- on the back is a stack of canned film reels. He’s riding rather erratically, so one of the cans comes off, with the film unspooling on the harbour side.
We find out he’s been working for a short time at a local porn cinema, and early on he has a few mishaps- he gets stuck in the rain, his bike breaking down. And then he gets lightly roughed up by someone who wrongly identifies him- this happens several times in the film.
A middle-aged couple runs the cinema. Though most of the day-to-day running/ washing down/ tiding up of the place is left to the wife, Yoshie (Moeko Ezawa)- she is constantly questioning Katsu- where he’s come from, what he’s done, etc.
Then, one day after one of his mishaps, a rather intense sexual affair begins between the two, and this seems to open Katsu to depravity- he has a peeping-tom session and carries out two rapes.
The whole thing is beautifully scoped- highlighting the ragged coastline, beaches/ sand dunes, marshland, and woodlands. It looks like it’s filmed on the cusp of late summer/ early autumn. It’s largely scored with stark acoustic guitar playing, with occasional flourishes of monk chanting.
Tetsu Ôe has a decent character arc, going from a rather clumsy hard worker and awkward lover to an all-out, sex-obsessed freak. Ezawa is good too- at first, she is very suspicious of the bike-riding drifter, but she falls for him believably.
On the sex side of things, we go from awkward fumbling’s, onto all out intense sessions. Both of the rapes are troubling- the first occurs in a woodland setting, and the second on a beach. The latter is particularly disturbing, as it’s so prolonged, with the female actress being flipped back & forth in the sand over & over, and it’s made even more troubling, as we have nonchalant/ bored commentary on the bounding by two unseen figures.
Lovers Are Wet features some beautiful shot locations, good acting, and a steadily building/ troubling air. Like the best of the Roman porno genre, we get some very memorable/ creative scenes.
Once again we’ve got two new extras- first of these is another excellent/ informative track from Mr Sharp. He opens by declaring this is a decidedly strange & peculiar film- being Kumashiro’s fourth film in all, and his third Roman Porno- it was released on the 24th of March 1973. He talks about how the cinema in the town in English is named The Public Pleasure Theatre, which is quite ironic as the town is so run down/ dour. He touches on the use of the word ‘wet’ not only in Kumashiro roman Porno films, but in general within the genre, and really it has nothing to do with the film at hand. He discusses how the film's director often shoots sex scenes in gloomy light in long shots, and his use of black bars/ squares in his films. Later on, he gives a full bio of Kumashiro- we find out he was a very educated man- who started off as an assistant director in the early 50s. We also find out he was often in very poor health, and in the mid-80s he had a collapsed lung, though even so he was somewhat of a ladies' man. Otherwise, we have Unconventional (11.42), which finds film scholar Mio Hatokia discussing the film. The first half or so finds her discussing the Roman Porno genre in general, before going onto the film at hand. She touches on how the film can seem confusing due to the lead characters name/ who he really is. The naked heap fog scene/ how this was censored, and positive reviews of the film.
It truly is wonderful to see Imprint releasing these two great Roman Porno films, and I very much look forward to what comes next in this series. Each film looks wonderful, with the excellent commentary tracks from Mr Sharp.