Sex Rider: Wet Highway is an early 1970s Roman Porno, which blends in elements of thriller and action into its sleazy and softcore fleshy template. The film regards a woman who runs over a man, thinks he’s dead, but he isn’t and has other plans for the woman. Here from 88 Films, as part of their series reissues of Roman Porno released by Nikatsu studios, is a new Blu-ray release of the film, taking in an HD scan, a commentary track, and a few other extras.

Sex Rider: Wet Highway (Sex Rider: Nureta Highway) was released in the year 1971, been filmed between the glowing neon of the city, and the waterways & tall grass of the countryside. It was directed by Toyko born Koretsugu Kurahara, who between the early and late 70’s had nine features to his name, with all of them clearly sitting in the Roman Porno/ Pink genre, with titles like True Story of Sex and Violence in a Female High School (1973), One Summer Experience: Sexy Virgin(1976), and Erotic Campus: Rape Reception(1977).

Like all of Nikkatsu studios' Roman Porno’s, the film has a short and tight runtime of eight minutes over the hour mark. It opens with us being introduced to our lead, Mina (Mari Tanaka)- a twenty-something dark-haired woman who has quite prominent teeth. She makes her way to a love hotel to meet up with her older, thickly haired & suited lover, who, when she enters the room, is playing back her sexual moans on a tape recorder. We find out she is to marry her priest intended to be the next day, and is worried that she has a boring life ahead of her. Mina and her lover strip to have a drinking champagne under a shower fleshy bonding.

After they’ve finished, they jump in her car and drive out into the city’s neon-lined night. Along the way, while her lover is trying to put on the sex sounds cassette again, they knock down a man- her lover forces her to drive away, but after they fall out/ he leaves the car, she heads back.

The man is Ryo (Ken Yoshizawa), a decidedly devious down-and-out, with a thin moustache and ragged green army jacket.  He pretends to be dead, letting Mina drag his body into the back of her car. And from here she decides what to do with she thinks dead body, and he plans what he might do to her.

The film moves from the city's nighttime, out into the sun coming up countryside, through to a body of water, and on to the mountain set roads. As the picture unfolds, we very much switch to a thriller setting with some action elements, rape, bloody murder, and speeding linked eroticism.

It’s a well-shot film- nicely shifting from the stark neon of the city, through to the deep and murky waterways, through to moody shots of wild grasses, and onto speeding by/ twisting ‘n’ turning country roads.

The two leads are both good- Tanaka switching between dreading marriage, fearful, angry, and strangely besotted. And Yoshizawa as the initially devious/up-to-no-good stranger, who finds his own odd purpose. This is the second movie I’ve seen/ reviewed recently starring Mr  Yoshizawa- the other film was Night of the Felines (1972), where he played a most memorable sleazy character, who liked doing sexual things with his feet/  munching on a hanging cabbage- this film is also available from 88 Films.

Sex Rider: Wet Highway shift from nighttime city erotic drama to light action-edged thriller is well-realised, with the film being finished off with a rewarding score, which shifts between light sexy jazz and more taut/ moody percussive ribbed fare.

The region B Blu-ray features an HD scan- this looks lovely and clean, full of clarity, which enhances both the night-time city shots and daytime countryside shots. Also, the audio is nicely crisp, with the subtitles easy to read throughout.

On the extras side, we get two things, first up is a commentary from genre experts/ writers Earl Jackson and Jasper Sharp. They start off by suggesting the film may have been influenced by Roman Polanski’s first film, Knife In The Water. They debate why Mina was taking groceries into the Love hotel. We find out the film was released on the 28^th of December 1971- it was the 7^th Roman porno released by Nikkatsu. They discuss how ideas seem to float around in the film, some of them quite surprising/ odd. Later on, they discuss the contrast between the tense constraints of inside the car and the extensive lushness of the landscape.  They talk about the rather surprising/ yet freeing end, and more. An excellent track.

Lastly, we have Highway To Nowhere (10.46) which features Ken Terawaki. He begins by touching on other films with cars and motorbikes in, and the shifting themes in Roman Porno’s. Before moving on to the film to hand.

Sex Rider: Wet Highway is yet another intriguing and often surprising Roman Porno film, with this new 88 Film release featuring a nice new HD print, and a small but worthy selection of extras.