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Released by: Mondo Macabro
Released on: March 12th, 2025.
Director: Norifumi Suzuki
Cast: Miki Sugimoto, Sandra Jullien, Hiroshi Nawa, Yoko Mihara, Fumio Watanabe
Year: 1972
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Tokugawa Sex Ban – Movie Review:
Directed by Norifumi Suzuki, who co-wrote the script with Masahiro Kakefuda, 1972's Tokugawa Sex Ban (also known as The Erotomaniac Daimyo) is, not surprisingly, set in the Tokugawa era of feudal Japan. Here we meet the lovely Princess Kyohime (Miki Sugimoto), the youngest daughter of Shogun Ienari Tokugawa, just as she's married off to Lord Tadateru Ogura (Hiroshi Nawa), the leader of the Kyushu clan.
Kyohime soon learns, however, that her new husband isn't interested in sex, or really women in general. Given that she’s very conservative in this department, this leads to problems in their marriage. In order to get him fired up and interested in her, his handlers and a human trafficker named Hatakaya (Fumio Watanabe) decide to introduce him to a beautiful Caucasian woman named Sandra (Eurocul sex-bomb Sandra Julien of The Shiver Of The Vampires and I Am Frigid... Why?), a foxy French woman who arrives to him inside a wooden box! Sandra is, to say the least, very good at sex and it isn't long before she uses her special set of skills to help Lord Ogura find the carnal inspiration he's been sorely lacking all this time.
With Ogura now really, really into sex and constantly horny, he decides not only that he’ll take Sandra as his mistress, but that the pleasures of the flesh should be reserved to the aristocratic types, it's just too good for the peasant class. As such, he puts a sex ban into place wherein anyone from the region's lower classes caught having sex will be put to death. Before too long, the lower classes start to revolt... can you blame them? While all of this is going on, Kiyohime's attendants take great offense to Oguras’ decision to push her aside in favor of Sandra and have the poor Frenchwoman tossed into prison, only to be sprung a short time later by a man named Morita.
Sexy, sleazy and stylish in the way that the best of Suzuki’s exploitation films are, Tokuagawa Sex Ban doesn’t get the attention that some of his better known period skin flicks do (think Sex And Fury or Covent Of The Holy Beast) but that shouldn’t dissuade fans of the man’s filmography to seek this one out. The movie is well-paced and features some memorably bizarre set pieces, highlighted by an upside-down crucifixion on a beach, and strong performances by a truly interesting cast. Suzuki made some intriguing choices when putting together the players for some of his films during this period – he got Christina Lindberg for the aforementioned Sex And Fury, and Sandra Julien for this one, two actresses most wouldn’t expect to see show up in Japanese films of this nature.
The cinematography is rock solid, paying close attention to period detail while using some unique camera angels and compositions to heighten tension. The film’s use of color is strong, as is the acting across the board. Overall, this works quite well, with Suzuzki’s film offering up an intriguing plot with plenty of narrative twists and turns to help hold our attention easily, even during the storyline’s less exploitative moments.
Tokugawa Sex Ban – Blu-ray Review:
Mondo Macabro presents Tokugawa Sex Ban on a region A 50GB disc in an AVC encoded 1080 high-definition presentation framed in its original 2.35.1 aspect ratio taken from a new high definition 2k transfer from the original 35mm negative. Picture quality here is quite good. There’s a bit of minor damage here, just small white specks really, but the vast majority of the presentation is clean and very colorful, boasting excellent color reproduction, accurate looking skin tones and nice, deep black levels. There are no problems with any compression artifacts or edge enhancement and the presentation always looks like proper film, preserving grain and showing impressive detail in pretty much every shot.
A Japanese language option is offered up in in 16-bit DTS-HD 2.0 Mono with optional subtitles available in English only. The track sounds quite clean and is properly balanced, even if a bit of sibilance creeps in here and there. There aren’t any problems with any hiss or distortion to note and the subtitles are clean, clear and easy to read.
An audio commentary from Jasper Sharp starts off the extra features on the disc that goes over the different "perplexing array of titles" under which the film has been known under over the years, the different characters in the movie and details on the actors that play them, the film's release history, the Tokugawa era historical sex film craze that was going on when this movie was made, Norifumi Suzuki's genre contributions and why this movie seems to be overlooked compared to some of his better known movies, how this movie compares to the Nikkatsu erotic films being made around the same period, the historical setting against which the film takes place, thoughts on the production values and performances, the persecution of Christians in feudal Japan, the state of Toei's productions around this time in the studios' history, how the film has been received and reviewed over the years, some of the film's stronger and more controversial content and plenty of other details relating to the film and those who made it.
The disc also includes an interview with film critic Koshi Ueno that runs seventeen minutes and covers Suzuki's career in filmmaking, from his early days through to the boom years of his career as well as the importance of his work in the annals of Japanese exploitation films. He covers his as a screenwriter as well as a director, the different roads that his career travelled, what made his work stand out against his contemporaries, the films he made with Sonny Chiba, details on some of the cast members that appear in the film and other details related to the director and his work on this picture.
Last but not least, we get a theatrical trailer for the feature as well as menus and chapter selection options.
Tokugawa Sex Ban – The Final Word:
Tokugawa Sex Ban is a well-made slice of artistically impressive sexploitation highlighted by some strong acting and memorable set pieces. An intriguing blend of sleaze and arthouse style, it’s quick in its pacing and always interesting. The Blu-ray release from Mondo Macabro offers the film up in a nice presentation and with some interesting extra features covering its history. Recommended!
