1960s/1970s/1980s Japanese Genre Cinema - From Books and Magazine Articles (NSFW)

[Takuma]

(scan from 権威なき権威 カントク野郎 鈴木則文, 2018)

A newspaper ad for Red Peony Gambler, which opened on Sept. 14, 1968.

There’s an interesting bit of info relating to the double bill system in the bottom. It shows Toei’s previous double feature The Fake Game (いかさま博奕 ) and Kigeki keiba hishôhô ippatsu shôbu (喜劇　競馬必勝法　一発勝負) would be playing playing until Sept. 13. After that The Fake Game would be dropped and Red Peony Gambler would enter and play with Ippatsu shôbu. So on Sept. 14, instead of having a brand new double feature, they only replaced one of the films with a new movie.

It also says Ippatsu shôbu would continue to be screened until Sept. 17. Looking jmdb, Wakayama’s Scoundrel Soldier (兵隊極道) is the only Toei release listed for Sept. 18, so I’m guessing it was then paired with Red Peony Gambler.

The rule of thumb is that there was a brand new double feature every two weeks, but there seem to have been times when this wasn’t the case. Looking at jmdb, it seems something odd was going on throughout Sept. 1968 since all Sept. releases are listed alone rather than in pairs (Jul and Oct. releases come in pairs as usual).

[Oily Maniac]

Thank you for this thread. Takuma, your work is greatly appreciated.

[Takuma]

Found on Twitter: a Shinjuku billboard for Toei’s Oct. 1972 double feature Outlaw Killers: Three Mad Dog Brothers (人斬り与太 狂犬三兄弟) and Wandering Ginza Butterfly 2: She-Cat Gambler (銀蝶流れ者 牝猫博奕).
- https://twitter.com/wataridori333/st...17079810154496

[Takuma]

Miki Sugimoto in Weekly Playboy’s Feb. 2, 1971 issue, six months before her film debut in Onsen mimizu geisha (温泉みみず芸者). She is introduced as a new model. She’s pretty funny. She says she loves strong men and yakuza movies and wishes to become an actress. Her hobbies are reading manga, cleaning the house, and sleeping. Her first dream of the year (初夢) was about a big guy looking like a pro wrestler attacking her, but Ken Takakura coming to rescue her! Then Ken asked her in a gentle voice to take her clothes off... but before she knew it, Ken’s face has turned into that of her manager!

* In traditional Japanese culture the year’s first dream was believed to be an omen of things to come.

Cover page model Dera Kimoto (樹本デラ)


Miki


Miki

[Takuma]

Thanks Barry.

*****

Where’s the time machine when you need it? A 1972 newspaper ad for Toei’s Aug. 12 double feature Girl Boss Guerilla (女番長ゲリラ) and New Abashiri Prison Story: Honor and Humanity, Ammunition That Attracts the Storm (新網走番外地 嵐呼ぶダンプ仁義).

Note that in the bottom it says Sugimoto and Ike will be doing stage greetings on Saturday with the following schedule:
12:30 Asakusa Toei (Tokyo)
13:45 Shinjuku Toei (Tokyo)
14:40 Shibuya Toei (Tokyo)
16:00 Marunouchi Toei (Tokyo)

Also, people attending all night screenings will be given a free hand towel signed by Ken Takakura.

[Barry M]

Just want to say that this is really valuable. Thanks for doing this, Takuma.

[Takuma]

I’d like to add that this is not to say “Pinky Violence” wasn’t a (loose) movement. Sugisaku and Uechi certainly saw it that way, with a number of somewhat like-minded Toei filmmakers producing somewhat similar films that all mixed sex and violence, broke gender roles and expectations of female sexuality, and offered rebellious women as heroines for the audience to identify with.

But putting first things first, Toei had a system where they HAD to release at least two double features every month, so the filmmakers HAD to complete at least 4 films every month whether or not they had any inspiration or artistic ambitions. It was within this system (or production lines) that skilful filmmakers could leave their own mark on the movies they made as long as these films fit the general genre guidelines (e.g. yakuza films, erotically charged films) specified by Toei. Suzuki often says he had lots of freedom in terms of content as long as the film was a “porno” (more about this later).

[Takuma]

Double Bills and Production Lines, the Roots of Pinky Violence

Director Norifumi Suzuki talks about the Toei Double Bill System and Production Lines in his book Toei guerilla senki (東映ゲリラ戦記) (2013) (p. 30). I’ve added notes in [brackets] to give additional context.

“[in the 60s] Toei introduced all nigh screenings which become a success. That’s when films about flirty female delinquents became indispensable.”

“In Toei’s double bill system, if the A-film was a masculine yakuza film starring Koji Tsuruta or Ken Takakura or someone else, lighter films about women made ideal pairs for them as B-pictures. Tatsuo Umemiya and Mako Midori’s Youth of the Night series (夜の青春シリーズ), Song of the Night series(夜の歌謡シリーズ) etc., about red light districts and sex industry, filled that gap [in the 60s].

“[In the 70s] films in the Porno Line were seen as ideal B-pictures by Shigeru Okada. He wanted to take full advantage of the emergence of porno actress Reiko Ike, and had producer Amao make films on rapid fire.”

“Producer Amao saw his secret dream of making masculine outlaw films drifting away.”

I wanted to share this bit because I think it helps understand how Toei films were made and where Pinky Violence came from. While we can theorize about Pinky Violence films as a response to the times and politics, or as having evolved from yakuza films (both of which can be true), from the production perspective they were simply a continuation of Toei’s long running Erotic Film / B-Film Line.

Toei spent two decades producing Yakuza films as A-films and (largely but not only) erotically charged movies as B-films for them. The Youth of the Night series (1965-1968), the Song of the Night series (1968-1974), the Abnormal Love series (1968-1969), the Hot Springs Geisha series (1968-1974), the Shingo Yamashiro sex comedies of the early 70s, the Girl Gang films, the Female Prisoner films, the later Yuji Makiguchi and Ikuo Sekimoto films… They were all part of the same production line that introduced new sub genres of women-centred B-films as soon the previous ones lost popularity. Pinky Violence was not one, but a handful of the many subgenres on this production line.

It wasn’t until the 1990s that Sugisaku and Uechi hand-picked number of films and sub-genres from this production line, grouped them together and called them “Pinky Violence” in their book. Unsurprisingly, Suzuki never uses the term Pinky Violence in his book. After all, the term (or the genre) did not yet exist when he made his films. He refers to his movies as “Toei Porno”, which is an official term Toei used in the marketing in the 70s (e.g. Terrifying Girls’ High School: Women’s Violent Classroom was called ”Part 1 in a new Toei Porno series” in its poster).


[Image: Suzuki (holding a script) directing Reiko Ike in Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee's Challenge]

[Takuma]

Norifumi Suzuki on Sex and Fury

Suzuki explains in his book that one of the major reasons for him for doing Sex and Fury (不良姐御伝　猪の鹿お蝶) (1973) was the opportunity to make it as a movie set in the Meiji era. Such films had been plenty during the ninkyo years when Suzuki worked mainly as a screenwriter and developed a liking for the Meiji era, but times had since changed.

“Once Battles without Honour and Humanity turned into a series, in-period ninkyo films disappeared and all productions lines started putting out modern day films. The Kyoto studios however still had plenty of heritage from the [ninkyo] yakuza film era. There were town sets for the Meiji era, costumes, arts and props for the same period, the Toei Tsurugikai unit specializing in chambara sword fights, and an army of villain actors. It was a treasure trove of valuable assets.”

Sex and Fury was produced as the B-film for The Viper Brothers: Jail-Living for 4 1/2 Years (まむしの兄弟　刑務所暮し四年半). Suzuki says that with the jitsuroku film boom, even the Viper Brothers series started losing its edge as people saw them as “old style yakuza films” [that did not stop Suzuki film helming the next entry in the series, however].

[Image: newspaper ad for Toei’s Sex and Fury & The Viper Brothers: Jail-Living for 4 1/2 Years double feature which opened Feb. 17, 1973]

[Takuma]

It’s been a while I posted anything from Norifumi Suzuki’s book…

The Day Ninkyo Film Aesthetics Collapsed

Suzuki’s film Girl Boss Revenge (女番長) opened on January 13, 1973 as a B-film companion for Kinji Fukasaku’s revolutionary Battles without Honour and Humanity (仁義なき戦い). Suzuki recalls the day that changed yakuza film history in his book Toei guerilla senki (東映ゲリラ戦記) (2013) (p. 106). Abbreviated, slightly simplified and completed with my notes in brackets []. Translation inaccuracies possible.

“I went to the Kyogeki theatre in Kiyamachi sanchome. It was a full house, with everyone screaming at the fiercely realistic yakuza violence and laughing at Nobuo Kaneko’s cunning gang boss performance.”

“Till only yesterday Saburo Kitajima’s Honour Among Brothers and Ken Takakura’s Brutal Tales of Chivalry theme songs had been playing in this theatre. It seemed hard to believe that Toei Kyoto’s traditional proud film craft that aimed at making handsome men and women look beautiful on screen had been on playing in this theatre until just yesterday."

“The gritty images captured with handheld camera [in Battles without Honour and Humanity] tore apart the fabricated dream world that the audiences had settled for until then.“

“On that day, the ninkyo film aesthetics collapsed. “





[Stills: Takakura and Fuji in Tales of Japanese Chivalry: Flower and Dragon (日本侠客伝　花と龍) (1969), and Sugawara in Battles without Honour and Humanity: Proxy War (仁義なき戦い 代理戦争) (1973)]

[Takuma]

Not from magazine, but I thought I'd just post this pic of Bunta Sugawara and Tomisaburo Wakayama from a Yahoo article.


- https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/36...tIfY5X0DeguYkk

The article is pretty interesting, too. Basically it explains that (in addition to Koji Shundo helping Sugawara become a Toei star) Wakayama was a sort of mentor to Sugawara. Sugawara and others used to call him “oyassan” and he was looking after them, and paying for their dinners when they went out! Wakayama had a short temper though, and once he slapped Sugawara in the face hard enough to give him a swollen face. He came back next day regretting what he had done, and brought a bottle of whiskey to Bunta. Wakayama himself was a non-drinker and considered alcohol a “devil's drink”.

[Takuma]

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I hope to post some more translations from Suzuki's book in the future. It's really full of great examples of how Japanese film industry functioned back then, which is something that is rarely understood by people these days.

[killer must kill again]

thumbs up from me too! I guess I learned more about japanese genre cinema from this and your translations of the pinky violence book, than any essay from jasper sharp in arrow booklets, whose main concern seems to be to list the complete filmography of any person involved with the movie or to translate the japanese titles and how to correctly pronounce them.

[Jason C]

Rieko Ike in Playboy. that's the stuff of dreams.

[Scott]

Yeah, really cool!