Movie Going Madness in Japan

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

It’s very interesting to learn that Japanese copyright law gives legal recourse to seemingly any participant in a film production who doesn’t want the finished work to be seen, for whatever reason.

Thankfully not an situation which exists in most other nations (as far as I know), or god only knows how many exploitation/genre films would have ended up out of circulation…

But that's a misinterpretation of the law. Likely intentional. These self-imposed bans are entirely voluntary. The studios are just trying to avoid trouble and get noisy people off their backs. Fukao's claims for example have no legal basis despite what he and Toei may have said. Screenwriter's right only extend to versions (such as tranlations) of their work, not to films.

I don't know how many films are under such bans. At least Bankaku Rock (seems like Eikichi Yazawa, one of the Carol band members, feels he had been done misjustice in the film, and raised hell when Toei intended to release it on DVD a decade ago) and the Machiko Ohtani films at Nikkatsu (the rumour is someone, either her or her family, doesn't want her porno work to be seen by anyone), but there are probably many others.

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MY GOD! PART II. Laputa's Main Program for August - September has been announced, and it is:

T G C戦うガールズコレクション2024

8.4（日）～6（火）
13:00　ずべ公番長 夢は夜ひらく(Delinquent Girl Boss - Blossoming Night Dreams) (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1970)
15:00　めくらのお市物語 真赤な流れ鳥 (Crimson Bat, the Blind Swordswoman) (Sadatsugu Matsuda, 1969)
17:00　東おんな極道 (Kanto Woman Scoundrel) (Kazuo Mori, 1969)
19:00　ずべ公番長 夢は夜ひらく (Delinquent Girl Boss: Blossoming Night Dreams) ( Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1970)

8.7（水）～10（土）
13:00　めくらのお市物語 真赤な流れ鳥 (Crimson Bat, the Blind Swordswoman) (Sadatsugu Matsuda, 1969)
15:00　東おんな極道 (Kanto Woman Scoundrel) (Kazuo Morim 1969)
17:00　妖艶毒婦伝 人斬りお勝 (Quick-Draw Okatsu) (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1969)
19:00　女番長ブルース 牝蜂の挑戦 (Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee's Challenge) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1972)

8.11（日）～13（火）
13:00　妖艶毒婦伝 人斬りお勝 (Quick-Draw Okatsu) ( Nobuo Nakagawa, 1969)
15:00　女番長ブルース 牝蜂の挑戦 (Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee's Challenge) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1972)
17:00　めくらのお市 地獄肌 (Trapped, the Crimson Bat) (Sadatsugu Matsuda, 1969)
19:00　ずべ公番長 東京流れ者 (Delinquent Girl Boss: Tokyo Drifters) (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1970)

8.14（水）～17（土）
13:00　めくらのお市 地獄肌 (Trapped, the Crimson Bat) (Sadatsugu Matsuda, 1969)
15:00　ずべ公番長 東京流れ者 (Delinquent Girl Boss: Tokyo Drifters) (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1970)
17:00　女左膳 濡れ燕片手斬り (Lady Sazen and the Drenched Swallow Sword) (Kimiyoshi Yasuda, 1969)
19:00　女番長 (Girl Boss: Revenge) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1973)

8.18（日）～8.20（火）
13:00　女左膳 濡れ燕片手斬り (Lady Sazen and the Drenched Swallow Sword) (Kimiyoshi Yasuda, 1969)
15:00　女番長 (Girl Boss: Revenge) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1973)
17:00　妖艶毒婦伝 お勝兇状旅 (Okatsu the Fugitive) (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1969)
19:00　昇り竜 鉄火肌 (Rising Dragon's Iron Flesh) (Teruo Ishii, 1969)

8.21（水）～24（土）
13:00　妖艶毒婦伝 お勝兇状旅 (Okatsu the Fugitive) (Nobuo Nakagawa, 1969)
15:00　昇り竜 鉄火肌 (Rising Dragon's Iron Flesh) (Teruo Ishii, 1969)
17:00　緋牡丹博徒 お命戴きます (Red Peony Gambler: Here to Kill You) (Tai Kato, 1971)
19:00　女番長 感化院脱走 (Girl Boss: Escape from Reform School) (Sadao Nakajima, 1973)

8.25（日）～27（火）
13:00　緋牡丹博徒 お命戴きます (Red Peony Gambler: Here to Kill You) (Tai Kato, 1971)
15:00　女番長 感化院脱走 (Girl Boss: Escape from Reform School) (Sadao Nakajima, 1973)
17:00　笹笛お紋 (Girl with Bamboo Leaves) (Tokuzo Tanaka, 1969)
19:00　昇り竜 やわ肌開帳 (Rising Dragon’s Soft Flesh Exposed) (Masami Kuzuo, 1969)

8.28（水）～31（土）
13:00　笹笛お紋 (Girl with Bamboo Leaves) (Tokuzo Tanaka, 1969)
15:00　昇り竜 やわ肌開帳 (Rising Dragon’s Soft Flesh Exposed) (Masami Kuzuo, 1969)
17:00　女番長 野良猫ロック (Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss) (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970)
19:00　恐怖女子高校 暴行リンチ教室 (Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1973)

9.1（日）～3（火）
13:00　女番長 野良猫ロック (Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss) (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1970)
15:00　恐怖女子高校 暴行リンチ教室 (Terrifying Girls' High School: Lynch Law Classroom) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1973)
17:00　銀蝶渡り鳥 (Wandering Ginza Butterfly) (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1972)
19:00　不良姐御伝 猪の鹿お蝶 (Sex & Fury) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1973)

9.4（水）～7（土）
13:00　銀蝶渡り鳥 (Wandering Ginza Butterfly) (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1972)
15:00　不良姐御伝 猪の鹿お蝶 (Sex & Fury) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1973)
17:00　緋ぢりめん博徒 (The Red Silk Gambler) (Teruo Ishii, 1972)
19:00　恐怖女子高校 不良悶絶グループ (Terrifying Girls' High School: Delinquent Convulsion Group) (Seiko Shimura, 1973)

9.8（日）～10（火）
13:00　緋ぢりめん博徒 (The Red Silk Gambler) (Teruo Ishii, 1972)
15:00　恐怖女子高校 不良悶絶グループ (Terrifying Girls' High School: Delinquent Convulsion Group) (Seiko Shimura, 1973)
17:00　銀蝶流れ者 牝猫博奕 (Wandering Ginza Butterfly 2: She-Cat Gambler) (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1972)
19:00　若い貴族たち 13階段のマキ (13 Steps of Maki) (Makoto Naito, 1975)

9.11（水）～14（土）
13:00　銀蝶流れ者 牝猫博奕 (Wandering Ginza Butterfly 2: She-Cat Gambler) (Kazuhiko Yamaguchi, 1972)
15:00　若い貴族たち 13階段のマキ (13 Steps of Maki) (Makoto Naito, 1975)
17:00　混血児リカ ひとりゆくさすらい旅 (Rica 2: Lonely Wanderer) (Ko Nakahira, 1973)
19:00　前科おんな　殺し節 (Criminal Woman: Killing Melody) (Atsushi Mihori, 1973)

9.15（日）～17（火）
13:00　混血児リカ ひとりゆくさすらい旅 (Rica 2: Lonely Wanderer) (Ko Nakahira, 1973)
15:00　前科おんな　殺し節 (Criminal Woman: Killing Melody) (Atsushi Mihori, 1973)
17:00　修羅雪姫 (Lady Snowblood) (Toshiya Fujita, 1973)
19:00　必殺女拳士 (Dragon Princess) (Yutaka Kohira, 1976)

9.18（水）～9.21（土）
13:00　修羅雪姫 (Lady Snowblood) (Toshiya Fujita, 1973)
15:00　必殺女拳士 (Dragon Princess) (Yutaka Kohira, 1976)
17:00　やさぐれ姐御伝 総括リンチ (Female Yakuza Tale) (Teruo Ishii, 1973)
19:00　ビューティ・ペア 真赤な青春 (Red-Hot Youth) (Makoto Naito, 1977)

9.22（日）～24（火）
13:00　やさぐれ姐御伝 総括リンチ (Female Yakuza Tale) (Teruo Ishii, 1973)
15:00　ビューティ・ペア 真赤な青春 (Red-Hot Youth) (Makoto Naito, 1977)
17:00　修羅雪姫 怨み恋歌 (Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance) (Toshiya Fujita, 1974)
19:00　華麗なる追跡 (The Great Chase) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1975)

9.25（水）～9.28（土）
13:00　0課の女 赤い手錠 (Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs) (Yukio Noda, 1974)
15:00　修羅雪姫 怨み恋歌 (Lady Snowblood 2: Love Song of Vengeance) (Toshiya Fujita, 1974)
17:00　華麗なる追跡 (The Great Chase) (Norifumi Suzuki, 1975)
19:00　0課の女 赤い手錠 (Zero Woman: Red Handcuffs) (Yukio Noda, 1974)

- http://www.laputa-jp.com/laputa/program/tgc2024/

Ladies and gentlemen, chirashi for Laputa's upcoming Tatakau Girls Collection program

I'm actually visiting my parents and they only have a very small scanner, so I had to scan each page separately and then paste them together... with less than perfect results. I'll do a proper scan once I'm back in Japan. But until then, these should do:

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

I made some investments recently with the idea of trying to get to Japan in the next 18 months. Any of those dates look like they'd be a winner for me. Finger's crossed, if there is something like this next year I'll be able to make it. Is the screen these are being projected on very large? Thank you for sharing.

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

Is the screen these are being projected on very large? Thank you for sharing.

It's not particularly large in itself, however the perfect positioning of the seats makes it appear bigger than it is. It's easily my favourite screen in Tokyo.

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Toei New Porno and More: The Third Trip – Part 1/2

Back in the world’s biggest sauna! It’s 35 Celsius and the street of Tokyo are boiling.

Sunday

Something different for starters this time. The Tokyo Wind Orchestra was doing a John Williams concert (without John Williams) in Ueno on Sunday afternoon at 14:00. I’m not much of a concert going person, and only found out about it when Facebook algorithm brought it to my attention, but I figured this would probably be worth attending since I was in town anyway.

And yes, it was two hours rather well spent. Raiders of the Lost Ark, Jurassic Park, JFK, Schindler’s List, and a whole lot of Star Wars was covered. Some epic moments, and as a fun little bonus they played the 20th Century Fox fanfare as well. It was nice, though somehow I expected even more, and wish they had included one of my favourite less celebrated Williams scores: Presumed Innocent.

A quick snapshot after the concert when photography was allowed




I‘d been certain I wouldn’t make it to Film Archive’s 16:20 screening of The H-Man (美女と液体人间) (1958). However, seeing the concert ended a bit sooner than expected (at around 15:50), I made a run to Ueno Station and miraculously managed to catch the 16:06 rapid train to Tokyo Station. I spent the four minute train ride purchasing my movie ticket online. Unfortunately I made an elementary tourist mistake at Tokyo Station and came out from the wrong side of the station. I hadn’t had have time to search for the right exit, and just took a gamble and lost. Penalty: 600 metres of running in the terrible heat. I was a minute late, but so was the movie. I seated my ass a few seconds before the film started and spent the first 10 minutes wiping sweat off my arms.

This was my first time at the archive for quite a few years. The archive has a huge collection of film prints, some real rarities as well, but sadly don’t screen them nearly as often as you’d wish. This time they were doing a “Japanese Cinema and Music: Composers in the 1950s and 1960s” retrospective with a total of 52 films included. The H-Man was a rather pleasant 86 minutes even though I’m not a big tokusatsu fan. The film starts out mainly as a crime/detective film before going fully into the sci-fi territory at the end. Good looking, slightly sunset tinted 35mm print. The theatre was about 75% full (of 310 seats). Attending the screening did not make a hole in my wallet either: tickets only cost 520 yen.



The H-Man (1st from left), Escaped Murderer from Hiroshima Prison (2nd from left)


For my evening’s final program I decided to defy the heat and walk all the way to Asakusa for some performing arts – that was a 6.3 km walk, but I had time to kill and managed to avoid heat stroke. And as usual, the night’s final stop would be my usual capsule hotel in Ueno where I switched to a lower floor / slightly more spacious capsule just to see if it would be more peaceful. And yes, no Giant Pig, no T-Rex, no Texas Chainsaw Snorer. Peaceful night.

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Toei New Porno and More: The Third Trip – Part 2/2

Monday

Recently I’ve been enjoying many long walks in Tokyo. Not so today: with the forecast predicting 39 Celsius for the afternoon I was happy I had scheduled no less than five films for Monday. I started my day with my second Ishiro Honda film in a row, the romantic melodrama Lovetide (恋化粧) (1955) in Jinbocho Theater’s Fubuki Koshiji program. To be honest I’m not very familiar with the actress, and wanted to see the film mainly because of leading man Ryo Ikebe. Like many fellow Toei fans, I was introduced to Ikebe was via his late career supporting roles in yakuza films, rather than his leading man roles in the 50s. It was nice seeing him as a romantic lead, and the film was pretty enjoyable, particularly towards the end when the drama and action pick up, even though mid-50s Japanese cinema in general is not my field.



The rest of the day would be spent in Laputa Asagaya, who were still doing their Roman Porno retrospective. Up first was Yoichi Higashi’s stylish road movie / psychological drama Jealousy Game (ジェラシー・ゲーム) (1982), in which a middle aged married couple travelling in Hokkaido by Harley Davidson get caught up in a younger couple’s relationship games. Starring a strictly mainstream cast of Yôsuke Natsuki & Reiko Ôshida and Hiroaki Murakami & Hitomi Takahashi, this was one of the occasional Eros Daisaku projects released as double features (as opposed to triple features) and aimed at more mainstream audiences than the standard Roman Porno. A mature, well acted film, slightly hurt by the ungrateful and perhaps sexist role Takahashi has to play. The film was written by Akiko Tanaka, one of the few female writers who ever got associated with Roman Porno (another notable one was Machiko Nasu). And yes, Toei’s delinquent girl Oshida loses her clothing in this film.

Jealousy Game screened from a good if slightly dark 35mm print. The theatre was nearly full, six or seven empty seats, and even Laputa’s pretty ticket seller had left her post and was enjoying the movie from the back row. Not bad for a Monday afternoon screening.



Up next was Naosuke Kurosawa’s bizarre but not particularly good sci-fi / horror Roman Porno Nurse Diary: Beast Afternoon (看護婦日記 獣じみた午後) (1982). Kurosawa is notable for his directorial debut, the absolutely fantastic and super stylish pink giallo Zoom In: Sex Apartments. This film however is seriously hampered by the lack of any coherence. It’s sex, dream devices, and low-budget surrealism without much in terms of script or attention to detail. I do admit Jun Miho, the cutest girl ever to star in Roman Porno, is a pleasure to the eye, as was the absolutely gorgeous 35mm print. I’d be surprised if the film ever looked this good at home.

My third Roman Porno for the day was uneven director Kazunari Takeda’s Nozoki (のぞき) (1982). Takeda’s Roman Porno career spanned from the early years to the mid 80s, during which he helmed both complete drivel and lyrical gems like Woman's Trail: Wet Path (which I compared to Wong Kar Wai the last time I saw it). I was so unsure about this film that I actually paid 300 yen to rent it on Amazon Prime and watch the first 5 or 6 minutes to see if it looked any good (with a Roman Porno that is usually enough). And yes, it did, and yes, it was. A breezy youth / family film combo about a busty daughter (Momoe Yamaguchi lookalike Mai Inoue) who moves back to her parents’ place for the summer, I was certain this was influenced by The Family Game (1983) until I realized they came out in reverse order. It’s absolutely nothing profound, but for silly jokes, pretty girls and general breeziness this was a fun enough watch.

Nozoki (left) and Hunting the Female Teacher (right)


The day’s fifth and final film was The Fancy Man (史上最大のヒモ 濡れた砂丘) (1974) in the Toei New Porno retrospective. This movie actually provided Takuzo Kawatani with his first starring role – who would’ve expected that to happen in a Toei New Porno film?

The film is yet another jitsuroku afffair, based on the Shiga Bank 900 Million Yen Embezzlement Case, which saw a middle aged female clerk steal loads of money over a 7 year period for her sweet-talking, gambling addicted lover. Nikkatsu released their own, more feminine and lyrical version (Office Lady Journal: Wet Bundle) earlier the same year, whereas this Toei version - somewhat fittingly for the studio – puts Takuzo Kawatani’s playboy thug in the spotlight. It's a fun, ugly film that depicts the polar opposite from the beautiful high culture Kyoto so often seen in films. The obvious highlight is of course madman Kawatani, who does well in his "Tatsuo Umemiya role", slightly toning down his crazy antics and showing his acting chops in a couple of tender moments that humanize the main character a bit. The same can be said about director Tomoomi Yoda who avoids the excess silliness of his earlier The High Cost of Virginity. That being said, the film isn’t particularly memorable, and even troublesome genius Doten Fukao’s script doesn't stand out much, though the theme is unmistakably his field (all four Toei New Porno’s he worked on were true account crime tales).

It was great finally getting to see this picture. Like the rest of the films scripted by Fukao, this movie could not be shown 11 years ago when its screening had to be cancelled at the last moment. The theatre was about half full, with no more than two or three women in the audience. Perhaps Kawatani + Porno wasn’t the most appealing combination for ordinary people after all?



Tuesday

Back to Laputa for Samurai Vagabonds (殿さま弥次㐂多) (1960) in their Kinnosuke Nakamura & Katsuo Nakamura’s Tonosama – Yajikita Morning Show. This is the third and final movie in the samurai comedy series – I missed the first two – with the two lords played by Nakamura and Nakamura escaping from their palaces to go adventuring in the real world as common folks. Though the film is no great shakes really, it’s always nice seeing these nostalgic and lavish early 60s color productions from gorgeous film prints. A lot of them, both the films and the 35mm prints, are breathtakingly beautiful to look at. It’s ironic that these old prints of 65 year old movies look better than any digital trash modern multiplexes play.



My next two films would be at the Film Archive, but before that I had an empty stomach to fill. I was planning to try out a highly praised ramen restaurant called Kojitsu in Higashi Nakano, but all I found was a “closed today” sign. I found an alternative in a near-by and similarly highly rated place called Mendokoro Kinari. It was a very decent bowl of soy ramen, though I didn’t really find it that exceptional other than the low price which I think was less than 900 yen.



And finally, back to Film Archive for Kinji Fukasaku’s hyper-stylized 60s pulp action thriller Gang vs. G-Men (ギャング対Gメン) (1962) and Sadao Nakajima’s gritty prison escape / jitsuroku film Escaped Murderer from Hiroshima Prison (脱獄・広島殺人囚) (1975). I’ve written about both films in the past, so a quick recommendation should suffice here. Both are fine films, and both pack a fantastic cast of Toei regulars. In Gang vs. G-Men the biggest standout is young Sonny Chiba as the “seventh samurai” (as aptly described by Mark Schilling), the naïve and overly-eager-to-help little brother to ex-gangster Koji Tsuruta, who is lured back into the underworld as government undercover operative. Good, though slightly faded and scratched print from the archive’s own collection.

Gang vs. G-Men (right)


Escaped Murderer from Hiroshima Prison likewise stars almost every Toei tough guy from the mid 70s, from lead Hiroki Matsukata to supporting stars Tomisaburo Wakayama, Tatsuo Umemiya, Tsunehiko Watase, Goro Ibuki, and of course the usual piranhas like Hideo Murota and Takuzo Kawatani. Groovy, gritty film with some great bits of low-key humour. Oh and no, I don’t know why this film screened in the 50s & 60s Composers program. Maybe they didn’t have enough prints from this composer?

I wasn’t complaining, though. It was great to finally get to see this film in 35mm – I’ve missed it several times over the years – though this is the area where the experience was left a little lacking. I’d be willing to bet this print was struck within the past 15 years because it had that slight teal to it that never appears on old prints and that I’ve only come across on prints that were advertised as “new” or clearly looked like recently struck. Okinawa Yakuza War’s “new print” (which replaced a heavily damaged older print about 10 years ago - I’ve attended screenings of both in Tokyo) has the same issue, and you can see a bit of this blue / green push also in some of the Toei New Porno prints like A College Girl’s Affairs, whose print was produced this year.

I’d be very curious to see this film from a different print, and I will probably get an opportunity to do sooner or later. The film has screened in Laputa Asagaya at least half dozen times over the past 25 years (it’s one Laputa’s programming director Yukari Ishii’s favourite films) and it should be a different print since the old program leaflets don’t credit the print to NFAJ.

Other films screening in the program

[Jason C Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Jason C]

Great googlely I love your writeups...but the pictures are a treasure.

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Toei New Porno and More: The Final Trip

Sometimes things just fall in place. I was really on my way to Finland for my summer vacation, but it just happened that the last of the five Toei New Porno films that I hadn’t seen before was playing at that time. And of course I had been fore-wise enough to schedule a two night Tokyo stop on my way to the polar bear land. It was really thanks to my wife’s mom, who picked the dates, that I was able to complete my porno quest. No, she didn’t join for the films, they were coming a few days later.

Day 0: Sunday

The usual deal. Work till 7 p.m., fly to Tokyo, and sleep in a capsule. I’m not really a fan of paying for a night’s accommodation when that’s all you’ll have time to do on the first day, but it’s the only way to make it to the morning screenings the next day. And it’s not like the capsule hotel is going to bankrupt you with their 4500 yen per night rates (sometimes less, sometimes more, though it used to be only half of that in the pre-corona days).

Day 1: Monday

It was a national holiday in Japan, which expectedly the boosted audience attendance rates. It was a near full house at Laputa Asagaya, who were screening Silence Has No Wings (とべない沈黙) (1966) in their Kazuo Kuroki Morning Show. An ATG production reluctantly released by Toho (the legend is the Toho execs declared the art house fare "a lunatic film"), I was a bit unsure if this movie would be my cup of green tea, but I’m happy I saw it. A beautifully filmed and scored allegorical tale of a butterfly’s journey from Kyoto to Hokkaido, the film should be captivating viewing even if its political contents were lost to the viewer. For those who are the in the film’s target audience, this may very well prove a hidden masterpiece. Laputa screened the film from a very scratched, but otherwise sharp and clear print in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio.



Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd17qgPbpqE

I was in a hurry as I left the screening room at 12:10, with my next film scheduled for 12:50 in Meguro. The movie in question was Shark Skin Man and Peach Hip Girl (鮫肌男と桃尻女) (1998), oddly enough my first Katsuhiko Ishii film. A cult favourite among some viewers, I was never drawn to Ishii or his movies as they seemed like overly flashy hipster cinema to me. But, seeing this movie was playing in Meguro Cinema from a 35mm print I thought I’d give it a go. Ultimately, the film was pretty much what I expected it to be: a Japanese b-grade Tarantino exercise with robber Tadanabu Asano and hotel clerk Sie Kohinata chased by a miscellaneous bunch of ironically written gangsters and assassins. Asano and Kohinata are genuinely cool, though. To quote someone’s Letterboxd review, these characters deserved a better movie.





I could have headed back to Laputa already for some Roman Porno, but seeing they were playing Female Beautician Rope Discipline (1981), which I expected to be one star junk, and Gemini Woman (1984), which I’ve confirmed as one star junk, I thought I’d be better off heading to Asakusa (hello Haruka-chan, hello Shizuku-chan). Though curiously enough, I later found out Gemini Woman actually screened from an English subtitled print. I have no explanation for that, for the origin of the print, but it happens sometimes. I know a handful of Film Archive’s prints have English subtitles, such as Fukasaku’s Wolves, Pigs and Men, and some Kurosawa and probably Ozu as well.

Gemini Woman


Upcoming program, including the menstruation horror splatter Orgasm Mariko


Anyway, the night was to end in Laputa anyhow, with Victimized (女高生飼育) in their Toei New Porno retrospective. This was the only remaining film in the retrospective that I had not seen yet. A had already made three Tokyo trips to catch A Diary of a Woman Doctor, The High Cost of Virginity, A College Girl’s Affairs, and The Fancy Man, and this fourth trip was to add Victimized to the list. I could afford to miss A Married Woman’s Sex Hell, which screened between Virginity and College, because I had already seen it last year in Laputa’s 25th Anniversary program. The last two films in the retrospective, Virgin Breaker Yuki and Virgin Breaker Yuki 2, I’ve also seen before (they are the only two film from the program that have ever been released on home video – the rest you won’t find even in the dark caves of internet).

Victimized is technically speaking another jitsuroku crime film, though more of an erotic drama. The film is loosely based on the same schoolgirl kidnapping case as The Perfect Education (1999), with Eimei Esumi as a middle aged English teacher who kidnaps 17 year old schoolgirl Yoko Asakura. Initially reluctant to be his sex slave, she soon develops a Stockholm syndrome and romance follows (*).

Yes, it’s a little difficult to defend this film as entertainment of any sort, and it could even be interpreted as call for sympathy for criminal incels. Yet, typical to mid 70s Toei exploitation, it comes off strangely watchable and certainly has its jitsuroku vibes with time stamps and all. There’s even a bizarre, out of the blue “underground gore party club” scene, not to mention a slight S&M vibe. The latter is probably the influence of Naomi Tani films at Nikkatsu, and most certainly creditable to screenwriter Ikuo Sekimoto, who would later helm a pair of actual S&M fares for Nikkatsu (Rope Torture, 1984, and Double Rope Torture, 1985). Director Tatsuo Honda helms the picture with professionalism – at least if we ignore a couple of unintentionally comical drama bits – the tech credits are fine, and the film looks better than the minimal budget might have you expect. It was the end of the directorial run for Honda, though: he was re-assigned to producer’s duties for the rest of his career after this movie.

* There is no proof that this ever happened in the real life case.



That was it for the porno summer. Thank you Laputa, for the most exciting film retrospective of the year, and for getting me five films closer to having seen every movie made by Toei in the 70s (I’m at 93% on this list, though it’s missing a couple of dozen titles, mostly super-obscure Toei Porno).

The Deep World of Toei New Porno Returns program chirashi

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TGC and More: Part 1 – Life in the Land of Slow Moving Typhoon (post 1/2)

I had barely recovered from the “porno summer” when it was already time to head back to Tokyo for Laputa Asagaya’s 32 movie TGC program (more about that later), which was jam packed with Pinky Violence, female yakuza and lady karate films. I actually wanted to drop by in August already, but that being the hottest Japanese summer vacation season the flight prices were off the charts, so I had to settle for two September trips.

This was actually a joint trip with my wife. I‘d been eyeing a chance to bring her to Tokyo for movies and more, and figured this was as good a timing as any. Due to our differing work schedules she’d fly there ahead of me and I’d follow later.

And then there was the damn typhoon.

Day 0: Saturday

With 1500 km / 900 miles between you and a typhoon, you’d think you’re safe. It was the notorious "Typhoon Shanshan" that was supposed to reach Tokyo and even Hokkaido by the end of August - just when we travel - but didn't, because it was for some reason moving at snail speed. Little good did that do. I only learned later that this beast had the power the turn the entire country’s weather system upside down, no matter how far it was. So I wake up with all trains cancelled because part of the railroad is flooding. Getting to work was a pain in the ass. Getting to the airport after work went just fine, but my late evening flight was delayed 45 min due to late arrival. And that was a massive issue in a country where public transport pretty much shuts down at night. How am I going to get from Narita Airport to Tokyo's Ueno, where our hotel was? That’s 65 km / 40 miles. With the flight expected to land after 11 P.M. I knew it would be too late for the last airport train (at 23:11). I knew I’d stand a slight chance of catching the last bus (at 23:20) if I ran like hell. Which I did, and arrived one minute early. The only problem was that the bus would go to Tokyo St., not Ueno. I had already mentally prepared for a one hour walk from Tokyo St. to Ueno (done it before, but not in the rain, and not at 1 A.M.), but surprisingly enough the bus reached its destination early and I managed to catch the last Yamanote train to Ueno at 0:38!

Day 1: Sunday

Solo day today as wife went to the Mickey Mouse Land with a friend, and I headed to Laputa for their TGC Tatakau Girl’s Collection (“Fighting Girls Collection”) retrospective (that’s a reference to the fashion event “Tokyo Girl’s Collection”, something I would never have gotten had the wife not pointed out the obvious). It’s too bad I couldn’t drop by in August already when they screened tons of good stuff, like the first two Crimson Bat movies from Shochiku, the first two Rising Dragon films from Nikkatsu (I’ve seen the first, not the second, neither have ever been released on video), Kanto Woman Scoundel (also never been released on video) from Daiei, the 2nd, 4th and 5th Girl Boss movies from Toei, and more.

Sadly the massive billboard they used to have on top is gone. It was missing during the Roman Porno retrospective, and still is. Cost cutting?


My first film in the retrospective was Stray Cat Rock: Delinquent Girl Boss (1970), which was playing for a near full house (zero women in the attendance, however). To be honest this isn’t a particularly great picture, which some sloppy filmmaking and miscast Akiko Wada in the lead, however, it does come with tons of early 70s pop culture relevance that makes it a fun watch. Decent enough print, but blacks looked a little weak. Oddly enough I’ve now seen all the odd numbered Stray Cats in 35mm (Sex Hunter twice), but none of the even ones. I recall part 4 being my favourite in the series, though I haven’t seen it since it aired on Finnish TV about 15 years ago.

Besides Stray Cat Rock, I was also considering killing time by seeing the new Ryan Gosling movie Fall Guy in some Toho multiplex, but decided my time would be better spent if I went to see the world’s biggest projection mapping at Shinjuku instead. I’d been keen on seeing the Godzilla / Attack on Tokyo projection they do only on weekends. Sadly, it was cancelled due to the typhoon even though the weather was perfectly fine. I didn’t realized this until I arrived at the site. At which time it was also too late for a movie. Damn. No Godzilla. No Gosling. Damn.

Day 2: Monday

This was a bit of a dramatic day, and the reason why this report comes so late. I wasn’t quite sure how to put this in words, or if I should type it down in the first place. But fear not, there’s a happy end to it. And I don’t think there are more than two or three people reading these reports anyway. Also, I’ve still got a few paragraphs to get through before the drama starts.

So my wife is back from her Disneyland adventures and it’s time for our shared program. First up was teamLab Planets, the highly popular interactive digital art museum where “the boundary between the body and the artwork dissolves”. Cool place, with massive Interstellar vibes, and easily worth the admission. Just look at the photos.





Our plan for the rest of the day was to head to Higashi Nakano for ramen, and then continue to Laputa for Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom and Sex and Fury, before ending the day with a night view of the Sensoji temple in Asakusa. But as my wife was very curious to learn about the following day’s “secret program”, I went ahead and spilled the beans early. Which, at first, didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped.

This had been a long term project that, unbeknownst to her, had been put into motion already a few months earlier when I insisted that we watch all the Magic Mike films! Which she greatly enjoyed, but was probably left a bit puzzled as to why I wanted to watch them (actually I’d always been slightly curious to see them). And we even followed that with The Full Monty! Had to stop there as I couldn’t think of any more male stripper movies!

I’m not sure how much good that mental preparation did, but when I told her that next day we’d be heading to Tokyo’s legendary (female) strip theatre Asakusa Rock-za, her smile became a bit forced and nervous. I could tell she wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea and all its connotations, including the fact that I’ve been there before. But I wouldn’t have included this in our program had I not been fairly confident that it would work out in the end. But I also didn’t want to talk about it in advance, because (to quote one of the Magic Mike films) some things just can’t be explained. And yet I tried to do just that. I should not have.

As it was obvious neither one of us has the mood for movies anymore, we decided to switch program dates and get Asakusa out of the way today, and leave the movies for Tuesday. That actually turned out to be a winning idea anyway, as the weather was too good for movies, and that also freed time for Nezu Shrine (originally scheduled for Tuesday, when it would be raining).

So fast forward past Nezu to 6 P.M. and we are in front of Asakusa Rock-za, the legendary strip theatre that has been in operation since the 1940s (and I should emphasize it's a theatre, not a club or bar. You sit down for a 2 hour show and the lights go off). Though the industry itself is in a sad decline, Asakusa Rock-za has only been gaining in popularity in the recent years. If you want to secure one of the theatre’s 129 seats on weekends or holidays, it’s recommended to arrive 30 min before the show (which start at 14:00, 16:10, 18:20, and 20:30). I’ve seen a line of 100 people forming up in front of the place on holidays before the 1st show. And recently even on weekdays they are selling out up to three of the day's four shows.

Do not pay too much attention to the poster; for some reason the dancers always look more beautiful in real than in the poster


The reason for this popularity is that the show is freaking amazing. If you read some Google reviews you’ll start to understand why this place as a 4.4/5 average rating (would be higher if not for a handful of negative reviews for the “rude” staff, though I never had any issue, and I can see some of those complaints come from idiots who were talking during the show and were offended when staff came to tell them to stop disturbing the show). Similar sentiments are echoed in almost every review: “amazing spectacle”, “must be experienced at least once in lifetime”, “this will remove all your prejudices about striptease”, “this is art, not pornography”, “if I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought I walked into a crazy dance party”, and “whatever you were expecting, you’ll be surprised” (not direct quotations, just from my memory). Just ignore the sumo restaurant reviews that dumb foreigners keep posting accidentally under Asakusa Rock-za in Google Reviews because it’s located in the same building and they don’t seem to know where they went. “The food was great and the show is family friendly” is my favourite comment, though!

I visited Asakusa Rock-za for the first time last year (you may have spotted some intentionally obscure references in my earlier reports) and was blown away. I’d been aware of this place for nearly a decade (though I didn’t know its former female president had convinced her close friend Takeshi Kitano to make Zatoichi, so there’s movie trivia for you!), but like everyone else I though it must be something dirty and suspicious. For me, and for countless other people as I later learned, it was Nanami Matsumoto who eventually managed to lure me in for the first and unexpectedly totally not the last time. Turned out Matsumoto’s famous assets were the least interesting thing about the show, which is closer to a musical than any sleazy strip joint you may be imagining. The fact that it’s increasingly popular with women, who come to see the show alone or with female friends, should be telling. Of course most customers are men, and this place is still in the progress of being discovered by wider mainstream audiences, but it’s definitely turning into a trend. The most I have count was 27 women in the audience (which is 27 more than in many movie screenings I catch in Laputa). It’s much more about the incredible dance performances, fantastic costumes, and music and lights, than nudity. And even when they lose their clothes at the end, it's is more of art, or celebration of the beauty of human body, than anything else.

Two of my favourite dancers: Haruka Omi (left) and Swan Shiratori (right) in "Steps on Broadway" which I saw earlier this year


It’s a 1 hour 40 min show with a 10 minute break in the middle. The entire show is themed (e.g. "Steps on Broadway", where each performance was based on a famous Broadway musical, or "Earth Beat", where each performance introduces a dance style from a different culture ), and each performance is scripted accordingly to tell a story. There are seven dancers who all perform their own roughly 10 minute segment. The first half of each dancer’s segment is typically group number with anything from one to ten supporting dancers on stage (in addition to the seven main dancers, the theatre has four supporting, non-strip dancers at their disposal). It’s followed by their solo part, during which clothes eventually go missing. The show goes on for 20 days with the same cast, and is repeated with a new cast for another 20 days once or twice before an entirely new show is launched.

On my earlier visits I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Spectators literally moved to tears (including me) when witnessing former ballerina Swan Shiratori perform Les Miserables. Audience absolutely losing it with a bat shit crazy 80’s rock music / work out video pastiche performance starring my favourite dancer Haruka Omi. Shizuku Hanai exiting the stage after her Flashdance performance (where she danced to both “What a Feeling” and “Maniac”) by doing nude cartwheels. And I nearly peed in my pants when I realized that the familiar sounding music during Ryo Akanishi’s performance was the theme from La Califfa, composed by Ennio Morricone. Which raises the question, who on earth is their dance choreographer and producer?

Haruka Omi in "Breath" which I caught earlier this year


Speaking of which, though I know next to nothing about the industry, I know that this is one of the major things setting Asakusa Rock-za apart from other places: they have a dance choreographer who creates the show, and the dancers take 10 days of intensive lessons before their show stars. Another thing is that they have a costume designer who creates up to a 180 new costumes every year (there have been calls for her to hold an exhibition of her past creations. This interview with her and Shiratori, who btw reveals she likes to buy additional dance costumes from Sayuri Ichijo’s shop (yes, THAT Sayuri Ichijo! Nikkatsu fans should know!) actually works as a good introduction to Rock-za).

Needless to say the production values are relatively fantastic, as are the music selections which range from Morricone to Robbie Williams and Irene Cara. There are plenty of customers – including most women I’d assume – who go there not at all for the nudity, but despite of it. Of course you still get the occasional" long neck" in the audience - as my wife billed the front row pervert whose neck seemed to grow longer everyone a dancer's pants came off - but perhaps they shouldn't be blamed: it is a trip show after all. Or shall I put it this way: Asakusa Rock-za is to strip theatres what Roman Porno was to Pink films. And I'm not talking about Katsuhiko Fujii films here. I'm talking about Tanaka, Kumashiro, Somai.

One more thing I should mention about the dancers is that they seem to be having an absolute blast doing these performances, and that enthusiasm really comes through to the audience, too. What’s also nice is that most of them seem to be best friends with each other. It’s quite fun to follow them on Twitter and see them hang out together on their free days, or snap photos backstage with other dancers who came to visit them during their performances. I couldn’t help but to laugh when Shitarori and Konoha Chihiro were posting pictures from Disneyland together! They all seem super supportive of each other, everyone’s referring to each other as little or big sisters, and frequently go see each other’s shows to show support and to learn from each others. This is the polar opposite of that piece of shit Paul Verhoeven film. Of course I cannot know everything that goes on behind closed doors, but the positivity and sisterhood on the girls' private twitter accounts is overwhelming. And yet in society’s eyes these girls are looked down on, moralized or seen as victims. As dancers no one expects them to be any good, yet they deliver an amazing show, and that’s why I think they deserve all the support and sympathy they can get.

Sept. 1-20 show: "Earth Beat - World Dance Review" dancers in group photo after samba finale
From left top: Nonoka, Marika Fujisaki, Love Saotome, Sara
From left bottom: Shizuku Hanai, Maaya Irita, Nagi Mamiya


So how did it go down with my wife? Well, it ended in tears… of happiness. She absolutely loved the show, and even wrote a fan message addressed to two of the dancers, Nonoka and Shizuku Hanai, telling them that they were amazing, the show was incredible, and that she’s going to come again to see the show all the way from Hokkaido! My wife has been dancing since she was five years old (with clothes on, I should add) as a hobby, and still performs every year at her home town’s biggest dance festival, so that’s some big praise coming from her. Anyway, after the show we headed to an izakaya, spent an hour talking about the performance, and booked me a flight for November so that I can take her there again when she’s on a business trip in Tokyo. She could go alone, I told her, but I want to come see the show also!

End of part 1. Next I will talk about movies, in case anyone still cares.

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

TGC and More: Part 1 – Life in the Land of Slow Moving Typhoon (post 2/2)

Day 3: Tuesday

Hello Gosling. With Nezu Shrine already out of the way, we decided to escape the rain and catch Fall Guy at Toho Cinemas Shibuya. Wife is a Ryan Gosling fan and I like him too. A fairly entertaining movie, but like many modern action films it suffers from the incomprehensible decision to give every shot a digital makeover. You’d think that a film that celebrates practical stunts, and indeed features them aplenty, would make its utmost to let the audience know they are seeing the real deal. Even my wife asked me why they made the film look so CGI-like?

Up next was something that didn’t suffer from one bit of CGI as I took my wife to Laputa Asagaya to see Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom (1973). This was her 2nd visit to Laputa (the 1st one was years ago when I took her to see Karate Warriors). Now, you have to remember she’s just an ordinary cute Japanese girl who loves Disney and Ryan Gosling, so this isn’t exactly her type of cinema! But I think she had good enough time, even if the film’s political context went way over her head (after the film I spent half an hour lecturing about how the film borrows imagery from the violent late 60s / early 70s student protests, references the Vietnam war that US was fighting from their controversial Japan bases, and how the film reflects the changing attitudes towards the educational system that was no longer viewed as the life-saver it had been in the immediate post-war years, and the problems arising from the soaring high school enrolment rates as it became a customary in Japan for "everyone" to go to high school). And how all of this was still secondary to Suzuki being a troll and a pervert!). Solid print, with 90% of the film looking just great, though oddly enough there were occasional shots or short scenes here and there that had developed a bit of an unnatural blue tint.



I couldn’t take her to see Sex and Fury as she needed to head to the airport for her return flight, whereas I’d still have 1½ days left in Tokyo. I was saving Sex and Fury for Wednesday and headed to Kineka Omori for the Summer Horror Film Festival that they have been hosting for a decade now. It used to be a bigger event, with new and old films in the program, but this time there were only three questionable classics: Delirium (1972), Messiah of Evil (1973) and Bloodsucking Freaks (1976), all screened for the first time in Japan, sadly but understandably in DCP. I was going to watch the first two back to back, but the nonsense of Delirium wore me down, and I decided skip Messiah and to go for ramen instead.

I don’t go to Kineka Omori very often – it’s a small multiplex aimed at trendy young adults and screens mostly new films – but I’ve been there a few times over the years. I saw Tetsuo in 35mm there a decade ago, also Tragedy of W and The Island Closest to Heaven as a double feature from film prints, and had good time watching Hellraiser in one of their earlier editions of the summer horror fest many years ago.

Day 4: Wednesday

I had gone to bed (capsule, I mean) early last night and slept until 10:30. I needed the rest as I was facing a bit of a hard core day at Laputa with four films scheduled back to back for the day. The first one was Wandering Ginza Butterfly (1972), one of the transitional era yakuza films that were modelled after ninkyo films, but set in the glittering Ginza neon night. This is actually one of the better ones of its kind, a bit mediocre at first but with a number is really good scenes here and there. The pool game, which is a clever modernization of the ninkyo film card games, stands as one of the most exiting gambling scenes in any yakuza film, and the modernized ninkyo walk before the climax is absolutely fabulous as well. Meiko Kaji is good in the lead as well, even though this was a failed attempt to launch her as Junko Fuji’s successor.

Making the film even more enjoyable was the 35mm film print, which was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Perfect colours, bright but never overly so, perfect black levels, filmic as hell, this is a presentation that I don’t think digital HD masters will ever be able to rival, be it 2K or 8K. What a visual feast! The theatre was about 80% full (as would be the following screening).



Up next was Sex and Fury (1973), which I was seeing in 35mm for the 2nd time (last time was in Shin bungeiza back in January 2018). I remembered quite clearly that the print was rather mediocre with slightly washed out colours in places, and kind of a murky appearance particularly in the middle part of the film, but still looking alright as a whole and almost terrific in some scenes, especially towards the end. This was indeed the same print, and while I don’t think it does full justice to the film’s visuals it’s still my preferred option for viewing the movie at the moment.

I actually watched the Discotek BD just a week later and that’s a solid release by home video standards, but a little lacking in terms of colour vibrancy and doesn’t quite have the filmic quality of the 35mm print. Anyway, this is an important film for me as it was something of a life changer when I first saw it nearly 20 years ago and found my mind blow. It’s still a blast, even though the political and historical context of the story feels underdeveloped. As a brief trivia, Suzuki said he made this movie because after Battles without Honour and Humanity no one was making period pieces anymore, but Toei still had all the assets (costumes, sets, props, even a sword fight choreography unit) available and at his disposal.

I had considered skipping The Red Silk Gambler (1972) in favour of getting some rest, but decided to watch it anyway. Glad I did, as my opinion of the film improved from my previous viewing (DVD, a decade ago), perhaps partly because this was another godsend print that looked just fabulous beyond words. I mean, just beautiful! The movie is also a good one, basically the missing link between Red Peony Gambler which represents the golden age of female ninkyo films, and Sex and Fury, which is where the genre went (or what little survived of it) after erotic content took over cinema in the early 70s. The Red Silk Gambler is very much a ninkyo / female gambler film, but director Teruo Ishii sprinkles it with content familiar from his ero-guro movies, including the sadistic villain who has a women’s torture dungeon, and topless Reiko Ike in a supporting role as an avenger after the main character. Sadly the screening proved less popular with audiences than the previous two films, with only half of the seats occupied.



The night’s last film was Terrifying Girls’ High School: Delinquent Convulsion Group (1973). While not as good as Lynch Law Classroom, largely because debut director Seiko Shimura is no Norifumi Suzuki, this is still entertaining Pinky Violence with an even stronger Vietnam War / US Army Bases backdrop than the previous film. The movie was actually filmed in the city of Iwakuni which is known for its US army base. Hence, we get half of Toei’s evil gaijin roster from Mike Daneen to Osman Yusuf as American bastards murdering and raping innocent Japanese people. All in all, a good film but feels a bit small scale and restrained compared to the manic energy and anarchy of Lynch Law Classroom. The film print was a good one, but did have occasional murky or greenish/bluish bits that clearly weren’t how it was meant to look. The attendance was the same as Red Silk, about 50%.



That was it for the movies this time. However, I'd be back in two weeks for more films! Stay tuned for the next report.

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TGC and More: Part 2 – Kitano Lives

Sunday

It was a destiny. I didn’t think I’d be able to see Earth Beat at Asakusa Rock-za again, but seeing my flight landed 16 minutes ahead of schedule I knew there was a slim chance. So here I am again, running like Usain Bolt between the airport terminals, and miraculously managing to catch the Skyliner train that was my only chance. Well done me. For some reason, I never get to do any leisurely walking at the airport. There’s a free shuttle bus that goes between the terminal, yes, but my feet are faster. The train waits for no one.

Fast forward 75 min and I’m in front of Asakusa Rock-za. It’s still 30 minutes till the show, but the doors are about to open and there’s already a line of roughly 100 people on the street. Glad I got here early. The venue got full 15 minutes before the show started as far its 129 seats went – anybody who came after that had to stand.

So it was my 2nd time for Earth Beat. It’s cool when you get to see the same show twice. My previous visit was two weeks ago in early September when they had just started their 20 day run. Now they were near the end of it, and you could see how many of them had improved. Last time the opening performance, which is a massive Bollywood musical number, made my wife fall in love with Nonoka, and it was so much fun this time also. Marika Fujisaki & Sara’s Chinese period piece was up next, which was kind of like watching a Zhang Yimou film. Fujisaki looked objectively spectacular in her sparking dress and tiara despite being around 40. I thought one of my favourite dancers, Shizuku Hanai, was a bit wasted in the third performance, which was a cutesy little Scottish solders number, but her movements and smile are amazing, and the sync between the supporting dancers was much better this time than two weeks ago. Hanai is much better when she gets to do a more acrobatic show, though (when I saw her do Flashdance a few months ago, she was obviously using “gravity-minus-30%” cheat code!). The fourth performance, Love Saotome’s incredible flamenco number with some extremely complex synchronized folding fan movements between her four supporting pro dancers blew me away last time, and the fourth performance was just as good today as well.

Fast forward past a 10 minute break and the show continues with Nagi Mamiya (and half of the rest of the cast)’s bat shit crazy K-pop number. The main song was “Boombayah”, but I think at some point they managed to mix in a bit of Bill Conti’s Rocky winning theme! I found myself laughing 10 minutes non-stop at the sheer insanity and energy if it. Consider me a Nagi fan from now on. The 6th performance was incredible as well, an old Middle East number with Sara dancing with her lover’s severed head! Sara is an absolute legend who was celebrating her 31st strip dance anniversary (“that’s impossible!”, an audience member was caught saying after seeing how beautiful she still looks). Yes, she’s 49 or 50, but the audiences refuse to let her retire. A national treasure. And finally, the 7th performance with AV star Maaya Irita in her strip dance debut. Her lack of experience was showing, though she had improved over the two weeks (and I hear she’s extremely funny on backstage). The epic pirate show she did with other girls playing massive drums was more spectacular than all the Pirates of Caribbean films combined. Finally, there was a Samba finale with Nagi introducing all the dancers to the audience (I actually posted a photo of that last time, so scroll up to see it).

I also took the chance to buy a couple of large size photos: below are Love Saotome (left) from my favourite performance, and Nonoka (right) who was one of my wife’s favourites.



Ok, let’s get back to movies, Takeshi Kitano to be precise. While his new works continue to underwhelm, something exceptional has been in progress in Tokyo in June 2023. That’s when Shin bungeiza first screened Violent Cop, Boiling Point and Sonatine from 35mm prints in anticipation of Kubi. The three Kitano classics proved popular with the audiences, with Sonatine selling out all of its screenings. Due to popular demand, encore screenings were organized for July, which likewise filled all of the theatre’s 264 seats. This led to further encore screenings first in August, then in September, November, and so on. Fast forward to September 2024 and now Sonatine is STILL in the program, playing for full or near full houses three to four times a month for 15 MONTHS STRAIGHT! Oh, and they also already announced three more screenings for October.

On most months Violent Cop and Boiling Point have been taking turns being Sonatine’s double feature partner. I actually watched Violent Cop and Sonatine at Bungeiza in September 2023, but I forgot to write a report of it.This month they were playing all three, but I skipped Cop in favour of strippers, and rushed to the theatre from Boiling Point, which was followed by my second 35mm viewing of Sonatine.

When I saw Sonatine last time in 2023, there was something that bothered me a little bit. The print was better and more colourful than the washed out BD presentations available in Japan, US, and UK, but I could swear the motion looked somehow unusually smooth. Was something wrong with the projector or the print, or was the film somehow shot like this? I don’t know. I was curious if I’d have the same experience this time, and yes, I did, although the smoothness struck a little less obvious to my eyes this time. Nevertheless somehow it looked different from Boiling Point, which had viewed just before, or literally any of the hundred of 35mm prints I’ve viewed over the past years. Fantastic movie anyway.



Speaking of Boiling Point, I had forgotten what a good film it is. Even though this was before Kitano begun collaborating with Joe Hisaishi and hence feels like its missing something, Kitano’s dry humour is in full effect here. I think I like this film better than Violent Cop, which is a solid film too. The film print was alright, but a bit yellowish and dirty.

I had a friend joining me for the Kitano screenings, so after the films we went looking for something to eat, and found a very good yakitori restaurant. Now if I could only remember what it was called, I'd go there again.



Monday

The second day of my trip was dedicated to girl action films in Laputa Asagaya. I reached Asagaya around noon, and headed to the theatre to purchase my tickets. I was actually a bit nervous because I knew this was my last chance to score a Lady Snowblood ticket (meaning a ticket with Lady Snowblood art… I already had multiple copies of Sex and Fury and 13 Steps of Maki arts). And I did! The last of the four tickets I bought had the Snowblood art! Now I can die a happy man. But first, I need to watch movies.

A few years ago I caught Rica (1972) in Laputa. Great film, but sadly the print had faded to pink. Laputa’s TGC program only included Rica 2: Lonely Wanderer (1973), which proved to be an absolute treat in 35mm. The thick, filmic, colourful and all around natural looking print was a pleasure to watch. Prints like this are the reason why I spend silly amounts of money to attend screenings in Tokyo. And of course I rather enjoy the film as well. It’s a lighter and lesser affair than the classic original movie, with some downright goofy bits. However, it’s still unmistakably a film originating from the world’s most enjoyable genre and era of filmmaking. I don’t think I will ever grow tired of 70s Japanese delinquent girl action.



Up next was one of my all time Pinky Violence favourites, the supremely stylish revenge masterpiece Criminal Woman: Killing Melody (1973). I had actually caught this in 35mm already before many years ago in Laputa’s Reiko Ike / Miki Sugimoto joint retrospective. The film was as great as ever, however sadly the same can’t be said about the print, which had developed a heavy and unhealthy blue tint that persisted from start to finish (it was there previous time as well, but somehow I was hoping it wouldn’t bother me so much this time). As much as I love the film, I think this will be the last time I’m watching it theatrically unless a better print is discovered or produced.



After Criminal Woman next up was Lady Snowblood (1973). This was my third time seeing the film in 35mm, the previous two times having been in Cinema Vera in 2015 and Jinbocho Theater in 2022. I knew not expect too much from the print as I recalled it being slightly murky, with some damage and a bit of a reddish hue due to print deterioration. Yet seeing the film in 35mm again was the main reason for my trip as even with all its issues the image quality would be considerably better than the ultra-dim and near colourless Arrow BD, or the even worse Criterion BD that features one of the most revisionist and modernized transfers ever given to a Japanese film.

To my massive surprise Laputa screened an entirely different and superior print than what had been circulating before. This was a very solid looking presentation with proper colors and contrast, and none of the Michael Bay color timing or crazy contrast issues seen on the Criterion disc. It also looked more accurate than the previous print I had seen. Snow looked white throughout the film (with occasional very slight blue or green hue creeping in). If it wasn’t for some dirt at reel changes, I would have believed this be a brand new print based on a new restoration. There was only one issue: the print was actually a bit too bright to the point of losing some of the film’s cinematic look. The excess brightness hurt the deeper shadows, made colors look a tad washed out, and gave a too bright appearance to some of the night time scenes. It’s likely how the film was shot, but a bit of adjustment was clearly needed, because I felt this presentation fell just a bit short of looking absolutely phenomenal. Still, it’s was light years ahead of any of the home video presentations the film has seen.



The last film of the night was my favourite Etsuko Shihomi movie: Dragon Princess (1976). The dynamite karate picture not only shows Shihomi at the top of her game, but also featured one of Sonny Chiba’s best supporting roles in the opening 15 minutes where he fights Toru Abe’s goons in an epic church battle, loses an eye, puts on an eye patch, and then trains daughter Shihomi into a karate avenger while the opening credits roll! And this is all before Yasuaki Kurata even appears! The film is also notable for being one of the purest and most uncompromised embodiments of girl power at Toei: Shihomi is an absolute powerhouse role model for girls and is never sexualized, nor is anyone else as the film is completely void of sex and nudity (in its Japanese form, that is. The original US release of the film actually inserted a sex scene from Nikkatsu’s Tokyo Emmanuelle in the middle of the film).

I wasn’t sure what to expect from the 35mm print, since many Chiba prints that I’ve seen haven’t been in the best shape, but this turned out to look absolutely fantastic. There’s really almost nothing to complain about: it print was near pristine with beautiful colors and all of the film’s rich visuals fully honoured. This is easily the best I’ve ever seen the film look, and that includes the recent HD master by Toei which I’m hoping will be released on BD soon as it’s a good master too. I’ve actually seen the film quite a few times over the years, first via the ancient US bootleg DVD in the 10 Faces of Sonny Chiba set, then from the pretty poor looking BCI double feature widescreen DVD, then the soft but otherwise good Toei DVD, and finally the new Toei HD master on TV. And now, finally in 35mm, with the best presentation I’ve seen so far.



Upcoming program


All in all, what a kick ass day at the movies! Though I do have to report one regret, which was the almost complete lack of female audience. You’d think these movies would make a great discovery for modern female audiences, but most screenings had only one or two women in the attendance, with the rest of the audience being mostly middle aged and elderly men. Curiously enough, almost all Pink and Roman Porno films I’ve viewed at Laputa have had more women in the audience than these female-led action pictures.

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I was actually a bit nervous because I knew this was my last chance to score a Lady Snowblood ticket (meaning a ticket with Lady Snowblood art… I already had multiple copies of Sex and Fury and 13 Steps of Maki arts). And I did! The last of the four tickets I bought had the Snowblood art! Now I can die a happy man.

I forgot to include a photo in my last post. The day's tickets:


Note that the artwork is random. It does not indicate which screening you are about to attend. There were probably a bit over half dozen artwork variations in total for this retrospective. I saw Zero Woman tickets too, but failed to score one.

Here however is the Sex and Fury art, which I scored on my previous trip.

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Ninjas, Prisoners and Fairy Tales

I've lost count how many times Shin bungeiza has made me change my travel plans. Those of you who read about my Asakusa adventures a few months ago may recall I booked a one night trip for early October to join my wife on her business trip - and to visit Rock-za again with her. And then Bungeiza goes and announces a set of Toei ninja and samurai films for the very morning when I was supposed to fly. So, previous night it is! Jetstar charged me 4000 yen for the booking change, which wasn't too bad considering the flight was dirt cheap to begin with at around 4500 yen.

Bungeiza was playing Yagyu Chronicles 9: Assassin’s Sword (十兵衛暗殺剣 ) (1964), The Ninja Hunt (忍者狩り ) (1964), Eleven Samurai (十一人の侍) (1967) and 13 Assassins (十三人の刺客) (1963). The first three were screening back to back on the day I was in Tokyo, but I could only watch the first two since I'd need to head to Laputa for Abashiri Prison in the afternoon. I had actually seen both fairly recently, but couldn't miss the chance to watch them in 35mm.

This was the 2nd time this year that Yagyu Chronicles 9: Assassin’s Sword was on screen - the previous time was in February or March when Laputa screened the entire series. I'm a bigger fan of some of the earlier and more stylized films in the series (some with massive "spaghetti western vibes", and that was years before Leone!) whereas part 9 is more of a zankoku jidaigeki: arms are cut off, eyes are plucked out, and just about everyone dies a horrible death. The plot follows Yagyu Jubei (excellent Jushiro Konoe - he's Hiroki Matsukata's father btw) and his ninjas trying infiltrate an island of death where they are massacred left and right! Good stuff, but not as wild as it could be. The film print was a bit faded and featured occasional soft bits, but overall perfectly watchable.

The Ninja Hunt is another zankoku jidaigeki, with a bunch of samurai (including Jushiro Konoe, Shingo Yamashiro and Kei Sato) hired to protect a clan and its young lord (he's just a kid) against a merciless ninja clan who have been assigned by the shogunate to kill the kid. It's a solid and often shocking film - there's even a scene where the hero kills half dozen innocent people because he knows one of them must be an enemy spy - with an unforgettably brutal climax. The print was excellent too: sharp and clean with moderate grain, though there's something odd going on in the opening scene where the image seemed unstable, almost like as if the print was shaking. Oh and those who enjoyed this film and the Yagyu Chronicles series should also check out Seventeen Ninja (十七人の忍者) (1963), where Konoe conversely gets to be play a sadistic evil ninja - he's fantastic as a villain, too.



Next up was Laputa Asagaya, who were hosting a Director's Guild of Japan 70th Anniversary program, with 32 movies selected by the guild. The film selection ranged from Shunya Ito's Female Prisoner 701: Scorpion to Eiichi Kudo's The Great Killing and Tatsumi Kumashiro's Ichijo's Wet Lust. I was also glad to see Bullets of Slacker Street (1962) included again: that film is an absolute gem of Toei gangster action, and was screening in Laputa already for the 2nd time this year (see my earlier report for Toei Oizumi Vol. 3).

Also included in the program was Teruo Ishii's Abashiri Prison, which I've missed on multiple occasions before. It was great finally getting to see it in 35mm - a pretty good print too, though nothing special - though I was expecting it to be more popular. Granted, it was a Tuesday afternoon, but last time I saw a Takakura film in Laputa I almost couldn't secure a ticket. This time there were no more than 13 people in the screening. To be honest I've never considered this to be one of the greatest gangster films, but it is a solid movie and IMO one of the three best in the series (alongside parts 3 and 8).

Abashiri Prison


Also screening: Tragedy of W (I caught this in Kineka Omori about 10 years ago) and Shohei Imamura's The Insect Woman


After Abashiri Prison it was time to hook up with my wife, who had just finished her work, and head to Asakusa for something completely different. Asakusa Rock-za was doing the first season of the “Fairy Tales” Halloween show, which had proven immensely popular. They’ve been attracting a lot of visitors throughout the summer, but since “Fairy Tales” started two weeks ago on Sept. 20 they had sold out every single weekend show, and most weekday shows (including all four on some days). They even received an angry comment on Google Reviews urging them to raise prices because it’s too difficult to get a seat now (the current prices are 6000 for men, 5000 for women, and 4000 for the last show at 20:30).

Not my photo.


Besides one of my favourite dancers, Swan Shiratori, I was most looking forward to seeing Serina Komiyama for the first time. Her performance was causing quite a bit of stir online, with loads of people reporting on twitter that they were moved to tears or even burst out crying during her performance. See it now or regret forever, was the general consensus.

As suggested by the title, every performance in “Fairy Tales” was based on a fairy tale. First up was Yukino Nagasawa’s “Little Red Riding Hood” (co-starring Swan Shiratori as the cutest and youngest wolf grandmother ever), which was fun but a bit too silly and chaotic for my liking. I had seen Nagasawa before in “Steps on Broadway” where she did “Flashdance” and I felt that performance was better suited for her energy and agility.

Next up was something completely different, Yoko Yazawa’s “Blue Hood”, which was adapted from Ugetsu monogatari. For those of you who don’t know the story, it’s about a mad priest who terrorizes a village and feasts on human flesh. At 47 years old Yazawa is one of the industry legends, a former AV star (back in the 90s, before many of her fellow dancers were even born) who made her dance debut in 1997. Her spider-like poses were something more reminiscent of a horror movie than what you’d expect to see in a trip show. It took me a little while to understand this, but after seeing more of her in the film “Dancing in Her Dreams" (2020) and its accompanying documentaries, I realized she’s amazing at using her arms. A quick glance online showed this performance found a lot of fans with people who embrace darkness and madness.

There was more dedicated acting on display in the third performance, which was based on “Pied Piper of Hamelin”. In the original German story a clown-like character saves a village from rats by luring them out with his magic pipe, only to be greeted with ungratefulness from the villagers, after which he uses his pipe to lead away all the children from the town! I’m not familiar with the story, but Nao Fujikawa basically turned the character into an evil Pinocchio. My wife thought Fujikawa was so good she should be a professional musical actress.

The fourth performance was “The Red Shoes”, based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale. This was tailor made for one of my favourite dancers, Swan Shiratori, who is a former ballerina. To my uneducated eyes there’s no one who can dance as impressively as her. I have to admit I was in tears by the end of her performance from the sheer impressiveness of it.

Shiratori (left) and Serina Komiyama (right) (more about her in a moment)


There had been bit of additional drama regarding the 5th performance. The original performer, Nene Shinomiya, had to drop out after just one week for injuring both of her knees. The show then went on without her performance for the following seven days. Then on Oct. 2 they managed to bring in Haruhi Tsukigata, who’d be playing the same part in Fairy Tales Season 2, eight days ahead of schedule. I wasn’t a huge fan of the dance number, “The Walking Dead” (unrelated to the TV series), but she did an admirable job saving the show by stepping in after just two days of practice (meaning she’d be practising for her main and supporting roles with the next cast in the mornings and performing with the current cast for the rest of the day).

Next up was Serina Komiyama’s “The Giving Tree” about a little boy growing old with a magical tree that keeps on giving, which turned out to be worthy of all the praise. The first half of the performance had literally half of the audience in tears – it’s hard to explain, but it was so compassionate and beautiful, especially when co-star Nao Fujikawa appeared on stage as an old man with a cane, that it went into everyone’s emotions. So here we are, 130 people packed into a strip theatre, and half of them are crying their eyes out. It’s a beautiful world that we live in, isn’t it? And all this was before the aerial second half, which had everyone's jaws hitting the floor five minutes non-stop as long sheets came down from the ceiling and Komiyama climbed up to perform the last five minutes of her dance in the air, some 4 metres / 12 feet above the stage. Consider me a Serina fan from now on!

Komiayma (left) and Fujikawa (right)


For reference, an older Komiyama photo from an earlier Asakusa performance (from her twitter)


and a brief behind the scenes practice video clip from a few years back:
https://x.com/serina_komiyama/status...13973359161344

And just to prove I'm not pulling your leg by claiming people were moved to tears by Komiyama's performance, here's just a few comments I copied from twitter (I turned the Google Translate on because I was too lazy to translate them myself)




The 7th performance was Mayu Minami’s “The Sleeping Beauty”. The final performance is always reserved for the main star, however, this is measured by popularity and not dance skills. The main star is almost always an active AV actress who can pull new customers to the venue with her popularity. In line with this, the performance is designed to display their beauty more than their dancing skills. With Minami, however, we are in safe hands as she can actually dance, and is nowadays a full time dancer though she’s not entirely retired from AV according to herself. Not only that, she’s got this very friendly and soothing aura to her that has made her a staple of Asakusa (this was already her 4th time performing at Asakusa this year). Anyway, the final performance was a solid new take on “The Sleeping Beauty” with Minami performing the first part of her dance blindfolded, and is awaken by her own willpower (there’s no prince here; no need for a male saviour at Asakusa!).

As always, the main performances were followed by the big finale (this time with all dancers in angel wings and dancing to heavy metal music) where Komiyama introduces the dancers to the audience. Glad I got to see this performance! I wouldn’t necessarily agree about this being the best ever (overall I’d still rank “Steps on Broadway” above this from the ones I’ve seen), though Shiratori and Komiyama were amazing! There will be two more seasons of “Fairy Tales” with new casts in October and November, but sadly I won’t be able to see them. However, I’ll likely be back at the end of November when Haruka Omi will be on stage, and film programs include Tsunehiko Watase and Teruo Ishii retrospectives in Laputa and Cinema Vera. Sounds like worth a trip to me.

Group photo. Clockwise from bottom middle (the ones whose faces are not obscured):
Mayu Minami, Nene Shinomiya, Serina Komiyama, Yukino Nagasawa, Swan Shiratori, Yoko Yazawa, Nao Fujikawa

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Chirashi for Cinema Vera's "100th Anniversary - Stylish Teruo Ishii" retrospective, which started a few days ago.





Sadly I missed Yumiko Katayama and Teruo Yoshida talk events, but I think I'll manage to catch a few films later this month.

P.S. by my count, this is the 4th Teruo Ishii retrospective in Tokyo in the past 10 years, following earlier retrospectives in Cinema Vera, Shin bungeiza and Laputa Asagaya (5th if you also count Shin Bungeiza's Teruo Ishii all night).

I was lucky enough to see Katayama in Vera's previous Ishii retrospective about 7 years ago.