Teruo Ishii 100 Years / Tsunehiko Watase 80 Years / # Strip Dance is Not a Crime! (part 2/2)
Day 2: Saturday
After celebrating Teruo Ishii's 100th Anniversary for three weeks, Cinema Vera turned their focus to everyone else "Born in 1924". Among them were Koji Tsuruta, Machiko Kyo, and Ryuhei Uchida. I hence found myself heading to Vera again, and making sure not to enter the 3rd floor of Shibuya Station on my way.
I was on time for the 11:00 screening of High Ranking Yakuza (青雲やくざ) (1965), a relatively obscure Shochiku youth/yakuza hybrid. I was hoping this would turn out to be a forgotten gem, but no such luck here. The film follows a university student (Muga Takewaki) who takes over a yakuza gang from his brother, who was assassinated by another criminal group. As an educated youth, however, he has a different idea on how to lead the gang than macho revenge with blazing guns. And here is where the film fails. In its idealism the picture betrays both of its genres and comes out merely naive. Tough guys Tetsuro Tamba and Ryuhei Uchida, both appearing in supporting roles, deserved a rougher and more honest genre picture.
The 35mm print wasn't much to write home about either. There was relatively severe flickering during the first reel that nearly gave me a headache, and the image was soft. About 30 or 40 minutes into the film all cleared up however, and the rest looked perfectly fine.
Freedom School (1951) and High-Ranking Yakuza

The Woman and the Pirate (1959) and Three Lakes Prison (1973)

Love Stopped the Runaway Train (1973) and Juvenile Delinquent: Shout of the Rising Sun (1967)


High Ranking Yakuza was the only film I had time to watch in the 1924 retrospective as I needed to be on my way to Laputa Asagaya for their Tsunehiko Watase 80th Anniversary retrospective. Laputa had already held a Late Show for Watase about 7 or 8 years ago, but this time he was given the Main Program treatment with 23 films in the program. Among them were favourites like Violent Panic: The Big Crash, Crazed Beast, and True Story of the Ginza Tortures, but also lesser known films like Wild Sex Gang, Wicked Kempo, and the 1989 Hiroki Matsukata / Sonny Chiba / Tatsuo Umemiya film Sensei, which I wish I could have seen (it will screen for three days just before Christmas from a print owned by the Film Archive). The program was selected by film maker Shunsuke Yamamoto and critic Hiroe Sato who would also be hosting several talk events throughout the retrospective.
Laputa Asagaya

My first film was Yakuza Wolf 2: Extend My Condolences (狼やくざ 葬いは俺が出す) (1972), which I had missed earlier this year in Osaka due to a delayed flight. It's an usually mismatched sequel that belongs to a different genre than its predecessor. While the first film was notable for being a bit of a game changer for Chiba as it kicked off his anti-hero era (and would be followed by numerous gritty gangster and martial arts films), this sequel instead feels like a throwback to the light-hearted stunt action Chiba had pioneered in the late 60s and early 70s (Kamikaze Man, Key Hunter, Yakuza Deka 1-4) and was still best known for in 1972. The first 20 min is a blast from Chiba's window crashing stunt to his self performed theme song, very funny comedy routines with Nikkatsu refugee Tatsuya Fujii as they fantasize a prison escape, and of course singing ex-girlfriend Reiko Ike who was back at Toei after her summer 1972 breakup with the studio. It's the middle third where the film loses steam as not much happens before the entertaining and stunt packed action climax (p.s the bridge Chiba hangs from is the same one Shihomi fell from in Sister Street Fighter. The same bridge appears in a while bunch of other Toei films as well). It's a fun film for Chiba and Toei fans, but rather unremarkable beyond that.
Laputa screened Yakuza Wolf 2 from a very good print with beautiful colours, strong blacks and moderate grain. There were a few damaged bits with green lines but no biggie. I have this film on Shout's BD as well, but can't imagine it quite reaching this quality.

Next up was G.I. Samurai (戦国自衛隊) (1979). By the time this film was made, Toei's studio loyalty system had finally ended and Chiba went to work for the new Kadokawa Studios, who essentially brought Hollywood and ultra-commercialism to Japanese cinema. The budget here would've paid for a dozen Street Fighters. It's all on screen, in a fantasy tale about a modern army unit thrown back in time to the samurai era to fight with and against famous historical figures. It's machine guns against swords, tanks against arrows, and stunts a plenty in what feels like a polished & dialled up remake of Chiba's 60s and early 70s stunt action. The film should hence be considered one of Chiba's most representative works, even if the Western world remembers him better for karate films. However, the film does lack some of the murderous vitality of those pictures. Also, there are times when (despite plentiful political incorrectness) the commercialism bogs it down, particularly at the incredibly drawn out ending where they couldn't yell "cut" until the theme song had been played in full. That was part of Kadokawa's media mix strategy, which also allowed omitting credits from the film (no need for those after all the merchandise and media publicity that had accompanied the film).
I had seen this movie in 35mm before, just over 10 years ago at Cinema Vera (with Chiba in attendance. I even got to talk with him). I presume this was a different print because while the image looked pristine (seriously, who'd want to watch a 4K digital version when a film print look this gorgeous?) there was an odd sound issue where the volume dropped considerably during the last 15 minutes.
After the screening there was a talk event with Jun Eto, who played one of the young soldiers in the film. Eto recalled how Chiba was excited like a little boy at the set, Etsuko Shihomi popped up one day to bring everyone sweets, Chiba's wife Yoko Nogiwa was cooking curry for the crew, and Tsunehiko Watase was so dedicated to playing the alienated rogue solder that he spent his nights drinking alone in the local restaurant, separate from the rest of the crew. Eto also mentioned that the Japanese Self Defence Forces withdrew their support from the film after seeing what Watase's character does to innocent civilians in the movie. It was also mentioned that while Watase was a mild mannered man, he sometimes lost his cool with the goofing and drinking Piranha Gang members.
Film critic Hiroe Sato (left) and film maker Shunsuke Yamamoto (right) interviewing Jun Eto (middle)

The night's last film was an old favourite of mine: Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess (ずべ公番長 ざんげの値打ちもない) (1971). This is the movie that made me fall in love with Reiko Oshida almost 20 years ago, and still remains one of my favourite Pinky Violence films. Unlike some of the sleazier and more violent movies that came later, this series was characterized by the positive vibes and irresistible energy embodied by Oshida. It's a breezy ride full of pop-art and cool girls, with solid male support provided by spare-Takakura Tsunehiko Watase, and a terrific ending (both the massacre and the bittersweet closing shot) that I absolutely love.
Less impressive was the print, which was frankly a bit of a mess. It wasn't terrible by any means, but a bit murky from start to finish. On top of that, the colours seemed to fluctuate from scene to scene, sometimes looking too red, sometimes too yellow, sometimes too blue, and sometimes just plain great. I was expecting a better print, especially after some the jaw-droppingly gorgeous prints I saw in Laputa a few months ago, like Wandering Ginza Butterfly and The Red Silk Gambler.
Time and Tide, True Account of the Ginza Tortures, Fossilized Wilderness

After the film I stopped at Asagaya Kitchen with a friend who had joined me for the last two screenings. And no, there were no dancers in the day's program. None whatsoever. Didn't see anyone nude. Except when I got to my capsule hotel and took a bath with with two dozen naked men. It was a sausage party!
Day 3: Sunday
I promised before that I’d explain the amount of strip theatre visits in my schedule, so here goes.
On Nov. 19, 2024 the Osaka police raided Toyo Show, one of the few remaining strip theatres in the Osaka region, a venue loved by customers and dancers alike. 10 people were arrested, including the owner and the dancers, accused of public obscenity! Among the five dancers were four Asakusa Rockza regulars whom I’ve seen on stage: Fujikawa Nao, Shirahashi Riho, Suzuki Chisato and Hinata Suzu.
According to news reports, the staff is accused of conspiring to force the dancers to reveal their lower body during to customers during a post-performance photo session, and even shining light to their genitals. Regular customers were quick to comment online those claims are complete bullshit. The theatre has a strict policy against such photos, and the dancers always appear clothed during the photo sessions. Furthermore, the photos can only be taken with a camera provided by the theatre, and the photos are given to the customers only after the staff have carefully inspected them so that there’s not even accidental lower body nudity visible.
It’s hard to say whether the charges were untruthful or if the media simply completely misunderstood the concept (yes, there’s nudity during the dance; yes, they have lights in the venue because you can’t dance in complete darkness; and yes, there’s a photo shoot but with no below-the-belt nudity) and put the pieces together incorrectly. The “police arresting evil men” narrative also stinks considering they arrested the dancers as well, and put five women out of work every week for the foreseeable future as long as the theatre is closed (expectation: till the end of next year).
It's been said that this was a clean-up operation before next year’s Osaka Expo, partly because there had been many foreign visitors to Toyo Show. A week later the police reportedly targeted homeless people whom they wanted off the streets. But why raid Toyo Show who’ve been in operation since the 1980s, and not any of the other strip theatres? It was suggested by an ex cop that this was scare tactic used by the police to make an example of one venue. And I thought the law was supposed to be the same to everyone (speaking of which, this is the same vague law that forbids obscenity that causes movie censorship in Japan. It dates back a 100 years and was intended for the Meiji Era). It seems the police considers a woman’s body obscene and thinks women must be chained. Let me here suggest a new slogan for the Osaka Police: “Your Body, Our Jurisdiction”. They can thank me later.
Suddenly Confessions of a Dog director Gen Takahashi's old comments about the Japanese police being no different from the yakuza came back to mind. I never took him seriously before, but in the light of this incident I'm starting to think he may have had a point. Seriously, scare tactics? To make an example of one venue? Isn't that how the yakuza operate?
So the atmosphere following the raid was very depressed. Fans and dancers alike were shocked by the news. It’s a small industry with only about 15 theatres left in Japan (the dancers tour them every few weeks, going from city to city to perform), and now five dancers are out of job and income every week. And what was their crime? No one has been hurt, no one has been unwillingly exposed to nudity. Every dancer says they are only in this business because they love what they do, and will continue even if they risk getting arrested for it. It’s a job where they get to dance all day, create their own performances and costumes with complete artistic freedom (except in Asakusa where a female choreographer and a female costume designer are in charge), and travel around the country. Some day they’ve considered a better paying job, but can’t think of anything that would be as much fun to do.
In the days following the news I read almost every Japanese language twitter comment that mentioned Toyo Show, that must've been thousands of messages, and the support for the dancers has been overwhelming. Some have pointed out that this arrest benefitted no one (no one was saved, no act of violence, robbery or fraud was prevented, and no justice was served to anyone) except the police who earned points from the government. The hashtags “#strip dance is not a crime” and “#strip dance hurts no one” can be found in hundreds of messages posted by fans, former dancers, and some current dancers. Most current dancers have chosen to stay quiet on the matter, perhaps out of fear and not to draw more police attention. Below are a few comments from those who have spoken:
“I’m filled with sadness and anger at this news. Please don’t take away our beloved venue.” – Fujisaki Marika (Rockza dancer), Nov. 21
“I cried when I saw everyone’s support for strip dance on my timeline. Angels are telling me we’ll be alright” – Akanishi Ryo (Rockza dancer), Nov. 21
"I will never take it for granted that I will be allowed to dance on stage, and will continue doing my best without forgetting to be grateful". -Shiratori Swan (Rockza dancer), Nov. 21
“My thoughts are with everyone who was in Osaka that day. I feel like crying, but we can’t give up. Let’s love strip dance together!” – Tsubaki Rinne (Rockza dancer), Nov. 23 (see ALT)
“My performance in Toyo Show has been officially cancelled. I feel as perplexed and lonely as you do. But we are not alone!” – Momose Oto (Rockza dancer), Nov. 30
"Thank you so much for your words of support and concern over the past 10 days. Once again I've realized that being able to stand on stage is not something to be taken for granted." - Shirahashi Riho (Rockza dancer), Dec. 10
Sadly there have been some ill-informed comments also, in the lines of “good job saving those poor girls who were forced into stripping” or “strip dance is no art, it should be banned”. Also, "stop letting foreigners into strip theatres" (it's not that they've done anything wrong, the government just doesn't want the world to know that things such as homeless people and strip dance exist in Japan).
All this happened less than two weeks before my Tokyo trip. I wasn’t sure if any theatres would be left standing by the time I arrive (thankfully others haven’t been targeted) or if I’d be admitted in as a foreign national. Furthermore, I was terribly worried for the arrested dancers. Most of them were young women who post on Twitter multiple times a day. However, they all went silent after Nov. 19. Not a single one of them had posted by the end of Nov. But Shirahashi Riho, who was among the arrested dancers, was scheduled to dance at Kawasaki from Dec. 1 and that’s why I wanted to go see if she was alright (though I did actually get an indirect confirmation of that just a few days before my trip when another dancer posted a photo of Riho-chan taking dance lessons at a dance studio).
So here I am again, at Kawasaki Rockza. They're starting a new 10 day run with new dancers today (in Asakusa it's 20 days, but in all other venues its 10 days). Riho-chan comes out on stage and performs a schoolgirl in agony piece that must be the angstiest and angriest performance I’ve ever seen. Crying, silent screaming and constant violent kicks. The message was understood by everyone. I’m not sure what the performance was called but it obviously wasn’t her trademark “Boss Baby” performance. Later the same day she finally made her first online post since the arrest that simply said “I love being on stage!”, followed by another post a few days later saying “I can’t go into details, but being able to express myself on stage is truly a wonderful and gratifying thing”.
p.s. Shirahashi Riho must be the unluckiest dancer in the world. She was at Shinjuku New Art in August when the place was flooded (she had to be rescued from the dressing room where she was sleeping between performances), and three months later she's in Toyo Show when the police raids it. In contrast, Sato Kohaku must be the luckiest dancer. She's a newcomer and an ordinary girl who went from being a strip theatre customer to a staff member and finally a dancer earlier this year. She quit her staff position at Shinjuku New Art a few weeks before it was flooded, and she was dancing at Toyo Show but got sick and had to drop out 24 hours before the place was raided (I feel sorry for the dancer who came to replace her and got arrested immediately).
p.s. 2 Fujikawa Nao likewise returned on stage Dec. 1 (at a different theatre) and likewise made her first social media post on that day, saying she has prepared a new performance (called "Dancer") in a hurry and wants everyone to see it right now. She continued by saying “what hasn’t changed between then and now, and from here on, is that I’ll always love being on stage”. An audience member later commented (in a post shared by Fujikawa) that "although Fujikawa is always very expressive, this performance was on a next level... I felt like the message was "no dance, no life"". )
As I’ve already written too much I won’t cover the rest of the show in Kawasaki in detail, but I’ll just mention newcomer Oku Mio basically broke the system with her excess cuteness (her Polaroid line got so long the program immediately fell 15 minutes behind schedule, and Nagawasa Yukino really impressed me with her cool, mature dance and costume and unbelievable flexibility. Once again, a lot of the others had a fair bit of idol flavour to their performances.
update: against all expectations, Toyo Show made a miraculous recovery on Dec. 7 when they re-opened. They only announced it on the previous night, saying they'd be resuming business with some modifications to the show (details unknown to me). Reportedly the first day went fine with both dancers and audience delighted to be back, though it was chaotic since none had had time to prepare properly. Among the four dancers who were able to arrive was Hitata Suzu, who was one the arrested dancers two weeks earlier. That girl's got some balls! Hopefully she's send a signed Polaroid photo to the Osaka Police.
Now how did this recovery happen exactly, I have no idea. I guess either the police found out they don't have a case after all, or the staff pulled out 70s Nikkatsu (I'm referring to the infamous Roman Porno Trial where director Seiichiro Yamaguchi and others were accused of distribution of obscene material when the film Love Hunter (1972) was released. While the trial was still on, Yamaguchi responded by making a sequel to Love Hunter!). In any case, the re-opening seems to have been a big success. There have been rumours of below-the-belt nudity possibly being removed or toned down, but that is unconfirmed.
After Kawasaki I should have been on my way to Laputa Asagaya, but I also felt like catching the show at Asakusa Rockza one more time since it had been so much fun on the first time. They were still doing the same show, with same dancers, that I had seen on Friday. Turned out it was even more fun on the 2nd time. Crazy good atmosphere and once again full house (at first I thought it wasn't full since there was an empty seat or two, but then I realized there were at least 20 people standing). There were about 15 women as well in the audience. Haruka was still bursting with energy, Maaya amazed everyone with her new dancing skills, I still couldn't hold my tears back when Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence started playing, and this time I really fell in love with the "three grandmas" performance.
Also, the most amusing thing I saw during this trip: actual high school girls taking selfies with cardboard Minami Mayu in front of Asakusa Rockza. I'm not sure if they knew who she was. I forgot to take a photo of it, so I'll post one from the theatre's twitter account:

Once the curtains closed, it was time to head to my final stop, which was Laputa Asagaya. I had initially hoped to fit in Norifumi Suzuki's Kanto Street Peddlers: Violent Fire Festival (関東テキヤ一家 喧嘩火祭り) (1971) (the 4th film in the series, 2nd best film in the contemporary ninkyo series) into my schedule, but that ended up sacrificed for Asakusa. I did however have time for the day's last movie: Delinquent Boss: Wolves on Motorcycles (不良番長 やらずぶったくり) (1971), though I damn nearly missed it as well. What happened was that someone jumped on the tracks at Shinjuku Station, and all trains were stopped for over 20 minutes. My Chuo Local train wasn't even near Shinjuku Station, but got stuck in the queue all the same. I don't know if they managed to clear the kamikaze out of the tracks in one piece or several.
Kanto Street Peddlers: Violent Fire Festival

Anyhow, I reached Laputa a few minutes before they started admitting people in. I had seen the movie before and recalled it being one of the best in the not so good series (of 14 films). And also, it being a bit of a shit fest (even literally in one scene) though in a somewhat positive sense. There's a widespread misunderstanding among people who haven't seen these movies that they are badass biker exploitation films. Actually they are incredibly silly low-brow comedies with the exception of the first few films and part 14, which co-stars Reiko Ike and feels like a sukeban movie except it's the toxic masculinity version.
Toxic is the keyword to Wolves on Motorcycles, which sees Tatsuo Umemiya's goofy pirate biker gang battle yakuza who have dumped toxic waste into the water (resulting in a rather memorable "shit panic scene after everyone eats toxic fish).. Before that we get a lot of unbelievably dumb comedy that often reaches surreal levels in childishness. I was laughing my ass off, as was the rest of the (almost purely male) audience. There's a lot of good actors in the film, from Tsunehiko Watase to Bunta Sugawara and Yayoi Watanabe, in addition to the series regulars like Shingo Yamashiro and Rikiya Yasuoka. There are even a couple of tender moments of romance and brotherly bonding in the middle of the slapstick mayhem.
The film was followed by a talk even with Toshimichi Saeki, who wasn't actually involved in this film but worked in the last film in the series and directed Watase in some later productions. Hosts Hiroe Sato and Shunsuke Yamamoto urged the audience to be considerate when sharing information about the talk contents in social media as they anticipated they'd end up offending just about every minority and human rights group imaginable, but sadly the talk remained rather civil. We learned that in 70s Toei productions filming would go on till 2 a.m. and then resume "next day" at 5 a.m. Piranha member Masaru Shiga was reportedly extremely pissed off when they came to pull him out of his bed at 5 a.m. ("I worked till 2 a.m., and went drinking after that!") and even more so when his scene wasn't even filmed until afternoon! Saeki also said that one of the ways Toei AD's learned their craft was to go see the same Toei movie four times in a day in four different theatres and try to understand what they were seeing. Everyone also lamented that you could never make a movie this offensive anymore. It was also mentioned that the reason why the series got so crazy was because directors Yukio Noda and Makoto Naito, who took turns helming the films, started competing on who could make the stupidest movie ever.
Delinquent Boss: Wolves on Motorcycles

Hiroe Sato (left) and Shunsuke Yamamoto (right) interviewing Toshimichi Sato (middle)

Program chirashi


So that was it for this trip. Until next time (Laputa has already announced a massive Toei jidaigeki retrospective for January - March, Jinbocho will do a Yoshiko Sakuma retrospective in January, and Cinema Vera will have a Roman Porno retrospective in February-March).
Day 2: Saturday
After celebrating Teruo Ishii's 100th Anniversary for three weeks, Cinema Vera turned their focus to everyone else "Born in 1924". Among them were Koji Tsuruta, Machiko Kyo, and Ryuhei Uchida. I hence found myself heading to Vera again, and making sure not to enter the 3rd floor of Shibuya Station on my way.
I was on time for the 11:00 screening of High Ranking Yakuza (青雲やくざ) (1965), a relatively obscure Shochiku youth/yakuza hybrid. I was hoping this would turn out to be a forgotten gem, but no such luck here. The film follows a university student (Muga Takewaki) who takes over a yakuza gang from his brother, who was assassinated by another criminal group. As an educated youth, however, he has a different idea on how to lead the gang than macho revenge with blazing guns. And here is where the film fails. In its idealism the picture betrays both of its genres and comes out merely naive. Tough guys Tetsuro Tamba and Ryuhei Uchida, both appearing in supporting roles, deserved a rougher and more honest genre picture.
The 35mm print wasn't much to write home about either. There was relatively severe flickering during the first reel that nearly gave me a headache, and the image was soft. About 30 or 40 minutes into the film all cleared up however, and the rest looked perfectly fine.
Freedom School (1951) and High-Ranking Yakuza

The Woman and the Pirate (1959) and Three Lakes Prison (1973)

Love Stopped the Runaway Train (1973) and Juvenile Delinquent: Shout of the Rising Sun (1967)


High Ranking Yakuza was the only film I had time to watch in the 1924 retrospective as I needed to be on my way to Laputa Asagaya for their Tsunehiko Watase 80th Anniversary retrospective. Laputa had already held a Late Show for Watase about 7 or 8 years ago, but this time he was given the Main Program treatment with 23 films in the program. Among them were favourites like Violent Panic: The Big Crash, Crazed Beast, and True Story of the Ginza Tortures, but also lesser known films like Wild Sex Gang, Wicked Kempo, and the 1989 Hiroki Matsukata / Sonny Chiba / Tatsuo Umemiya film Sensei, which I wish I could have seen (it will screen for three days just before Christmas from a print owned by the Film Archive). The program was selected by film maker Shunsuke Yamamoto and critic Hiroe Sato who would also be hosting several talk events throughout the retrospective.
Laputa Asagaya

My first film was Yakuza Wolf 2: Extend My Condolences (狼やくざ 葬いは俺が出す) (1972), which I had missed earlier this year in Osaka due to a delayed flight. It's an usually mismatched sequel that belongs to a different genre than its predecessor. While the first film was notable for being a bit of a game changer for Chiba as it kicked off his anti-hero era (and would be followed by numerous gritty gangster and martial arts films), this sequel instead feels like a throwback to the light-hearted stunt action Chiba had pioneered in the late 60s and early 70s (Kamikaze Man, Key Hunter, Yakuza Deka 1-4) and was still best known for in 1972. The first 20 min is a blast from Chiba's window crashing stunt to his self performed theme song, very funny comedy routines with Nikkatsu refugee Tatsuya Fujii as they fantasize a prison escape, and of course singing ex-girlfriend Reiko Ike who was back at Toei after her summer 1972 breakup with the studio. It's the middle third where the film loses steam as not much happens before the entertaining and stunt packed action climax (p.s the bridge Chiba hangs from is the same one Shihomi fell from in Sister Street Fighter. The same bridge appears in a while bunch of other Toei films as well). It's a fun film for Chiba and Toei fans, but rather unremarkable beyond that.
Laputa screened Yakuza Wolf 2 from a very good print with beautiful colours, strong blacks and moderate grain. There were a few damaged bits with green lines but no biggie. I have this film on Shout's BD as well, but can't imagine it quite reaching this quality.

Next up was G.I. Samurai (戦国自衛隊) (1979). By the time this film was made, Toei's studio loyalty system had finally ended and Chiba went to work for the new Kadokawa Studios, who essentially brought Hollywood and ultra-commercialism to Japanese cinema. The budget here would've paid for a dozen Street Fighters. It's all on screen, in a fantasy tale about a modern army unit thrown back in time to the samurai era to fight with and against famous historical figures. It's machine guns against swords, tanks against arrows, and stunts a plenty in what feels like a polished & dialled up remake of Chiba's 60s and early 70s stunt action. The film should hence be considered one of Chiba's most representative works, even if the Western world remembers him better for karate films. However, the film does lack some of the murderous vitality of those pictures. Also, there are times when (despite plentiful political incorrectness) the commercialism bogs it down, particularly at the incredibly drawn out ending where they couldn't yell "cut" until the theme song had been played in full. That was part of Kadokawa's media mix strategy, which also allowed omitting credits from the film (no need for those after all the merchandise and media publicity that had accompanied the film).
I had seen this movie in 35mm before, just over 10 years ago at Cinema Vera (with Chiba in attendance. I even got to talk with him). I presume this was a different print because while the image looked pristine (seriously, who'd want to watch a 4K digital version when a film print look this gorgeous?) there was an odd sound issue where the volume dropped considerably during the last 15 minutes.
After the screening there was a talk event with Jun Eto, who played one of the young soldiers in the film. Eto recalled how Chiba was excited like a little boy at the set, Etsuko Shihomi popped up one day to bring everyone sweets, Chiba's wife Yoko Nogiwa was cooking curry for the crew, and Tsunehiko Watase was so dedicated to playing the alienated rogue solder that he spent his nights drinking alone in the local restaurant, separate from the rest of the crew. Eto also mentioned that the Japanese Self Defence Forces withdrew their support from the film after seeing what Watase's character does to innocent civilians in the movie. It was also mentioned that while Watase was a mild mannered man, he sometimes lost his cool with the goofing and drinking Piranha Gang members.
Film critic Hiroe Sato (left) and film maker Shunsuke Yamamoto (right) interviewing Jun Eto (middle)

The night's last film was an old favourite of mine: Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess (ずべ公番長 ざんげの値打ちもない) (1971). This is the movie that made me fall in love with Reiko Oshida almost 20 years ago, and still remains one of my favourite Pinky Violence films. Unlike some of the sleazier and more violent movies that came later, this series was characterized by the positive vibes and irresistible energy embodied by Oshida. It's a breezy ride full of pop-art and cool girls, with solid male support provided by spare-Takakura Tsunehiko Watase, and a terrific ending (both the massacre and the bittersweet closing shot) that I absolutely love.
Less impressive was the print, which was frankly a bit of a mess. It wasn't terrible by any means, but a bit murky from start to finish. On top of that, the colours seemed to fluctuate from scene to scene, sometimes looking too red, sometimes too yellow, sometimes too blue, and sometimes just plain great. I was expecting a better print, especially after some the jaw-droppingly gorgeous prints I saw in Laputa a few months ago, like Wandering Ginza Butterfly and The Red Silk Gambler.
Time and Tide, True Account of the Ginza Tortures, Fossilized Wilderness

After the film I stopped at Asagaya Kitchen with a friend who had joined me for the last two screenings. And no, there were no dancers in the day's program. None whatsoever. Didn't see anyone nude. Except when I got to my capsule hotel and took a bath with with two dozen naked men. It was a sausage party!
Day 3: Sunday
I promised before that I’d explain the amount of strip theatre visits in my schedule, so here goes.
On Nov. 19, 2024 the Osaka police raided Toyo Show, one of the few remaining strip theatres in the Osaka region, a venue loved by customers and dancers alike. 10 people were arrested, including the owner and the dancers, accused of public obscenity! Among the five dancers were four Asakusa Rockza regulars whom I’ve seen on stage: Fujikawa Nao, Shirahashi Riho, Suzuki Chisato and Hinata Suzu.
According to news reports, the staff is accused of conspiring to force the dancers to reveal their lower body during to customers during a post-performance photo session, and even shining light to their genitals. Regular customers were quick to comment online those claims are complete bullshit. The theatre has a strict policy against such photos, and the dancers always appear clothed during the photo sessions. Furthermore, the photos can only be taken with a camera provided by the theatre, and the photos are given to the customers only after the staff have carefully inspected them so that there’s not even accidental lower body nudity visible.
It’s hard to say whether the charges were untruthful or if the media simply completely misunderstood the concept (yes, there’s nudity during the dance; yes, they have lights in the venue because you can’t dance in complete darkness; and yes, there’s a photo shoot but with no below-the-belt nudity) and put the pieces together incorrectly. The “police arresting evil men” narrative also stinks considering they arrested the dancers as well, and put five women out of work every week for the foreseeable future as long as the theatre is closed (expectation: till the end of next year).
It's been said that this was a clean-up operation before next year’s Osaka Expo, partly because there had been many foreign visitors to Toyo Show. A week later the police reportedly targeted homeless people whom they wanted off the streets. But why raid Toyo Show who’ve been in operation since the 1980s, and not any of the other strip theatres? It was suggested by an ex cop that this was scare tactic used by the police to make an example of one venue. And I thought the law was supposed to be the same to everyone (speaking of which, this is the same vague law that forbids obscenity that causes movie censorship in Japan. It dates back a 100 years and was intended for the Meiji Era). It seems the police considers a woman’s body obscene and thinks women must be chained. Let me here suggest a new slogan for the Osaka Police: “Your Body, Our Jurisdiction”. They can thank me later.
Suddenly Confessions of a Dog director Gen Takahashi's old comments about the Japanese police being no different from the yakuza came back to mind. I never took him seriously before, but in the light of this incident I'm starting to think he may have had a point. Seriously, scare tactics? To make an example of one venue? Isn't that how the yakuza operate?
So the atmosphere following the raid was very depressed. Fans and dancers alike were shocked by the news. It’s a small industry with only about 15 theatres left in Japan (the dancers tour them every few weeks, going from city to city to perform), and now five dancers are out of job and income every week. And what was their crime? No one has been hurt, no one has been unwillingly exposed to nudity. Every dancer says they are only in this business because they love what they do, and will continue even if they risk getting arrested for it. It’s a job where they get to dance all day, create their own performances and costumes with complete artistic freedom (except in Asakusa where a female choreographer and a female costume designer are in charge), and travel around the country. Some day they’ve considered a better paying job, but can’t think of anything that would be as much fun to do.
In the days following the news I read almost every Japanese language twitter comment that mentioned Toyo Show, that must've been thousands of messages, and the support for the dancers has been overwhelming. Some have pointed out that this arrest benefitted no one (no one was saved, no act of violence, robbery or fraud was prevented, and no justice was served to anyone) except the police who earned points from the government. The hashtags “#strip dance is not a crime” and “#strip dance hurts no one” can be found in hundreds of messages posted by fans, former dancers, and some current dancers. Most current dancers have chosen to stay quiet on the matter, perhaps out of fear and not to draw more police attention. Below are a few comments from those who have spoken:
“I’m filled with sadness and anger at this news. Please don’t take away our beloved venue.” – Fujisaki Marika (Rockza dancer), Nov. 21
“I cried when I saw everyone’s support for strip dance on my timeline. Angels are telling me we’ll be alright” – Akanishi Ryo (Rockza dancer), Nov. 21
"I will never take it for granted that I will be allowed to dance on stage, and will continue doing my best without forgetting to be grateful". -Shiratori Swan (Rockza dancer), Nov. 21
“My thoughts are with everyone who was in Osaka that day. I feel like crying, but we can’t give up. Let’s love strip dance together!” – Tsubaki Rinne (Rockza dancer), Nov. 23 (see ALT)
“My performance in Toyo Show has been officially cancelled. I feel as perplexed and lonely as you do. But we are not alone!” – Momose Oto (Rockza dancer), Nov. 30
"Thank you so much for your words of support and concern over the past 10 days. Once again I've realized that being able to stand on stage is not something to be taken for granted." - Shirahashi Riho (Rockza dancer), Dec. 10
Sadly there have been some ill-informed comments also, in the lines of “good job saving those poor girls who were forced into stripping” or “strip dance is no art, it should be banned”. Also, "stop letting foreigners into strip theatres" (it's not that they've done anything wrong, the government just doesn't want the world to know that things such as homeless people and strip dance exist in Japan).
All this happened less than two weeks before my Tokyo trip. I wasn’t sure if any theatres would be left standing by the time I arrive (thankfully others haven’t been targeted) or if I’d be admitted in as a foreign national. Furthermore, I was terribly worried for the arrested dancers. Most of them were young women who post on Twitter multiple times a day. However, they all went silent after Nov. 19. Not a single one of them had posted by the end of Nov. But Shirahashi Riho, who was among the arrested dancers, was scheduled to dance at Kawasaki from Dec. 1 and that’s why I wanted to go see if she was alright (though I did actually get an indirect confirmation of that just a few days before my trip when another dancer posted a photo of Riho-chan taking dance lessons at a dance studio).
So here I am again, at Kawasaki Rockza. They're starting a new 10 day run with new dancers today (in Asakusa it's 20 days, but in all other venues its 10 days). Riho-chan comes out on stage and performs a schoolgirl in agony piece that must be the angstiest and angriest performance I’ve ever seen. Crying, silent screaming and constant violent kicks. The message was understood by everyone. I’m not sure what the performance was called but it obviously wasn’t her trademark “Boss Baby” performance. Later the same day she finally made her first online post since the arrest that simply said “I love being on stage!”, followed by another post a few days later saying “I can’t go into details, but being able to express myself on stage is truly a wonderful and gratifying thing”.
p.s. Shirahashi Riho must be the unluckiest dancer in the world. She was at Shinjuku New Art in August when the place was flooded (she had to be rescued from the dressing room where she was sleeping between performances), and three months later she's in Toyo Show when the police raids it. In contrast, Sato Kohaku must be the luckiest dancer. She's a newcomer and an ordinary girl who went from being a strip theatre customer to a staff member and finally a dancer earlier this year. She quit her staff position at Shinjuku New Art a few weeks before it was flooded, and she was dancing at Toyo Show but got sick and had to drop out 24 hours before the place was raided (I feel sorry for the dancer who came to replace her and got arrested immediately).
p.s. 2 Fujikawa Nao likewise returned on stage Dec. 1 (at a different theatre) and likewise made her first social media post on that day, saying she has prepared a new performance (called "Dancer") in a hurry and wants everyone to see it right now. She continued by saying “what hasn’t changed between then and now, and from here on, is that I’ll always love being on stage”. An audience member later commented (in a post shared by Fujikawa) that "although Fujikawa is always very expressive, this performance was on a next level... I felt like the message was "no dance, no life"". )
As I’ve already written too much I won’t cover the rest of the show in Kawasaki in detail, but I’ll just mention newcomer Oku Mio basically broke the system with her excess cuteness (her Polaroid line got so long the program immediately fell 15 minutes behind schedule, and Nagawasa Yukino really impressed me with her cool, mature dance and costume and unbelievable flexibility. Once again, a lot of the others had a fair bit of idol flavour to their performances.
update: against all expectations, Toyo Show made a miraculous recovery on Dec. 7 when they re-opened. They only announced it on the previous night, saying they'd be resuming business with some modifications to the show (details unknown to me). Reportedly the first day went fine with both dancers and audience delighted to be back, though it was chaotic since none had had time to prepare properly. Among the four dancers who were able to arrive was Hitata Suzu, who was one the arrested dancers two weeks earlier. That girl's got some balls! Hopefully she's send a signed Polaroid photo to the Osaka Police.
Now how did this recovery happen exactly, I have no idea. I guess either the police found out they don't have a case after all, or the staff pulled out 70s Nikkatsu (I'm referring to the infamous Roman Porno Trial where director Seiichiro Yamaguchi and others were accused of distribution of obscene material when the film Love Hunter (1972) was released. While the trial was still on, Yamaguchi responded by making a sequel to Love Hunter!). In any case, the re-opening seems to have been a big success. There have been rumours of below-the-belt nudity possibly being removed or toned down, but that is unconfirmed.
After Kawasaki I should have been on my way to Laputa Asagaya, but I also felt like catching the show at Asakusa Rockza one more time since it had been so much fun on the first time. They were still doing the same show, with same dancers, that I had seen on Friday. Turned out it was even more fun on the 2nd time. Crazy good atmosphere and once again full house (at first I thought it wasn't full since there was an empty seat or two, but then I realized there were at least 20 people standing). There were about 15 women as well in the audience. Haruka was still bursting with energy, Maaya amazed everyone with her new dancing skills, I still couldn't hold my tears back when Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence started playing, and this time I really fell in love with the "three grandmas" performance.
Also, the most amusing thing I saw during this trip: actual high school girls taking selfies with cardboard Minami Mayu in front of Asakusa Rockza. I'm not sure if they knew who she was. I forgot to take a photo of it, so I'll post one from the theatre's twitter account:

Once the curtains closed, it was time to head to my final stop, which was Laputa Asagaya. I had initially hoped to fit in Norifumi Suzuki's Kanto Street Peddlers: Violent Fire Festival (関東テキヤ一家 喧嘩火祭り) (1971) (the 4th film in the series, 2nd best film in the contemporary ninkyo series) into my schedule, but that ended up sacrificed for Asakusa. I did however have time for the day's last movie: Delinquent Boss: Wolves on Motorcycles (不良番長 やらずぶったくり) (1971), though I damn nearly missed it as well. What happened was that someone jumped on the tracks at Shinjuku Station, and all trains were stopped for over 20 minutes. My Chuo Local train wasn't even near Shinjuku Station, but got stuck in the queue all the same. I don't know if they managed to clear the kamikaze out of the tracks in one piece or several.
Kanto Street Peddlers: Violent Fire Festival

Anyhow, I reached Laputa a few minutes before they started admitting people in. I had seen the movie before and recalled it being one of the best in the not so good series (of 14 films). And also, it being a bit of a shit fest (even literally in one scene) though in a somewhat positive sense. There's a widespread misunderstanding among people who haven't seen these movies that they are badass biker exploitation films. Actually they are incredibly silly low-brow comedies with the exception of the first few films and part 14, which co-stars Reiko Ike and feels like a sukeban movie except it's the toxic masculinity version.
Toxic is the keyword to Wolves on Motorcycles, which sees Tatsuo Umemiya's goofy pirate biker gang battle yakuza who have dumped toxic waste into the water (resulting in a rather memorable "shit panic scene after everyone eats toxic fish).. Before that we get a lot of unbelievably dumb comedy that often reaches surreal levels in childishness. I was laughing my ass off, as was the rest of the (almost purely male) audience. There's a lot of good actors in the film, from Tsunehiko Watase to Bunta Sugawara and Yayoi Watanabe, in addition to the series regulars like Shingo Yamashiro and Rikiya Yasuoka. There are even a couple of tender moments of romance and brotherly bonding in the middle of the slapstick mayhem.
The film was followed by a talk even with Toshimichi Saeki, who wasn't actually involved in this film but worked in the last film in the series and directed Watase in some later productions. Hosts Hiroe Sato and Shunsuke Yamamoto urged the audience to be considerate when sharing information about the talk contents in social media as they anticipated they'd end up offending just about every minority and human rights group imaginable, but sadly the talk remained rather civil. We learned that in 70s Toei productions filming would go on till 2 a.m. and then resume "next day" at 5 a.m. Piranha member Masaru Shiga was reportedly extremely pissed off when they came to pull him out of his bed at 5 a.m. ("I worked till 2 a.m., and went drinking after that!") and even more so when his scene wasn't even filmed until afternoon! Saeki also said that one of the ways Toei AD's learned their craft was to go see the same Toei movie four times in a day in four different theatres and try to understand what they were seeing. Everyone also lamented that you could never make a movie this offensive anymore. It was also mentioned that the reason why the series got so crazy was because directors Yukio Noda and Makoto Naito, who took turns helming the films, started competing on who could make the stupidest movie ever.
Delinquent Boss: Wolves on Motorcycles

Hiroe Sato (left) and Shunsuke Yamamoto (right) interviewing Toshimichi Sato (middle)

Program chirashi


So that was it for this trip. Until next time (Laputa has already announced a massive Toei jidaigeki retrospective for January - March, Jinbocho will do a Yoshiko Sakuma retrospective in January, and Cinema Vera will have a Roman Porno retrospective in February-March).
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