Movie Going Madness in Japan

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

Since many people have expressed interest in Japan I thought I'd do a small photo collage before getting back to movies... The photos range from 2006 to 2014 and were taken all over the country.

Japan is a land of opposites. It goes from Mamoru Oshii Tokyo...


...to Shinya Tsukamoto Tokyo...


... to Takashi Ishii Tokyo...


... but also tiny streets in Kyoto


...and peaceful nature in Hokkaido...


... to more peaceful nature in Hokkaido...


... to the summer of Nara...


...Nara one more time


... to the psychedelic world of love hotels...


... with amazing rooms equipped with karaoke machine, playstation, jacuzzi bathtub, bloody big TV, vibrator vending machine...


... and seashell beds and discolights (also in bathtub) for about $50 a night...


... and then there the otaku paradise of Akihabara with all the maids


...anime...


... more anime...


... and maid cafes...


... and the odd people gathering in Harajuku...


... like this random nazi girl...


... and then there's just plain odd...


... cats too...


Sometimes it all just gets a bit too much and you're in a need of a nap

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Great pictures, keep'em coming.

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

Thats the prettiest Nazi I ever saw!!!

AKIHABARA and HARAJUKO park were among the highlights of my trip!

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

Thats the prettiest Nazi I ever saw!!!

AKIHABARA and HARAJUKO park were among the highlights of my trip!

The thing with Akihabara is that you need to walk the same streets three times to catch even half of what's there. Some of the store signs are attached to the 6th floor windows, so you gotta spend one stroll staring at the sky...

Like this...


or like this...


There used to be a lot of DVD stores in Akiba, but many have closed down. Now I think there's mainly the Trader chain, which has at least three shops in Akiba and one in Shinjuku. These are major stores, sometimes up to seven or eight floors, with Movies, Music, AV, Idol stuff, Games, and Manga, but frankly the selection is not as exciting for a genre film fan as you might expect. My favourite shop is still Recommints in Nakano Broadaway in Nakano, which specializes in genre films.

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

Random Regular Movie Going

You're Next (1) and Frankenstein's Army (2)
Date: Jan. 9th
Theater: Small multiplex
Audience: a pretty girl and a granny (1). Normal + schoolgirls (2)
Company: Me and Myself (1). Male friend (2)

Films
You're Next: solid horror film with some good humour and performances, but occasionally a bit irritating in how manipulative and predictable it can get. It's not that you always know what the next shock will be, but you'll notice when it's coming because the scene suddenly becomes calculated and unnatural (e.g. camera angles).

Frankenstein's Army: Not exactly the greatest main characters, but My God!!! Coolest monster design since, like, ever! These old school, non-CGI steam punk creatures are the coolest thing I've seen in horror cinema in years!

Experience
Two horror films back to back. I thought I was in the wrong theatre in You're Next when my company was a sweet looking grandmother and a pretty girl in her early 20's! But nope, they came to see a slasher film.

Then in Frankenstein's Army, which was miraculously rated only 15 in Japan, there were a bunch of high school girls in the audience - and they loved the film. After the film they were taking pictures of the film's character posters with their cell phones. Man, this is why I love Japan (and schoolgirls, but don't tell my GF... I still value my life)!











It was in this same theatre in 2012 that I saw The Human Centipede 2. It was so popular they put it on the biggest screen and the theatre was still relatively packed! Many females, too. The film was uncut at R-18, but digitally censored for genitals as per Japanese law. But the funniest thing, each customer was given a “Movie Sickness Bag” at the door



“Movie Sickness Bag” was pretty awesome, but Finns did something even better first. Some years ago I saw Sex and Zen 3D on a film festival which screened it on one of the biggest screens in Finland. All male customers were given an empty paper cup at the door... hmmm...

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

Some years ago I saw Sex and Zen 3D on a film festival which screened it on one of the biggest screens in Finland. All male customers were given an empty paper cup at the door... hmmm...

Good luck finding any of THOSE on the second hand collectors market!!!

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

God Dammit! Yuko Katagiri is attending the screening of Coed Report: Yuko's White Breasts (1971) on June 22, but I'm watching a Sonny Chiba double feature at the same time! Oh well, can't be helped.



She was 19 when she starred in the film, which was one of the first Roman Porno's. She should be 62 now. I remember her being on Hideo Nakata's excellent Masaru Konuma documentary Sadistic and Masochistic and telling how she couldn't understand why in pink films people would have sex so often under strange circumstances… I don't think she quite understood what kind of movies she was making at the time

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

Haha..another GREAT title for a Roman Porno.

I remember her from that documentry too....I think she STILL doesnt realise what a pink movie is....and thats the cute thing about it!!!

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

Theater Memorial: Shimbashi Bunka

You may have read this elsewhere already... the great Shimbashi Bunka is closing after 55 years in operation.
http://www.tokyoreporter.com/2014/07...hut-in-august/

This is really sad. Shimbashi Bunka was by far the best place in Tokyo to catch roman pornos on 35mm. Once or twice a month their weekly program consisted of a roman porno triple feature. I was always going to write an introduction to this theater, but now it turned into a memorial.



I still remember when I first read about this theater last year and thought this must be the coolest place on earth. Let me quote someone:

"To gain admittance you first must visit a vending machine that sits unceremoniously in front of the theater. By purchasing your 1,100 yen ticket you can stay as long as you wish through a triple bill ... After you've purchased your ticket from the vending machine you ironically have to hand it over to the guy working at the ticket window. After he wishes you a merry wanking, the real adventure begins.

Walking into the 81-seat theater is like walking into the movie room your middle school might have had. It's tiny, but extremely comfortable, aside from the fact that there are around ten to fifteen old men staring at a screen with a women being taken from behind on it. The 35mm film is being projected so close behind your head that you can almost feel the heat from the bright light bulb inside of it.

The sound system, which has not only the marching sounds of the 35mm projector to compete with, but also the frequent trains running over head, which literally rock your seat, is passable to say the least, with the right side speaker dominating the left, turning the room a weird aural experiment that will likely leave you a bit dizzy.

The bathroom is mockingly positioned to the immediate right of the large screen, meaning that if you want to get up to play with your bits and pieces everyone is going to see you making a run for it. Thankfully the old men are beyond such embarrassments, as they willing hobble towards the bathroom, cane in hand, with the utmost dignity, only to stumble out four minutes later looking a tad defeated."

- http://everything2.com/title/Shimbashi+Roman+Gekijo

I had my first visit to Shimbashi Bunka just before Christmas last year. That time they were playing a triple feature consisting of:
- Trap of Lust (Atsushi Amatoya, 1973)
- Love Doll Report: An Adult Toy (Chusei Sone, 1975)
- Assault! Jack the Ripper (Yasuharu Hasebe, 1976)



As expected, Shimbashi Bunka was worth every yen. In addition to what was mentioned before, I got to witness:

- An old man whose hand started making suspicious movement during the first and second sex scene in Trap of Lust. I dared not take a closer look.

- The same man leaving the theatre and mumbling something, obviously irritated, after the film turned out to be a Seijun Suzuki style killer/spy metafilm instead of a real pink flick.

- Audience members falling asleep after the forementioned twist.

- An audience with average age around 55 - and not a single woman...

- Until one female entered the theatre for the second screening...

- The forementioned poor lady falling asleep with her hand in facepalm (true story) during Assault! Jack the Ripper.

- An elderly man leaving for bathroom during the film, and leaving his bag on the seat next to him. Another old man entered meanwhile, took his place and put his bag on the same seat where the other guys bag is. The bathroom guy came back, looking confused after someone had taken his place, and then sat elsewhere. 25 minutes later the men started arguing (during the film) about whose bag belongs to who - both had placed their bags on the same seat without realizing it, and I think the first guy thought the other man is trying to steal his bag.

All this with one 1300 yen film ticket (that gives you entrance to the theatre - you can stay as long as you want). And of course, seeing these films on 35mm was a joy in itself!

I later visited the theater again when they were screening a Yuya Uchida Triple Feature including
- Female Delinquent: A Docudrama (1977)
- Path of the Beast (1980)
- Oh Women! A Dirty Song (1981)



And here's a look inside the theater. Notice the bathroom placed right next to the screen on the left side


Complete with sleazy pink film posters


Some guy drew an awesome tribute picture of the theater. Every detail is correct, including the ghost in the audience

- https://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=htt...F1&h=5AQGYHLqp

As you can see, the theater was dedicated to quality. Their Roman Porno screenings featured great movies by directors such as Yasuharu Hasebe, Tatsumi Kumashiro, Chusei Sone, Noboru Tanaka and Kichitaro Negishi, rather than mediocre sex flix. But it wasn't only a pink theater. The theater had two sides: the mainstream side and pink side (called Roman Gekiji - The Roman Theater). The mainstream theater played older foreign films in double features, with anything from Italian Spaghetti Westerns to Charles Chaplin and, uhm, Dreamcatcher. The ticket booth was located in the middle (with windows to both sides), with one schizophrenic employee serving customers on both sides.

If you look carefully, you can see the ticket booth window in the middle behind the green plant


That week their mainstream program was a revenge double feature: Sympathy for Lady Vengeance and Kill Bill Vol. 2


Here's an earlier double feature


The last screenings will be on August 31st. If you want to experience one of the last real pink theaters in Tokyo, I suggest you reserve your tickets now. The program for the final three days has been announced:

Friday 29th: Love Triple Feature
Love Hunter (1972)
Lovers are Wet (1973)
Wandering Lovers: Dizziness (1978)

Saturday 30th: Rape Triple Feature
Secret Honeymoon: Rape Train (1977)
Rape and Death of a Housewife (1978)
Rape Ceremony (1980)

Sunday 31st: Secret Triple Feature
Secret Chronicle: She Beast Market (1972)
Secret Chronicle: Prostitute Hell (1973)
Secret Chronicle: Prostitute Market (1974)

Mainstream program has not been announced yet.

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

Jeez I am jealous....You managed to see
ASSAULT; JACK THE RIPPER in a (slightly dodgy) theater!!

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

:woot:

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

That theater sounds like a personal heaven for me.....and obviously a labor of love for the owners.....
Do you knwo why it closed (money reason probably)......and what are they going to do with all the movie prints???

Would LOVE to invest / run a place like this...but the wife would be none too happy about that!!!!

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

After a 57-year-history, the theater, located in Minato Ward, will close its doors on August 31 due to construction intended to improve earthquake resistance for the railroad tracks of East Japan Railway that run above its building.

At least they're not closing because of bad business, but that kinda makes it even more sad. They just recently introduced "Ladies Seat" for the Roman Porno screenings, suggesting there has been rising interest among female customers.

I'm sure they don't own the prints. They just go back to where they came from - probably the vaults of Nikkatsu and other studios. Just from now hardly anyone's gonna be playing most of them anymore...

There are a couple of other pink theaters still left in Tokyo, but they rarely play Roman Pornos and when they do, they are often standard sex films rather than the kind of awesome cult films that Shimbashi Bunka often played. From now on the only realistic chances to see Roman Pornos on screen will be in retrospectives in theaters like Laputa Asagaya. They don't focus on pink films, but Roman Porno's are occasionally included in large retrospectives dedicated to screenwriters, actors etc. Laputa recently had a series of Meika Seri films, mostly Roman Pornos, and now they're playing scrip girl Akane Shiratori retro which includes Roman Pornos, Nikkatsu Action, ATG, and even Evil Dead Trap.

In fact, I'm going to see Evil Dead Trap on 35mm next week! :woot:

[Ian Jane Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close Ian Jane]

Just a sidenote: I'm working on a Sonny Chiba festival coverage, but it takes time because I attended no less than 20 screenings...

Take your time, obviously, but I am looking forward to this!

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

Glad to hear that