The Non-Synapse Roman Porno Thread

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

Happinet just released its February 2019 titles. Is there any news on upcoming blu-ray and DVD releases for the rest of the year?

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

One failed recording, one accidentally-destroyed-by-the-gf recording, and a two month wait for a re-broadcast later...

Circuit of Sorrow (哀愁のサーã‚ット) (1972)
Extremely interesting, if slightly ham-fisted 2nd follow-up to Tí´ru Murakawa's landmark Roman Porno Delicate Skillful Fingers (1972). Based on real life Toyota race driver and fashion model Sachio Furusawa (Tí´ru Minegishi) who tragically died on track in 1969 and pop singer Tomoko Ogawa (Kei Kiyama), the film depicts their brief romance in the shadow of media pressure. Like Delicate Skillful Fingers, the film is essentially a Nikkatsu youth film conceived under the Roman Porno reign. There are fast cars, a bunch of Sun Tribe youngsters who challenge the protagonist to a bike race, and absolutely shitloads of catchy pop music (enough that they released an LP). But the title oversells the film: there's little sorrow on the circuit as the protagonist is only behind the racing car wheel in the opening and closing scenes. There's potential for great melancholic poetry which comes thru occasionally (their departure from a seaside motel on a rainy day is soaked with movie magic), but the protagonist is superficially written and portrayed. Murakawa's touch likewise isn't as sharp and dynamic as in Skillful Fingers, even if he claims to have had the actors have real sex in front of the camera. The film nevertheless remains highly entertaining, extremely stylish and thematically fascinating, and is yet another example of Nikkatsu Roman Porno's incredible versatility.

Tí´ru Minegishi as Sachio Furusawa


Kei Kiyama as Tomoko Ogawa. The singer in the background is Seri Ishikawa who performs the actual songs sung by Kiyama's character.


The acting by the sun tribe youngsters is one of the weak links...


And the Razzie worthly lines spoken by Kiyama... "The sea is made of women's tears? What? Explain to me!" That's what you get when you script the film by yourself without Kumashiro (Delicate Fingers) I guess






One of my favourite moments in the film. Small scene, yet so beautiful.






The caps above are from the Toei Channel broadcasting. No BD/DVD/VHS/VOD/ANYTHING available, which really needs to change. I watched the film twice already.

Murakawa's last remaining RP, the impossible to see Melancholy Flesh Business: Sensuous Zone (1972), just became my most wanted film!

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

Looks like a few Blu-ray releases are coming later this year.

https://forum.blu-ray.com/showthread...=271457&page=4

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

I watched one of the films Happinet is going to put out on DVD later this year and, well, save your money.

Sex-Crime Coast: School of Piranha (肉体犯罪海岸 ピラニヤの群れ) (Japan, 1973) [VoD] - 1.5/5
Male and female delinquents dubbed as “Piranhas” (no, not the Toei guys) have sex on beach, take captives in a house, then have sex the house. Hitomi Kozue is the main bad girl getting jealous when shag partner Ryuji Nakamura gets intimate with rich girl Masumi Jun. Dull home invasion Roman Porno with a Sun Tribe flavor and a bit of gang content. Director Shogoro Nishimura merely slaps the genre premises together and proceeds to do nothing with them. Last reel action aside, it's embarrassingly unambitious for an early Roman Porno.













This is the recently added DMM HD stream. As you can see, the colors are all fucked up. Most of their recent Roman Porno HD upgrades and new additions have this same shit look based on the trailers. I always wondered if it was just the previews, but Sex-Crime Coast proves it's the entire film!

Now, the good and odd news is that this seems to be something DMM are doing by themselves rather than the master being fucked up. Their Crazed Fruit HD stream trailer has the exact same look.





But take a look at the same same trailer on Amazon Video, also for a newly added HD stream.





I haven't watched Amazon's film stream, but I have faith that it looks the same as the trailer, more or less.

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

Website for the 2019 RP releases:
https://www.nikkatsu-romanporno.com/bddvd2019/

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

Takuma, thanks for the heads up!

[47lab Guest Find all posts View Profile Close 47lab]

I know we have some fans of Sally May here and just recently released is a WEBRip of the Chusei Sone directed second film in the RASHAMAN OMAN (Foreigner's Mistress Oman) series from the usual suspects. Word is that English subs will be forthcoming which is excellent news.

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

Yasuharu Hasebe's excellent Roman Porno neo-noir Erotic Liaisons (1978) makes its HD debut on Toei Channel next month.
- https://www.toeich.jp/program/1T0000013206/201911

A DVD or BD release may be coming next year... Let's hope for the best.

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

Girl and the Wooden Horse Torture (Japan, 1982) [VoD] - 3.5/5
Between 1974 and 1988 Nikkatsu produced nearly 40 adaptations from SM author Oniroku Dan's novels. Most of them were intellectually underwhelming, morally questionable, and tiresome at best. But what would happen if one of the best Japanese screenwriters of the 1980s, Takashi Ishii, adapted a Dan novel and handed it to first time director Fumihiko Kato, who later became known for his atypical Dan films?

Despite the misleading title, this movie bears all the trademarks of Ishii's psychological erotic thrillers and could be an SM-oriented entry in the Angel Guts series. The protagonists are Nami and Muraki: a bullied high school girl and her terminally ill teacher. The opening scene sees Nami saved from violent delinquents by her teacher, who however then collapses in front of her. She leaves him there. The experience haunts her in her dreams, which begin to merge with reality. Years later they meet again after Muraki has been fired and has hit the rock bottom. The film never loses its psychological tension, even though the prolonged SM finale - and a few other bits - may be a bit much for the casual viewers. The overly simplistic Oniroku Dan conventions are nowhere to be found. The film also looks pretty good with the usual urban and occasionally surreal Ishii imagery.

This popped up on Japanese streaming site U-Next.

[fatboyslim142 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close fatboyslim142]

Elephant Films will release Roman Porno 1971-2016: Une Histoire érotique du Japon, a series of ten Nikkatsu Roman Porno films as a box set in France on 17 December 2019.

Please note that these are not English-friendly releases, with only Japanese and French support.

The ten films will also be released individually on the same date


Five are from the original run of theatrical films:

Nuits félines í  Shinjuku (Night of the Felines) (牝猫たちの夜) (1972)

Les Amants mouillés (Lovers Are Wet) (恋人たちは濡れた)(1973)

L'Extase de la Rose Noire (Black Rose Ascension) (黒薔薇昇天) (1975)

Angel Guts: Red Porno (天使のはらわた 赤い淫画) (1981)

Lady Karuizawa (軽井沢夫人) (1982)


and the other five are the Roman Porno Reboot films released in 2016-2017 in Japan:

Chaudes gymnopédies (Aroused by Gymnopedies) (ジムノペディに乱れる) (2016)

í€ l'ombre des Jeunes Filles humides (Wet Woman in the Wind) (風に濡れた女) (2016)

L'Aube des félines (Dawn of the Felines) (牝猫たち) (2017)

Antiporno (ANTIPORNO アンチポルノ) (2016)

White Lily (ホワイトリリー) (2017)

[47lab Guest Find all posts View Profile Close 47lab]

I know we have some fans of Sally May here and just recently released is a WEBRip of the Chusei Sone directed second film in the RASHAMAN OMAN (Foreigner's Mistress Oman) series from the usual suspects. Word is that English subs will be forthcoming which is excellent news.

Still no English subs but I decided to watch the first one again, NAGASAKI BUTTERFLY aka Foreigner's Mistress Oman: Holland Slope In The Rain and I think this is one of Chusei Sone's underrated RP works. Sally May portrays such a striking sympathetic figure & it's just a well directed/scripted tale of loss, redemption and vengeance with plenty of the usual soft-core sex thrown in. Screenwriter and director, Atsushi Yamatoya plays a small but pivotal role and is really the only sympathetic male figure in the whole flick. He is credited with writing the screenplay for the second film, DEAD BLOSSOMS. Shusako Muto plays the main scumbag with such relish that you can't wait for him to get his comeuppance at the end. Wish this movie would get the blu ray treatment as it's deserving of it.

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

Still no English subs but I decided to watch the first one again, NAGASAKI BUTTERFLY aka Foreigner's Mistress Oman: Holland Slope In The Rain and I think this is one of Chusei Sone's underrated RP works. Sally May portrays such a striking sympathetic figure & it's just a well directed/scripted tale of loss, redemption and vengeance with plenty of the usual soft-core sex thrown in. Screenwriter and director, Atsushi Yamatoya plays a small but pivotal role and is really the only sympathetic male figure in the whole flick. He is credited with writing the screenplay for the second film, DEAD BLOSSOMS. Shusako Muto plays the main scumbag with such relish that you can't wait for him to get his comeuppance at the end. Wish this movie would get the blu ray treatment as it's deserving of it.

This is a Sone film I've read about but never seen. I'm doubly excited to see it after this review, 47.

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

Lusty Discipline in Uniform (セーラー服色情飼育) (Japan, 1982) [VoD] - 3/5
Middle aged, well dressed professor has a crush on a cute high school girl, starts harassing her with obscene phone calls. And he's the film's hero! At first a positively ridiculous piece of Japanese pop culture - surely no other country could produce films like this - but it's only so far till you start feeling bad for the victim, and become disgusted by the filthy bastard of a protagonist. But then, what do you expect from a film written by Gaira Komizu! He wins you over again by the end. Kazumi Kawai, an insanely pretty young actress in her film debut role, plays the stalking interest. This was her first and only foray into Roman Porno, which has further elevated the film's status. She went on to act on TV and films, including Chusei Sone's Blow the Night (1983), before taking her own life by jumping off a building in 1997 at the age of 32. Title is a bit of a misnomer btw, there's little lust under this girl's uniform, and Kawai does little more than topless nudity as contractually stated. The film remains one of Nikkatsu's most popular titles, having been released theatrically multiple times, as well as on VHS, DVD (4 times!) and BD!

The caps below are from an ancient VoD, for HD Kazumi get the BD!





Our hero, who was also in Girl and the Wooden Horse Torture








I have to admit I'm completely smitten over her, something that rarely happens with RP actresses


There was a very good comment from Goro Taku at BnB, let me copy-paste it here as well.

It's been a while since I watched this but what I found most disturbing about it was that I felt that the script was written with a girl much younger than the lead actress in mind. The way she talked and her overall naiveté didn't seem to make sense for someone the lead actress' age. Maybe that was just me but considering some of the other stuff that Nikkatsu was putting out in the early 80ies, I wouldn't be that surprised.

I didn't think about that before, but now that you mention it, yeah, maybe. The scenes between her and her mother are certainly in favor of your argument.

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

I wrote a few posts regarding Nikkatsu censorship in a Facebook group, let me copy-paste them here as well. Most of the content has been discussed here before over the years, and our member Sundance is the one who brought most of this to my knowledge, but maybe this post serves as a quick summary / reminder.

Nikkatsu Censorship: Part 1

Some of you may be aware of the censorship case regarding actress Machiko Otani (大谷麻知å). Several years ago Nikkatsu pulled all her movies from distribution and ceased sales. Amazon JP listings of old VHS cassettes featuring her have been removed. Several Japanese movie databases (Allcinema, Movie Walker) have removed her name from movie credit lists. All movie director retrospectives held in Tokyo in the last 7 years or so (Noboru Tanaka, Chusei Sone x 2, Kichitaro Negishi) have omitted films Otani is in. Synapse said they tried licensing the Angel Guts series but Nikkatsu wouldn't sell the 1stfilm because of an actress who appears in it.

The reasons behind this case are not clear to me. If anyone knows, please clue me in. The only piece of info I can find is this Japanese language message board post from 2013, where someone claims he/she saw a message from Otani's family member "about 7 years ago" saying "Otani died deeply regretting her film career".

７年程前、ネット上で遺族の方から〠Œå¤§è°·ã¯æ•°å¹´å‰ã«äº¡ããªã‚Šã€èŠ¸èƒ½æ´»å‹•ã ‚’大変悔やんでいました」との内容の 投稿がありました。ご冥福をお祈りだ—ます. https://r18theater.info/board/yyregi.cgi?room=roman...

If that is correct, it would appear her family has requested Nikkatsu to pull her films from distribution. However, I cannot find any confirmation for the claims above, nor for her death.

She had a very short career lasting only about 6 months, during which she appeared in films by several notable directors, e.g. Angel Guts: High School Co-ed (Sone, 1978), Pink Salon: Five Lewd Women (Tanaka, 1978) and High School Girl (Negishi, 1979).




Nikkatsu Censorship: Part 2

Sometime in the 80s the pink film industry agreed to stop exploiting high school girls in pink film advertising. This resulted in many old films being re-titled. Sometimes the results were… ironic. In many titles ”high school girls” (女åé«˜ç”Ÿ or 女高生) became “school girls” (女åæ ¡ç”Ÿ or 女校生). Is that any better? The funniest part is that "high school girl” (joshikí´sei / jokí´sei) and “school girl” (joshikí´sei / jokí´sei) have the exact same pronunciation. They just replaced the “high” (kí´) kanji with the school (kí´) kanji. You can see this for example with Angel Guts: High School Co-ed (1978) where the poster spells “High School Girl” (女高生 天使のはらわた) but for the VHS cover it was changed to “School Girl” (女校生 天使のはらわた.



There were other name changes as well. For example “Sailor suits” (セーラー服 / Síªrí¢-fuku) became “uniforms” (制服 / seifuku). e.g. Young Girls' Holding Cell (セーラー服鑑別所 or 制服鑑別所) (1982).



It seems the censorship has since loosened since many of Nikkatsu's Japanese DVD and BD releases have reverted back to the original titles e.g. Lusty Discipline in Uniform (1982) which went from the original theatrical “Sailor Suit” (Síªrí¢-fuku shikijí´ shiiku / セーラー服 色情飼育) to the theatrical re-release “Uniform” (Seifuku shikijí´ shiiku / 制服色情飼育) and finally back to “Sailor Suit” (Síªrí¢-fuku shikijí´ shiiku / (セーラー服 色情飼育) for its DVD and BD releases.

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

A few more Roman Pornos I watched recently:

Castle Orgies (色暦大奥秘話) (Japan, 1971) [VoD] - 1.5/5
Nikkatsu's half-arsed, first ever Roman Porno production (a double feature with Apartment Wife: Affair in the Afternoon). Setsuko Ogawa stars as a girl forced to leave her boyfriend to join the shogun's harem. This was strictly a concept film: take a routine period drama, add sex scenes and expect audiences to pay up. They did. Loads of sequels followed. Two points worth noting: 1) Some of the music is lifted from Blind Woman's Curse (1970) and 2) All male roles in the film are worth a round zero.

Enka jōshikō: kizudarake no kaben (怨æŒæƒ…æ»è€ƒ 傷だらけの花弁) (Japan, 1972) [VoD] - 1.5/5
Naive small town girl Setsuko Ogawa goes to Tokyo to become a singer, discovers the industry is full of jerks. An early Roman Porno drama may appeal with its nostalgia and relative restraint, but it really doesn't have cinematic merits of any sort. Except maybe the most ridiculous falling off a cliff shot I've ever seen. Koyu Ohara directs, but you wouldn't guess it if his name wasn't in the credits.

Sex Highway (ＳＥＸハイウェイ　女の駐車場) (Japan, 1974) [VoD] - 2/5
Plenty of sex, but no highway. This seems like an aimless miss at first, but an old geezer's young wife falling in love with a young bloke makes for watchable character drama during the 2nd half. Helps that the wife is played by the sweet Yoko Katagiri who delivers one of her better performances. This is also surprisingly un-explicit for 1974. Not to be confused with the Nikkatsu action influenced Sex Rider: Wet Highway (1971).