The Non-Synapse Roman Porno Thread

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

I really want to see Sex Rider: Wet Highway (1971)

[agent999 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close agent999]

For anyone that can understand Japanese or French, Elephant's 10 film Roman Porno box set is down to €76. I have the Angel Guts Red Porno BD and it looks great (although, in common with many Japanese transfers, the black levels are a bit too grey).

https://www.amazon.fr/Roman-1971-201.../dp/B081KRTJC1

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

Delicate Skillful Fingers: R2J DVD vs. BD

Solid upgrade over the DVD, thankfully. As many of you know, the new Nikkatsu Roman Porno HD masters from the past few years (boosted, often unnatural looking) are generally inferior to the old Nikkatsu HD masters (less detail, but more natural colours and contrast). With the new Japanese BD releases you never know what you'll be getting (e.g. Love Hotel: Amazon HD stream is the old DVD master in HD, the Happinet BD is a new HD master with boosted contrasts and yellowish colours. Thanks @Sundance).

Delicate Skillful Fingers thankfully is one of the good ones. It is 1080i unfortunately, the compression ain't too hot, and there's some hiss on the audio track, but the DVD had the exact same issues. The picture quality is otherwise notably improved, there's Japanese subtitles on the disc and the photo gallery has been greatly extended from 8 photos to 41. The artwork is less good, though.

Top: Happinet DVD
Bottom: Happinet BD




































(director Toru Murakawa in the middle)

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

More Roman Porno coming from Happinet!
- http://www.happinet-p.com/jp3/releases/

June 3rd

Blu-Ray
- Wife to be Sacrificed (生贄夫人) (Masaru Konuma, 1974)
- High School Teacher: Maturing (高校教師　成熟) (Shogoro Nishimura, 1985)

DVD
- Eve-chan no hime (イヴちゃんの姫) (Shusuke Kaneko, 1984)
- Shinshu shikoshiko bushi: Onsen geisha vs. ozashiki stripper (ä¿¡å·žã‚·ã‚³ã‚·ã‚³ç¯€ã€€æ¸©æ³‰èŠ¸è€…ï¼¶ï¼³ãŠåº§æ •·ã‚¹ãƒˆãƒªãƒƒãƒ‘ー) (Nobuaki Shirai, 1975)
- Nun Story: Frustration in Black (修道女　黒衣のä¸ã®ã†ãšã) (Nobuaki Shirai, 1980)
- Female Teacher's Awakening (女教師のめざめ) (Katsuhiko Fujii, 1981)

+ 「志麻いづみ　鎌倉夫人　みだれ絹蒲団」(1983) ＆「小川亜佐美の　おんなSEXカウン゠»ãƒ©ãƒ¼ã€€æ¿¡ã‚Œæ¿¡ã‚Œãƒ†ã‚¯ãƒ‹ãƒƒã‚¯ã€(1981)
This is a bit off an oddity. It's two a straight-to-video short features, each running approx 30 min and shot on video cameras instead of film, bundled together. They originally came out on VHS in 1981 and 1983. The directors are Katsuhiko Fujii and Shogoro Nishimura.




August 5th

Blu-Ray
- Black Rose Ascension (黒薔薇昇天) (Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1975)
- Double Bed (ダブルベッド) (Toshiya Fujita, 1983)

DVD
- Wandering Seagull: Night In Kushiro (さすらいかもめ　釧路の女) (さすらいかもめ　－釧路の夜－) (Shogoro Nishimura, 1973) *
- I Am Aroused (感じるんです) (Shinichi Shiratori, 1975)
- OH! Takarazuka (OＨ！!タカラヅカ) (Koyu Ohara, 1983)
- OL yuri-zoku 19-sai (ＯＬ百合族１９æ³) (Shusuke Kaneko, 1984)

+ 「麻生かおり　ザ・オルガスムス」(1987) ＆「朝吹ケイト　覗き部屋の女」(1983 )
Another VHS double with running times of 50m and 30m, directed by 佐々木尚 and æ± ç”°æ£ä¸€ (Shoichi Ikeda)

* Something odd going on with the title. Most databases, including some Japanese ones (jmdb) call this film さすらいかもめ　－釧路の夜－ but Happinet, Nikkatsu and the poster say さすらいかもめ　釧路の女. Which means the English title is also mistranslated (should be "Woman" or "Person" instead of "Night"). And to add to the confusion, the furigana in the poster says 女 is not to be read as "onna" but as "hito" instead. And I do believe these are the one and same film because no database, including Nikkatsu's own, list both titles, only one of them, and the cast, director and release date (or month) is the same.



So, absolutely nothing for me to buy. OH! Takarazuka is a cute film though, I even had a dream of Jun Miho once, haha. And Night/Woman/Person in Kushiro interests me a tiny bit because Nishimura's 60's mainstream films were so good that I keep imagining there'd be at least one good film in his Roman Porno catalogue too (ok, there is, Fujunna kankei from 1984 is great). And maybe I should try Double Bed again. I saw 30 min of it and were just bored. But it's written by Haruhiko Arai, so...

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

I got get my hands on that Happinet blu ray release of DELICATE SKILLFUL FINGERS. The PQ is a definite upgrade.

@Takuma, have you ever watched Hiroyuki Nasu's SAILOR SUIT (UNIFORM): LILY LOVERS? or the sequel? The print that's available is the 1080i Happinet BD release. I don't think #2 ever had a blu ray release but I'm not 100% sure?

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

@Takuma, have you ever watched Hiroyuki Nasu's SAILOR SUIT (UNIFORM): LILY LOVERS? or the sequel? The print that's available is the 1080i Happinet BD release. I don't think #2 ever had a blu ray release but I'm not 100% sure?

Lesbians in Uniforms? Yeah. Typical Nasu. Some style, zero substance. It has cute actresses and some nice montage-like bits set to pop music, but it's so superficial you don't really care for it. I think I saw the sequel, too, but I'm not sure I ever finished it. The first film is out on BD, the second only on DVD.

There's a much better yurizoku / lesbian schoolgirls films out there, Koyu Ohara's Seifuku yurizoku - Warui asobi (制服百合族　悪い遊び) (1985). That one actually has nice story and characters, in addition to lesbian schoolgirls No DVD or BD release, though.


Getting back to Nasu, he is not entirely to be ignored though. I'd say he was the Michael Bay / Tony Scott of 80s Japan, and his filmography is more interesting to inspect from that angle. He perhaps did better with mainstream films than Roman Porno. The first 2 or 3 Bebop High School films are pretty fun, Shinjuku Love Story has some charm as well.

From his Roman Porno films Virgin nanka kowakunai (ヴァージンなんか怖くない) (1984) is kinda cool, a Roman Porno variation of Walter Hill's The Warriors. Rouge (ルージュ) (1984) is good too, but mostly because of Takashi Ishii's script. You get the feeling Nasu was the weakest link in that production. Beautiful Wrestlers: "Down For the Count" (美少女プãƒãƒ¬ã‚¹ã€€å¤±ç¥žï¼‘０秒前) (1984) is a bore. Elder Sister's Diary (姉日記) (1984) has an amazingly cool closing scene, but everything before that is dull.

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

Solid upgrade over the DVD, thankfully. As many of you know, the new Nikkatsu Roman Porno HD masters from the past few years (boosted, often unnatural looking) are generally inferior to the old Nikkatsu HD masters (less detail, but more natural colours and contrast). With the new Japanese BD releases you never know what you'll be getting (e.g. Love Hotel: Amazon HD stream is the old DVD master in HD, the Happinet BD is a new HD master with boosted contrasts and yellowish colours. Thanks @Sundance).

Just adding that with Love Hotel the old Amazon stream actually has more details in some parts because of the filtering for the new master.

I was hoping it would be some stupid decision made just for the disc releases (perhaps even just by Happinet) but unfortunately the new Amazon streams match the discs so I guess it is what Nikkatsu now wants.

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

Roman Porno and the R15+ Versions

You may have noticed that some Nikkatsu Roman Porno titles have been popping up as “R15 Version” [R15+版] in some distribution platforms for a few years. For example, all Toei Channel TV broadcastings are marked as “R15 Version”, and some streaming versions have had the same banner.

At the same time the retail DVD, BD and Amazon Prime stream releases are still marked as R18+. So what's the deal?

I don't have a comprehensive answer, but here's something. Jealousy Game (1982):

TOP: Amazon Prime “R18” Stream
Bottom: Toei Channel “R15+ Version” on TV









The censorship appears only in these two shots in the film, about 5 seconds each.

(That censorship is idiotic beyond belief, btw. There is NO EXPLICIT NUDITY or real sex in the uncut version either. If anything, the censored version is now the more shocking one because it creates a false illusion of genitals or actual intercourse having been visible prior to censorship!).

The banner at the end of the Toei Channel broadcasting shows the R15+ rating was granted for this video version by the ratings board Eirin.


The original Erin logo on the print has different ID number.


Now, does this mean that all “R15+ Versions” have this kind of censorship? Apparently not. Toei Channel's Circuit of Sorrow was also an “R15+ Version”, but I could not notice any censorship there (I have not seen any other release of the film, though). I recorded Erotic Liaisons as well, and while I haven't watched that recording yet, browsing through the sex scenes did not reveal any visual censorship.

This is more speculation that confirmed facts, but it seems to me that “R15+ Version” can either refer to a censored version or simply a new rating that was granted without censorship (remember how Toei's Horror's of Malformed Men went from R18+ to PG-12 upon re-rating a few years ago?).

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

As suggested above, I re-watched Yoichi Higashi's near-excellent motorbike road movie and psychological relationship drama Jealousy Game (ジェラシーゲーム) (1982), starring Toei's delinquent girl boss Reiko Oshida.

This was one of Nikkatsu's Eros daisaku (エãƒã‚¹å¤§ä½œ) films, which came with padded running times, were released as double (instead of triple) features and were aimed at more mainstream(ish) audiences. All cast members here (Oshida, Yosuke Natsuki, Hiroaki Murakami and Hitomi Takahashi) were mainstream actors.

The film follows a married couple (Oshida and Natsuki) travelling through Hokkaido on a Harley Davidson. A young couple (Murakami and Takahashi) is heading the same direction by car. After a heated argument Oshida decides to hitch a ride and gets picked up by Murakami, who has just been left by manipulative girlfriend Takahashi. Husband Natsuki meanwhile picks up Takahashi at the back of his Harley without realizing what he's getting into.

The film's title should explain the rest.

A mature, well acted and stylish (the road trip and motorbike aspect add a lot) human relationship drama, 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 was Machiko Nasu). The music was composed by Ichiro Araki. Oh and in case someone is wondering, yes, Oshida does lose her clothing in this one.

The caps are from Toei Channel. Amazon's HD stream has better compression, but looks otherwise the same. The Blu-Ray no doubt looks the same as well. This only came out on VHS before, so I'm sure this is the only HD master in existence.

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

More Roman Porno coming from Happinet!
- http://www.happinet-p.com/jp3/releases/

June 3rd

Blu-Ray
- Wife to be Sacrificed (生贄夫人) (Masaru Konuma, 1974)
- High School Teacher: Maturing (高校教師　成熟) (Shogoro Nishimura, 1985)

DVD
- Eve-chan no hime (イヴちゃんの姫) (Shusuke Kaneko, 1984)
- Shinshu shikoshiko bushi: Onsen geisha vs. ozashiki stripper (ä¿¡å·žã‚·ã‚³ã‚·ã‚³ç¯€ã€€æ¸©æ³‰èŠ¸è€…ï¼¶ï¼³ãŠåº§æ •·ã‚¹ãƒˆãƒªãƒƒãƒ‘ー) (Nobuaki Shirai, 1975)
- Nun Story: Frustration in Black (修道女　黒衣のä¸ã®ã†ãšã) (Nobuaki Shirai, 1980)
- Female Teacher's Awakening (女教師のめざめ) (Katsuhiko Fujii, 1981)

+ 「志麻いづみ　鎌倉夫人　みだれ絹蒲団」(1983) ＆「小川亜佐美の　おんなSEXカウン゠»ãƒ©ãƒ¼ã€€æ¿¡ã‚Œæ¿¡ã‚Œãƒ†ã‚¯ãƒ‹ãƒƒã‚¯ã€(1981)
This is a bit off an oddity. It's two a straight-to-video short features, each running approx 30 min and shot on video cameras instead of film, bundled together. They originally came out on VHS in 1981 and 1983. The directors are Katsuhiko Fujii and Shogoro Nishimura.


August 5th

Blu-Ray
- Black Rose Ascension (黒薔薇昇天) (Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1975)
- Double Bed (ダブルベッド) (Toshiya Fujita, 1983)

DVD
- Wandering Seagull: Night In Kushiro (さすらいかもめ　釧路の女) (さすらいかもめ　－釧路の夜－) (Shogoro Nishimura, 1973) *
- I Am Aroused (感じるんです) (Shinichi Shiratori, 1975)
- OH! Takarazuka (OＨ！!タカラヅカ) (Koyu Ohara, 1983)
- OL yuri-zoku 19-sai (ＯＬ百合族１９æ³) (Shusuke Kaneko, 1984)

+ 「麻生かおり　ザ・オルガスムス」(1987) ＆「朝吹ケイト　覗き部屋の女」(1983 )
Another VHS double with running times of 50m and 30m, directed by 佐々木尚 and æ± ç”°æ£ä¸€ (Shoichi Ikeda)

* Something odd going on with the title. Most databases, including some Japanese ones (jmdb) call this film さすらいかもめ　－釧路の夜－ but Happinet, Nikkatsu and the poster say さすらいかもめ　釧路の女. Which means the English title is also mistranslated (should be "Woman" or "Person" instead of "Night"). And to add to the confusion, the furigana in the poster says 女 is not to be read as "onna" but as "hito" instead. And I do believe these are the one and same film because no database, including Nikkatsu's own, list both titles, only one of them, and the cast, director and release date (or month) is the same.

So, absolutely nothing for me to buy. OH! Takarazuka is a cute film though, I even had a dream of Jun Miho once, haha. And Night/Woman/Person in Kushiro interests me a tiny bit because Nishimura's 60's mainstream films were so good that I keep imagining there'd be at least one good film in his Roman Porno catalogue too (ok, there is, Fujunna kankei from 1984 is great). And maybe I should try Double Bed again. I saw 30 min of it and were just bored. But it's written by Haruhiko Arai, so...

McCrutchy at blu-ray.com noticed this Feb. 2020 announcement that had completely gone under my radar.
- https://forum.blu-ray.com/showpost.p...1&postcount=94

So I was browsing the other day and finally found something of a press announcement for the 2020 releases here:

https://www.nikkatsu.com/news/202002/003700.html

This article is from 27 February 2020 and in addition to listing titles, basically says that Nikkatsu will release 50 DVD/Blu-ray titles in the fiscal year 2020 (1 April 2020 - 31 March 2021) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Roman Porno in 2021, although the first film came out in November 1971, which would put it well within fiscal year 2021.

Altogether, 4 Blu-rays and 16 DVDs are set for release in June and August 2020, which would mean that a further 30 titles (if I had to guess, I would hope for at least 6 Blu-rays) were initially planned to be released after August 2020 and before April 2021. The article, however, was written largely before the coronavirus pandemic, so obviously, future releases are not necessarily going forward as planned.

So there should more titles coming in addition to those 16 (or 18 if we count the two double feature dvds as 4 separate titles) announced before.

Note that I missed two DTV titles (which of course aren't real Roman Porno, but Nikkatsu is now releasing them in this series anyway) before

June (DVD)

Vフィーチャー
『軽井沢夫人－官能の夜想曲－』
【監督】伊藤æ£æ²»ã€å‡ºæ¼”】真梨邑ケ゠¤ ä»–
ï¼Šä¸€èˆ¬ä½œï¼ˆæˆäººæŒ‡å®šã§ã¯ã‚ã‚Šã¾ã›ã‚“ï¼ ‰

August (DVD)

Vフィーチャー
『新･百合族　先生、ã‚スしたことだ‚りますか？』
【監督】村上修【出演】三浦綺音 他
ï¼Šä¸€èˆ¬ä½œï¼ˆæˆäººæŒ‡å®šã§ã¯ã‚ã‚Šã¾ã›ã‚“ï¼ ‰

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

Thanks for pointing this out Takuma. 2020 looked like it was going to be a very weak year for re-issues (in terms of quantity); and I was actually worried that the project was petering out.

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

Nikkatsu's finally got the 2020 Roman Porno page online.
- https://www.nikkatsu-romanporno.com/bddvd2020/

50 titles confirmed, but only June and August titles listed so far.

And dear God, they've actually got a good looking artwork for Wife to Be Sacrificed!



(too bad I hate the film with a passion)

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

More Roman Porno coming from Happinet!
August 5th

Blu-Ray
- Black Rose Ascension (黒薔薇昇天) (Tatsumi Kumashiro, 1975)
- Double Bed (ダブルベッド) (Toshiya Fujita, 1983)

DVD
- Wandering Seagull: Night In Kushiro (さすらいかもめ　釧路の女) (さすらいかもめ　－釧路の夜－) (Shogoro Nishimura, 1973) *
- I Am Aroused (感じるんです) (Shinichi Shiratori, 1975)
- OH! Takarazuka (OＨ！!タカラヅカ) (Koyu Ohara, 1983)
- OL yuri-zoku 19-sai (ＯＬ百合族１９æ³) (Shusuke Kaneko, 1984)

+ 「麻生かおり　ザ・オルガスムス」(1987) ＆「朝吹ケイト　覗き部屋の女」(1983 )
Another VHS double with running times of 50m and 30m, directed by 佐々木尚 and æ± ç”°æ£ä¸€ (Shoichi Ikeda)

These got postponed to Sept. 2, due to corona.
- https://www.nikkatsu-romanporno.com/...06/85bddvd.php

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

ãƒãƒžãƒ³ãƒãƒ«ãƒŽ45周年記念・「ãƒãƒžãƒ³ãƒ ルノ・スピンオフシリーズ」復刻! エãƒã‚¹Vフィーチャー 新・百合族 先生、ã‚スしたことありますか? [DVD]

I'm a little confused by this. (I'm relying on Google.) This seems to be a 1994 remake of an earlier film. Nikkatsu and Amazon seem to be at odds regarding which anniversary is being celebrated, 50 vs 45.

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

ãƒãƒžãƒ³ãƒãƒ«ãƒŽ45周年記念・「ãƒãƒžãƒ³ãƒ ルノ・スピンオフシリーズ」復刻! エãƒã‚¹Vフィーチャー 新・百合族 先生、ã‚スしたことありますか? [DVD]

I'm a little confused by this. (I'm relying on Google.) This seems to be a 1994 remake of an earlier film. Nikkatsu and Amazon seem to be at odds regarding which anniversary is being celebrated, 50 vs 45.

That is a little confusing indeed. I think the explanation is that they were celebrating the 45th anniversary in 2016 with new DVD / BD releases, and these latest releases are a continuation that release series that has gone on for 5 years already (and incidentally we're now reaching the 50th anniversary).