The Non-Synapse Roman Porno Thread

[Takuma]

So now I wonder... have you viewed it yet yourself?

No. You need to have a specific kind of television which supports the VoD system. And I don't even own TV.

(I have an HD screen connected to PS3 and laptop for film viewing... which is kinda enough when your room is the size of an American wardrobe )

(actually, it's kinda perfect size when 60% of what you watch is VHS sourced VoD versions )

So I assume she would not be ready to watch the movie with you (and your gf)...

She probably doesn't even know about it. We should tell her.

I believe I've seen the movie long time ago but I'm not sure. I just remember I saw 3 ama movies and two sucked but one was ok.

edit: oh, yeah, that's the one which was ok. Lusty Ama: Stirred-Up Pot (色情海女　乱れ壺) (Shikijō ama: midare tsubo)

And now I realize the girl in the poster is Natsuko Yashiro. She was lovely in Secret Honeymoon: Rape Train. I wish someone would release that on DVD.

[Sundance]

Oh, well, sorry I ruined everything.

So now I wonder... have you viewed it yet yourself?


I don't follow any actual Japanese piracy sites so don't know how much stuff they actually have available there but the only English language torrent site full of Asian movies that I know of is missing probably several hundreds of the roman pornos that are at DMM even though it used to be (until couple of days ago) very easy and fast (like couple of minutes) to make 1:1 (except DRM removed) copies of wmv videos. (Of course it requires quite a lot of work to buy anything from DMM if you don't live in Japan) I think you can still make copies of the streams if you stream them into TV and have some certain equipment in between or something. Or you can just record it from the screen with a screen capture program but quality would suffer. So the chances are probably low of it ending up there before Synapse... but then again because of what it is who knows what will happen...

But I wonder though how many Japanese persons might be (or had been) interested in buying the Synapse disc... Some times their discs are available at Japanese Yahoo for eaxmple. So maybe they might lose a few sales that way since I assume some would be prepared to buy even foreign releases if the film is something which never even had a VHS release.

As for torrents and Synapse's releases, unfortunately they all end up on those torrent sites basically right after the release date. Even scans of the booklets are included. Which fucking sucks but what can you do...

And this... my girlfriend's friend looks exactly like that girl... to the extent she said I'm not allowed to look at this poster

So I assume she would not be ready to watch the movie with you (and your gf)...

[Takuma]

Clever

I was guessing Rape Site would come. It was added to a certain Japanese television VoD service a few months ago. I kept my mouth shut because I didn't want it to end up on a torrent site, and suggested Synapse to hurry up with their release. Well, I hope it doesn't end up on torrent sites now. It's kinda unfair because Synapse are the ones who had that transfer made, and now it's released in Japan before them. I really hope fans will support Synapse with this because they went an extra mile and spared no expenses to make this film available for the first time ever...

And this... my girlfriend's friend looks exactly like that girl... to the extent she said I'm not allowed to look at this poster



(edit: I wrote some nonsense about Modern Prostitution: Lust Under Uniform before I bothered reading the title and realized it was Delinquent Girl: Alleycat In Heat. Never mind)

[Sundance]

[Sundance]

They have added 4 today but actually there are now still 24 more coming and... one of them is Zoom Up: Rape Site. :cuckoo:

I didn't count the days it took those last ones to show up so I don't know how fast these will come... maybe a month or two.

And I know because they put the covers (posters mostly) for new movies up several weeks before they are actually shown at the site. And DMM uses the same naming system for all their movies so the last movie currently up for purchase is 559... and if you take filename of the cover and simply put a higher number up there (you have to actually change the number at two places in the filename/url) you can currently go up to 583 which is Zoom Up: Rape Site.

EDIT: I won't link to the covers so they don't stop doing this. ;)

EDIT2: Well I put them on my own site so these are the ones still supposed to be coming soon. I think almost all of them are on DVD.

[Takuma]

Probably of interest to Takuma only...

DMM has recently added some (around 10 I think) more Roman Pornos on their site (and still have 13 coming soon unless they are already there as I haven't checked today). What is interesting is that two of them (from the ones already on the site) are also available in HD. Love Hunter (ラブ・ハンター 恋の狩人, 1972) and Rape Climax: Skinning (クライマックス・レイプ 剥ぐ！, 1979). Love Hunter has been available on DVD in Japan but the other one doesn't even have a VHS release or I simply can't find it (didn't search long)?

They are probably new scans and would look good on a Blu-Ray but the VODs are of course full of compression artifacts and have ghosting issues that I wouldn't expect from HD. Don't know if this is all because of WMV being a shitty format or if DMM people simply aren't good a their work (or both probably). Bitrate is also only at 3000kbs while their actual pornos in HD have 6000.

http://www.romanporno.com/screenshot...ng-hd-vod1.jpg
http://www.romanporno.com/screenshot...ng-hd-vod2.jpg (oh god the compression and ghosting)
http://www.romanporno.com/screenshot...ng-hd-vod3.jpg
http://www.romanporno.com/screenshot...ng-hd-vod4.jpg

Oh and Microsoft ended their support of Windows Server 2003 in July 14th so that is probably the main reason why DMM stopped supporting Windows Media Player and everything has to be played on their own player.

Yeah, I noticed those. I was getting excited about Skinning until I saw the director's name... Katsuhiko Fujii. Well, I'll watch it some day anyway.

How do you know 13 more are coming?

edit: 4 more were added today.

[Sundance]

Probably of interest to Takuma only...

DMM has recently added some (around 10 I think) more Roman Pornos on their site (and still have 13 coming soon unless they are already there as I haven't checked today). What is interesting is that two of them (from the ones already on the site) are also available in HD. Love Hunter (ラブ・ハンター 恋の狩人, 1972) and Rape Climax: Skinning (クライマックス・レイプ 剥ぐ！, 1979). Love Hunter has been available on DVD in Japan but the other one doesn't even have a VHS release or I simply can't find it (didn't search long)?

They are probably new scans and would look good on a Blu-Ray but the VODs are of course full of compression artifacts and have ghosting issues that I wouldn't expect from HD. Don't know if this is all because of WMV being a shitty format or if DMM people simply aren't good a their work (or both probably). Bitrate is also only at 3000kbs while their actual pornos in HD have 6000.

http://www.romanporno.com/screenshot...ng-hd-vod1.jpg
http://www.romanporno.com/screenshot...ng-hd-vod2.jpg (oh god the compression and ghosting)
http://www.romanporno.com/screenshot...ng-hd-vod3.jpg
http://www.romanporno.com/screenshot...ng-hd-vod4.jpg

Oh and Microsoft ended their support of Windows Server 2003 in July 14th so that is probably the main reason why DMM stopped supporting Windows Media Player and everything has to be played on their own player.

[Takuma]

Love Hunter (Japan, 1972) [DVD] - 2/5
Nikkatsu found themselves facing obscenity charges for this film. The trial went on for nearly a decade and the film was pulled from distribution, but they were eventually found not guilty. It's actually pretty tame stuff by today's standards - or even by later 1970s standards - but it's easy to see why the officials targeted this movie. It's the classic exploitation tale of a young guy falls for an immoral older vamp and then his innocent virgin girlfriend gets drawn into the new sinful world. There's everything from lesbian sex to orgies and a black male stripper dancing naked. Fans of the specific sub-genre should dig it; for others it may not be that exciting but it is well made: the cinematography and music are often beautiful and the film can certainly be called a work of art just as much as it is a piece of unashamed exploitation.

Erotic Journey: Love Affair in Hong Kong (Japan, 1973) [DVD] - 3/5
A desperate husband follows his runaway wife to Hong Kong. He hooks up with a local Japanese man, who, however soon turns out to be a gangster specializing in human trafficking. This is an uneven, but interesting throwback to Nikkatsu's 1960s action days while still being a Roman Porno production. Director Masaru Konuma seems bored with the sex scene quota, even making fun of it at times. It seems evident he would have rather made a genuine action thriller. However, the film still packs plenty of style, exotic locations, and a badass ending. It's not an entirely satisfactory film, but it certainly has its moments, especially towards the end.















Rape Me: Sexual Assault In a Hotel Room (Japan, 1977) [DVD] - 1.5/5
An innocent college girl suffering from a trauma (her boyfriend broke his neck while doing pole vaulting and become nuts) hooks up with her sleazy female friend in Tokyo. They then run into a rapist in a hotel room. This is an oddly nonsensical film that doesn't really achieve anything within its 71 minute running time. None of the fun and breeze of director Koretsugu Kurahara's later film Eros School: Feels So Good (1977) is here to be found. Instead, the film is merely off-putting without being offensive in the least. The most interesting thing about the film is the score, which frequently makes it sound like a 1950s romantic film.

Sins of Sister Lucia (Japan, 1978) [DVD] - 1/5
A badly behaving teen girl gets sent to a convent full of lusty sisters. Koyu Ohara's pop art magic is nowhere to be found in this by-the-numbers nunsploitation film. It's not the worst film ever made, but it just gets tiresome very fast. The only minor - and indeed very minor - point of interest is when two escaped prisoners show up and bring some raping with them. Oddly enough, Ohara's next movie was to be his best: the charming, energetic youth film Pink Hip Girl, which created an entire new subgenre within the Roman Porno.

So Soft, So Cunning (Japan, 1979) [DVD] - 3.5/5
Can a film be too mainstream for the Roman Porno series? Nikkatsu seems to think so. All DVD releases of this film - which is often considered Lady Snowblood director Toshiya Fujita's best movie - lack any reference to its origins. Indeed, the film features less sex than many 1970s mainstream films and takes no less than 48 minutes for the first nude scene to appear. Nevertheless, it premiered in the Roman Porno series as a youth film double feature with Pink Hip Girl: Love Attack. It's a well written, well acted and all-around well made look into the late 1970s Japanese family relations among young people. Like most of Fujita's films, it follows young adults, but it lacks the rock, shock and pop of some of his other films. Instead, it's a very low key drama that makes accurate social observations. Like many of Fujita's films, it will probably resonate best with domestic audiences who have experienced the era.

Crazed Fruit (Japan, 1981) [DVD] - 4/5
Here's a terrific updating of the 1956 Nikkatsu classic Crazed Fruit; a new version that is superior to the original. While the original was a seminal sun tribe classic, the new version examines the 1980s Japanese youth from a more intimate, less political perspective. Consequently, it's a remake in name only. The film focuses on the unstable relationship between two youngsters: a guy working in a sex club and a rich girl who trades her stepfather lover for a younger boyfriend just for a change. Neither one of them really understand each other - or themselves.

Like many of director Kichitaro Negishi's other films, this movie would also be more at home in Art Theatre Guild's catalogue than in the Roman Porno series where it was released (Negishi's next film, Distant Thunder, was, in fact, an ATG production). The film features all of Negishi's strengths: energetic visual approach, terrific use of pop music, freezy outdoor scenes, and quiet moments which challenge the viewer to analyze the complex characters. The last 5 minutes features some of the most stylish cinema even seen in the Roman Porno genre.

Acting is thoroughly great as well. Lead actor Yí»ji Honma comes from Art Theatre Guild and the female star Yuki Ninagawa likewise has mainstream background. Neither one of them ever appeared in another Roman Porno production. Supporting actors are just as good: Eiji Okada (Hiroshima mon amour), talented Roman Porno regular Nobutaka Masutomi, and Eiko Nagashima whose performance as child-like, miserable yet energetic hooker is strangely toughing and one of the film's highlights.

This film absolutely needs a new DVD release. The old uplink release (caps below) is OOP and VHS quality at best.



















I even love the DVD menus






Theme song:

[Takuma]

Foreign Mistress Oman: Holland Slope In the Rain (Japan, 1972) [DVD] - 2/5
Many of Chusei Sone's early films were technically competent and featured some great ideas, but just weren't captivating enough to hold the attention till the end. This film falls into that category. However, it is still one of the most exotic films in the Roman Porno catalogue, not just because parts of it are set in Shanghai, but also because it's a period yakuza film starring a Caucasian actress (Sally May). The film's best segment sees her stepping into Junko Fuji and Reiko Ike's shoes as she becomes a wandering female yakuza. Unfortunately there is too much soft-core sex drama and meaningless side plots before that, and the ending is a bit underwhelming as well. This would have been more interesting as a genuine yakuza/action film.













Midnight Fairy (Japan, 1973) [DVD] - 4/5
A desperate young man ditched by his girlfriend hooks up with a mentally challenged prostitute. Together they set out for a journey that includes kidnapping, raping and kissing goodbye for the rules of the society. This is a superb, overlooked arthouse Roman Porno by Noboru Tanaka. It's an interesting mix of realism, visual poetry, and poignancy. Tanaka lets his camera wander on the streets, beautifully capturing the early 1970s locations and atmosphere. He also creates fantastic, carefully staged images such as baby on a bar desk. It's pretty poignant too: Tanaka seems to suggest that in a civilized society the only innocent person is a retarded prostitute who is too dumb to lie, cheat, and use violence. The film never feels pretentious, though; rather the contrary. It's fun, playful and relatively fast paced.

















My Sex Report: Intensities (Japan, 1976) [DVD] - 3.5/5
This film is often seen as Chusei Sone's return to form. It's an odd mixture of melancholic character drama, sex, and funkiness; not an entirely satisfactory film, but a frequently fascinating one. It's a about a nurse, her boyfriend, a local gangster and his girlfriend. Basically, the film feels like a fragmented slice of life piece with a pop film attitude. There's over-the-top sleaze, there's imaginative camerawork, there's harrowing moments between young lovers, and there's a beautiful score that occasionally switches to silly funk. Add some great street footage shot on the neon-lit streets of Shinjuku and a some of tiresome sex scenes, and you've got a film that could only have been made in the 1970s Japan.

Wet Weekend (Japan, 1979) [DVD] - 2.5/5
Here's a bit weaker - but not bad - suspense drama / zeitgeist by Kichitaro Negishi. It follows a young housemaid (Junko Miyashita) who is having an affair with her employer, a married older man who claims to love her but doesn't seem to be willing to leave his family. After waiting for him for years she finally hooks up with a petty thief and his girlfriend (Ako). Together the three come up with a plan to kidnap the rich man's daughter, without intending to hurt anyone. Despite the crime film elements the film is first and foremost a social study. It does capture the era and the struggles of the social class quite enjoyably, but it lacks the energy and freshness of Negishi's best films like From Orion's Testimony: Formula for Murder (1978), Rape Ceremony (1980) and Crazed Fruit (1981).

Scent of a Spell (Japan, 1985) [VoD] - 2.5/5
A lonely man falls in love with a woman who tried to kill herself. She says she's on the run from an abusive husband; however, it turn out she may not be as innocent as she lets people believe. This was a Roman Porno release, but a produced by Director's Company as a mainstream noir with a couple of steamy sex scenes. The screenplay is by Takashi Ishii, who is adapting another author's novel here. Consequently (?) the film a bit more dialogue-based and less visual than most of Ishii's scripts. Some of his trademark visuals - water, rain, and surreal images - and psychological themes can still be found but to a lesser extent than usual. Toshiharu Ikeda helms the mystery alright, but the film feels a bit underwhelming overall considering the talent involved. It doesn't exactly benefit from the 80s piano/jazz score either. Though not a bad film, there are more stylish and atmospheric films made from Ishii's scripts, including Ikeda's later classic Evil Dead Trap (1988).

[Sundance]

Again? ^_^
Wasn't it like it 5 years ago or something when they released two new films? Don't know if they were even supposed to release any more back then.

I'm getting paranoid here. The same day when I read about that I also saw an announcement on DMM saying Windows Media Player will no longer be supported starting from June. DMM is where I watch all those VoD versions. That sucks because their own player, DMM Player, is crap and I've never been able make full HD videos play properly on it. Well, the Roman Pornos are not HD anyway, but some other stuff I used to rent is, and WMP was better anyway...

I wonder if it is at least partially because of piracy. I'm under the impression (but could be wrong) that some of the DRM stuff for WMP hasn't been updated for several years probably because nobody bothered to hack the latest versions (and WMP forces you to update to latest versions if you try to play a DRM protected file) so basically most people are now unable to make 1:1 copies of DRM protected files. But that doesn't really concern the actual piracy groups that make money with this stuff because a way to bypass the WMP protections does actually still exist. Basically everything at DMM can be copied easily and a lot of it does get shared immediately after release.

I'm not sure using only their own program will work though. If you can play a file then you can hack the protections if you want (and have the needed skills). I suspect some people do JAV piracy for a living (and make good money with it) so they will hire someone to hack it if needed. And if you can play a file then you can always make a copy of every single frame that is shown and make a video out of those (and programs for that exist and as far as I know are perfectly legal in the US for example).

And as usual the only ones to suffer are the paying customers.

I never got into rape games so I don't really know anything about that.

I just want to mention that I didn't mean to infer that you are into them. (not that there would be anything wrong with that) ;) Was just thinking that perhaps you might have read something about it!

[Takuma]

"Oh my! Nikkatsu are "rebooting" their Roman Porno label next year, screening classics & producing new films by directors new to the genre."
- https://twitter.com/ryuganji/status/593958595835736064

Not too interested in new films, but hopefully this means new DVD releases of some classics that aren't available yet. About half of my favourite Roman Porno films are missing on DVD (e.g. Female Delinquent, Rape Ceremony, Red Violation...) or only available on OOP DVD (Oh Women! A Dirty Song, Crazed Fruit...).

[Takuma]

Yeah, strange, but that's what they say. They recommend using different credit card if you want to rent those titles. Seems like this new policy was introduced in December 2014.

I'm getting paranoid here. The same day when I read about that I also saw an announcement on DMM saying Windows Media Player will no longer be supported starting from June. DMM is where I watch all those VoD versions. That sucks because their own player, DMM Player, is crap and I've never been able make full HD videos play properly on it. Well, the Roman Pornos are not HD anyway, but some other stuff I used to rent is, and WMP was better anyway...

[Jason C]

I'm having a hard time coming up with a reason why Visa/Mastercard would be concerned about what we are renting. I've bought far more objectionable shit with my Visa than White Rose Campus.

[Takuma]

So, I was trying to rent White Rose Campus: And Then Everybody Gets Raped DVD from Geo's web/home delively rental, and I got a message that my credit card company does not approve this title. I checked the help page and there it is: Visa/Mastercard have forbidded them to rent certain R18 titles to customers using Visa or Mastercard. White Rose Campus is banned, the Female Teacher series also seemed to be banned too, and who knows what else. Great! Haven't felt this good in a while.

[Takuma]

I never got into rape games so I don't really know anything about that.

Like you say, it is also possible that nothing has gone missing from DMM and they have just replaced some with new versions and/or deleted duplicates. I'm pretty sure they had two versions of Naosuke Kurosawa's Lolita tsuma before (probably one with the original title and one with a new title), but now I can find only one...