The Non-Synapse Roman Porno Thread

[mjeon]

What are they on about with the Guiness Book of World Records thing? Nobody else ever released 300 softcore flicks in 6 years?

I can't believe that our government is sitting back and doing nothing while the Japanese gain porn supremacy.

[Zaibatan]

What are they on about with the Guiness Book of World Records thing? Nobody else ever released 300 softcore flicks in 6 years?

[Ian Jane]

Those who speak/read Japanese might be interested in this....

https://www.nikkatsu-romanporno.com/bddvd2021/

[Takuma]

I recently got the Happinett Crazed Fruit (狂った果実) (1981) BD. I haven't sat through the whole disc yet, but the picture quality looks alright. 1080i. Quite a bit of black crush, but I'm not too bothered by that. Not perfect by any means, but not the kind of disco pop colour contrast remix abomination like some of the other BDs. I think this looks about the same as the Rolling on the Road BD. And the old DVD was a VHS master anyway, so no point holding on to that one. A couple of quick caps below:





















The photo gallery on the disc is once again fantastic. Lots of stills and behind the scenes photos. Almost worth the price alone. A few examples below.





Director Negishi is the young dude on the right.


Ninagawa, Honma, Negishi


Here's a wild guess: could the woman holding the script / shooting plan be Akane Shiratori (白鳥あかã)???

[Thomas Wood]

Darkside Releasing is releasing a number of AMG films. First up are SNOW WOMAN and PLAY DEAD.


https://darksidereleasing.com/

[mjeon]

Thanks, Takuma!

[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).

[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]

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

[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)

[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]

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 ‰

[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]

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?).

[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.