Pink film
Pink film (ピンク映画, Pinku eiga) refers in Japan to movies produced by independent studios that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content.
Many pink films would be analogous to erotic thrillers such as Fatal Attraction, Fifty Shades of Grey, Basic Instinct and 9½ Weeks.
[5] Though called pornography, the terms "erotica", "soft porn" and "sexploitation" have been suggested as more appropriate, although none of these precisely matches the pink film genre.
This restriction forced Japanese filmmakers to develop sometimes elaborate means of avoiding showing the "working parts", as American film historian Donald Richie puts it.
When this was not done, the most common alternative techniques are digital scrambling, covering the prohibited area with a black box or a fuzzy white spot, known as a mosaic or "fogging".
"[11] Richie and Harritz enumerate the fundamental elements of the pink film formula as: In the years since the end of World War II, eroticism had been gradually making its way into Japanese cinema.
[19] Foreign films of this time, such as Ingmar Bergman's Summer with Monika (1953), Louis Malle's Amants (1958), and Russ Meyer's Immoral Mr. Teas (1959) introduced female nudity into international cinema, and were imported to Japan without problem.
[21] Nudity and sex officially entered Japanese cinema with Satoru Kobayashi's controversial and popular independent production Flesh Market (Nikutai no Ichiba, 1962), which is considered the first true pink film.
Takechi's Black Snow (1965), resulted in the director's arrest on charges of obscenity and a high-profile trial, which became a major battle between Japan's intellectuals and the establishment.
[29] His most controversial early films dealing with misogyny and sadism are The Embryo Hunts In Secret (1966), Violated Angels (1967), and Go, Go Second Time Virgin (1969).
Three other important pink film directors of this time, Kan Mukai, Kin'ya Ogawa and Shin'ya Yamamoto are known as "The Heroes of the First Wave".
[31] The "first queen of Japanese sex movies" was Noriko Tatsumi,[32] who made films at World Eiga and Nihon Cinema with director Kōji Seki.
[33] Other major Sex Queens of the first wave of pink film included Setsuko Ogawa,[34] Mari Iwai,[35] Keiko Kayama,[36] and Miki Hayashi.
[39] Younger starlets like Naomi Tani, and Kazuko Shirakawa were starting their careers and already making names for themselves in the pink film industry, but are best remembered today for their work with Nikkatsu during the 1970s.
The major studio Toei released a few films with female nudity, starting with Kunoichi ninpō in 1964 by director Sadao Nakajima.
Toei also set the standard for Japanese nunsploitation films (a subgenre imported from Italy) with the critically acclaimed School of the Holy Beast (1974) directed by Norifumi Suzuki.
Toei also produced a whole series of erotic samurai pictures such as Bohachi Bushido: Clan of the Forgotten Eight (Bōhachi Bushidō: Poruno Jidaigeki) (1973).
[46] Like Toei, Nikkatsu had made some previous films in the sexploitation market, such as Story of Heresy in Meiji Era (1968) and Tokyo Bathhouse (1968), which featured over 30 sex-film stars in cameo appearances.
[48] The film became a huge hit, inspired 20 sequels within seven years, established Shirakawa as Nikkatsu's first "Queen", and successfully launched the high-profile Roman Porno series.
Nikkatsu gave its Roman Porno directors a great deal of artistic freedom in creating their films, as long as they met the official minimum quota of four nude or sex scenes per hour.
Kumashiro directed a string of financial and critical hits unprecedented in Japanese cinematic history, including Ichijo's Wet Desire (1972) and Woman with Red Hair (1979), starring Junko Miyashita.
[56][57] The S&M subgenre of the Roman Porno was established in 1974 when the studio hired Naomi Tani to star in Flower and Snake (based on an Oniroku Dan novel), and Wife to be Sacrificed, both directed by Masaru Konuma.
[62] In 1984, new government censorship policies and an agreement between Eirin (the Japanese film-rating board) and the pink-film companies added to Nikkatsu's difficulties by putting drastic new restrictions on theatrical films.
[67] Banmei Takahashi directed "intricate, highly stylistic pinku eiga",[68] including New World of Love (1994), the first Japanese theatrical film to display genitals.
[69] Another prominent cult director of this era, Kazuo "Gaira" Komizu, is known for his Herschell Gordon Lewis-influenced "splatter-eros" films, which bridge the genres of horror and erotica.
[72] Three of the most prominent pink film directors of the 1990s, Kazuhiro Sano, Toshiki Satō and Takahisa Zeze all made their directorial debuts in 1989.
The title "Four Heavenly Kings of Pink" (ピンク四天王, pinku shitennō) was applied to these directors, at first sarcastically, by disgruntled theater owners.
Known together as the "Seven Lucky Gods of Pink" (ピンク七福神, pinku shichifukujin) they are Toshiya Ueno, Shinji Imaoka, Yoshitaka Kamata, Toshiro Enomoto, Yūji Tajiri, Mitsuru Meike and Rei Sakamoto.
Director Mitsuru Meike's The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (2003) made an impression in international film festivals and gained critical praise.
