D. VARIOUS
SYNAPSE FILMS.
DVD. Various Ratios
This new DVD from the fine folks over at Synapse FILMS. is a introductory sampler to the insane world of the Roman Porno. the 70’s and 80’s explosion of filth and fury that made the smut world int he states look tame by comparison. What set these movies apart from the American porno revolution was several things: One there was never any penetration shown. That old buggaboo of no pubic hair or genital nudity was still strongly in place during these years (and still enforced, though not always as strongly) and more importantly, these were made by the big studios, and some smaller studios in Japan. Studios that created their own star system, had their own in house directors and stuff and created their own genres out of this stuff. These director’s often came out of the world of directing crime pictures, big monster movies, or even family films and found a much bigger freedom in these films. A lot of second stringer, tech people in the industry got there first chances to make films creating these babies as well. So what you ended up with was insane, sick, twisted sex films with titles like SEX HUNTER, or RAPE! or ZOOM UP: RAPE APARTMENTS. But the actual films were this incredible, well directed, sometimes very well written almost film noir sex movies. The people behind them were often putting everything they had into these productions because they wanted to prove they could make solid films irregardless of confines of genre.
It is also probably important to point out that social, sexual and political mores on what is considered “sexy” are completely different in Japan from the states and it can and will come as a culture shock when running down the titles or watching these trailers. The first probably ten or so of the films all seem to feature the very 70’s idea of a woman who is raped but either comes to want to be with her attacker, or finds that the rape sexually liberated her in some way. A pretty disgusting, and repellent idea her in the west, but in Japan for whatever reason that is an extremely common fantasy played out not only in these types of films, but in literature and art as well. Make of it what you will, but it is not an uncommon theme. So to even look at these trailers you sort of have to look at them from that separate cultural from of mind. I mean remember this is a film industry that has a superhero series (that is a comedy no less) called RAPEMAN that has gone to seven installments the last time I checked...
So with all that in mind, the NIKKATSU ROMAN PORNO TRAILER COLLECTION puts over an hour of trailers for these outrageous, nightmarish sexual atom bombs in one handy place to offend and delight your friends and loved ones. The awesome thing being that Synapse plans to put these out on DVD in the future, so if there is one you think looks great it should be on the way at some point. The trailers are all over the place in tone, style, subject matter etc. Like I mentioned before the first maybe ten or so deal with the “I got raped and learned to love it” theme, with the best among those clearly being DEBAUCHERY, which looks incredibly twisted, grueling and insane. Though FEMALE TEACHER; IN FRONT OF THE STUDENTS has a certain distasteful grotesqueness that looks very appealing as well. There is a whole battery of “Nurse” movies (Nikkatsu seemed to really like the idea of abusing the shit out of Nurses) with the best title being NURSE’S DORMITORY ASSY FINGERS(!?) but the most distressing (and probably most interesting looking) is NURSE DIARY: BEASTLY AFTERNOON. RAPE! is from cult director Yusaharu Hasabe who did the also excellent ASSAULT! JACK THE RIPPER (available from Mondo Macabro, check it out) and it is actually almost a horror film. Hasabe is a brutal stylist, telling stories about people on the fringe. It is a good thing this collection is going to get some more of his work out there. If RAPE! looks grim enough to be a horror film, then RAPE ME! just looks puzzling and fucking weird. Is it a comedy? A purposeful cult film? That one will be one to check out just to see what the hell is going on. Some other ones that caught my attention: EMBRACED BY THE DARKNESS, RACE ACROSS THE DRENCHED WASTELAND (this one looked highly unusual, even by Nikkatsu standards) and NEW COMPANY GIRLS; 9 TO 5, a parody of the American film 9 TO 5 with Dolly Parton!
As if these amazing trailers weren't enough to make you pick up this incredible disc (I mean come on this is a great party disc, clear out tight ass friends in minutes!) you also get the short movie RYOKO’S LESBIAN FLIGHT. This 80’s shot on video lesbian grope fest is unfortunately pretty standard AV porn. With highly annoying “fogging” obscuring the genitals. Though I will say the lady playing RYOKO was pretty easy on the eye’s and when they got down to scissoring each other’s crotch it was some hot stuff. But they whole last act of making the lesbian girl watch her have “normal” hetero sex was pretty disappointing to say the least. With this being Japanese AND from Nikkatsu I kept waiting for a twist, for the Lesbian girl to freak out and kill her friend with a cake decorating kit or something. You know, pump her vagina full of compressed air and fly her out a seventh story window and have the be RYOKO’S LESBIAN FLIGHT. But such was not the case. It was all very standard stuff. A cute little bonus, but all in all no FLYING SEX MAN (yeah go look that one up kids).
But this disc does just what it is supposed to do, makes you all wet and tingly about the upcoming Nikkatsu discs come from Synapse. There is some awesome shit coming down that pipe line and this is the menu for what is in store. So pick it up and check out what you want to get.
Review by © Andy Copp
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