ZOOM UP! More Japanese Roman Porno coming your way!

ZOOM UP: THE BEAVER BOOK GIRL (1981)
D. Takashi Kanno
Impulse Pictures. Synapse Films

2:35-1 / 16X9 Anamorphic

This is the fourth release from Impulse Pictures/ Synapse Films Nikkatsu Roman Porno Collection series, celebrating the 100 year anniversary of the Japanese studio. Without question this is my favorite of the releases so far. This is officially the 3^rd film in the loosely connected “ZOOM UP” series, the first being ZOOM UP: RAPE SITE in 1979 and the second ZOOM UP: RAPE APARTMENT in 1980 both by different directors and boasting different plot lines. So it makes no difference that you are jumping into the series after a couple of other entries. If the other two are as interesting as this one, I hope Impulse/Synapse has them on the future schedule.

ZOOM UP: THE BEAVER BOOK GIRL deals with a photographer for a slick skin magazine who specializes in those ever popular panty shots and upskirt voyeur pics. His newest specialty is piss pics, which seem to be the only thing that even remotely turn him on. When he comes home to find his assistant and newest model fucking wildly in the living room he goes about cooking dinner like nothing is going on. When she hungrily begs him to join, he violent pushes them both out of the way and finishes his cooking. He is clearly a man with some sexual hang ups. We get a peek at what that might be when his boss (who continually hits on him, grabbing his dick every chance he gets) mentions to a new model that his “true artistry” lies in his past as a rapist(!) but it was okay because all the girls instantly fell in love with him. 

Meanwhile a slightly older woman, maybe in her thirties, has been stalking the three leads as they go about their day of making pornographic pictures. She finally makes her way into their loft and gets in on the action in a sequence that will send piss fetishists into a blissful fugue state. We later learn from the skin magazine editor that this lady is named  Nami ( Nami is a common name used in a lot of Manga and sexually explicit films in Japan) and she was the most popular skin game model until year before when she dropped out mysteriously, taking five million yen with her she robbed from him. But he tells the photographer that if she shows back up to get her to pose again and then give him a call so he can get his money back.

Naturally she does show back up, but she is so game to do things that the other models won't do, the he does not call his boss. Instead she convinces him to go to a another remote location for a more private shoot. But we just know things are going to get weird, and they do indeed. As it turns out they have much more of a past together than he even could possibly remember. 

Much more intricately plotted than the other three Nikkatsu film released so far, this one goes from being a voyeuristic skin flick, to a weird study on fetishism, to a rape/revenge film all in the same couple of reels. It even throws in a really raw and bizarre love story at some point. Mix into that some of the most potent, edgy and down right dirty sex in the Nikkatsu films up to this point and you get a winner of a film. Of course, if off the beaten path sex is a turn off to you, you might want to consider giving this film, and the others as well, a really wide birth. But if you have some adventure in your soul, and things like S+M, or particular fetishists really catch your attention, this may be a something for you to take a look at. Just like the other films, it is really well made, has a peculiar point of view, and ends up being weirdly haunting before it is all over. 

The disc includes the short, but catch-line filled trailer, and nicely done liner notes by author and historian Jasper Sharp. Watch for his book THE HISTORICAL DICTIONARY OF JAPANESE CINEMA from Scarecrow press.

Review © Andy Copp

Eros High School Rape Date...

EROS SCHOOL: FEELS SO GOOD
D.KURAHARA KORETSUGU

IMPULSE PICTURES

2.35 Anamorphic Widescreen

This third DVD release from Impulse Pictures in the Nikkatsu Roman Porno line may be the most outrageous yet. It is certainly the most offensive in both storyline and execution and for those who are not used to the VERY Japanese way of looking at sex films, this will be a huge culture shock. To call this politically incorrect would be the understatement of the year. But one thing is for certain, it is never, ever boring...

The Eros High school has a problem with their female student body in that they are simply too strong willed. Violent even. The movie opens with male student Tadao having a dream in class about pretty track star Misa whom he is harboring a crush on. Misa's militant feminist girlfriends do not take kindly to him having sexual fantasies about their friend and strip him down in class and humiliate him. The class School Mom gets wind of how out of control the girls have become and comments that they need a boy with some real brass tacks to come into the class and shake things up a bit. Someone to come there and show the girls who is boss.

Enter transfer student Ryo. An older boy dressed like a mountain yokel, carrying a pet pig. We soon learn his nick name is “Ryo The Rapist” because he has been in and out of reform school and several other High Schools for raping both women and girls. He prides himself on never raping the same girl twice and sets his sights on the trio of trouble-making girls at this school. It becomes a battle of the sexes as he rapes his way through the cast trying to get to Misa, each girl succumbing to his brutish ways. We also learn that Misa is harboring her own little secret that has something to do with the fact that she is coming close to the end of her high school days but still has never had her period yet.

This all sounds very vile and salacious and on the surface it is. But the direction of the film is more that of a slapstick comedy. Think Benny Hill meets THE ACCUSED, with a school girl fetish. Every rape or fight scene is accompanied with bells, whistles and konk sounds to remind you this is all supposed to be funny. It is actually just really weird and surreal.

But like so many other Nikkatsu films the last reel turns the tables on the viewer with a slight bit of ugliness. The final rape scene is played a significant bit more vicious than the ones preceding it, which is then followed by a couple of scenes so foul and offensive that you just have to see them to believe it.

But what really throws the film out of whack, is that from this scene forward it clearly has a chance to go completely dark, to head into TAXI DRIVER style territory and make the film have a great deal of heft. Lots of other Nikkatsu films do this. The set up is there...

*****SPOILERS*****

But instead it takes a complete 180 and has all the girls who were raped decide that it was all a lighthearted romp, that it was really funny and the only character that was negatively affected by it was poor Tadao who is now insane. It really is one of the weirder endings to a film I have seen, a Roman Porno or otherwise.

****END SPOILERS*****

As to be expected this is a great looking DVD, no extras to speak of as the trailers are all on the NIKKATSU TRAILER COLLECTION DVD, but there is an excellent bit of Liner Notes from Jasper Sharp and some rather aggressive cover art. Which may or may not have contributed to AMAZON dumping this and the other title in the second wave of Nikkatsu discs. So you will have to do your shopping for these discs form your favorite dealers who do not censor what you are buying.

Review © Andrew Copp