Nikkatsu Studios first delved into the pinku filmmaking style that became known as roman porno in 1971. Roman porno, as we caution new visitors regularly, isn’t explicit. While the content is often taboo smashing, there’s no frontal nudity in it, nor in any subset of what is broadly known as pinku cinema. Because it’s weird and violent and sexual we consider it pulp related, and because it was wildly popular in one of the most advanced moviemaking industries in the world it’s certainly demanding of serious examination. That’s our goal: to situate it on the curve of a global cinema that was breaking free from the censorship of earlier decades. We see it exactly the same way we see American blaxploitation, French sexploitation, Italian giallo, biker flicks, Hong Kong martial arts movies—really anything film fans broadly categorize as grindhouse.
Nikkatsu’s rival studio Toei Pictures had already pioneered in the pinku market during the late 1960s with what became known as pinky violence films. That subset of pinku, which featured women in assertive and often criminal roles, became extremely popular, and were considered feminist at the time. That wasn’t really true of roman porno. Nikkatsu’s women tended to be victims of circumstance—i.e. men. So Nikkatsu decided to imitate Toei’s pinky violence with the film Sukeban: Sex bôryoku, aka Jokôsei sex bôryoku, retitled in English to Sukeban Sex Violence. It premiered today in 1973. You see its chriashi promo above.
The movie stars Jun Masumi, Yuri Yamashina, and Yuko Katagiri, and plotwise what you get is basically a power struggle as Katagiri, who’s been trained by sukeban (girl gang leader) Masumi fights with her rival Yamashina to determine who will be the next generation’s chief. That’s certainly a Toei style story arc, but Nikkatsu is Nikkatsu, after all, and the emphasis is more on titillation than action, as skin abounds, and the company’s overarching interest in sexual coercion comes to the fore.
What Nikkatsu gets right in imitating pinky violence is the juvenile delinquent framework, the group fights, and the feminist power in the face of patriarchy, but the lesbian three-way involving a wooden dildo feels like a dead giveaway Toei didn’t make this. The film also is never as immediate and vivid as Toei’s output. This could be due to its cast. Katagiri and company aren’t a match for glowing Toei stars Reiko Ike, Meiko Kaji, and Miki Sugimoto. In the end, though, Sukeban: Sex bôryoku is a pinky violence imitation that’s probably worth watching, at least for comparison’s sake. We have some screenshots below to give you an idea what you’ll see.
