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Junko Mabuki starts a chain reaction.


Junko Mabuki is an important actress of second generation Japanese S&M movies, and that’s her above on a poster for Dan Oniroku onna biyoshi nawa shiku, aka Female Beautician Rope Discipline. What you see is what you get here. Junko is a hairdresser who meets a photographer who shoots bondage and discipline. At first she’s repulsed, but this being a roman porno flick, the thought of it grows in her mind. Meanwhile we meet Izumi Shima, who’s one of Junko hairdressing clients. Junko is attracted to her—and who wouldn’t be? Shima also happens to be the ex of the perverted photographer. It’s a pretty big coincidence, but not the biggest in the film. The photographer also randomly stumbles upon Junko after she’s been tied up and assaulted. It’s just the beginning of a descent into degradation, jealousy, sexual assault, and serious male-driven pee-version.

We’re still trying wrap our heads around the various forms of Japanese cinema. Toei’s pinky violence films usually had cool ’70s street action and ass kicking gang girls, whereas Nikkatsu’s roman porno had submissive women and sexual subjugation. They’re all generally considered to be pink films, along with output from OP Eiga and other studios, but to us they’re night and day. Pinky violence and roman porno represent two big studios in competition with each other, but more and more the patriarchy smashing ethos often embedded in the former versus the sexist subjugation usually present within the latter feel like a corporate level political divide writ large. In this one, though, the sadistic photographer gets his—spoiler alert!—head deservedly bashed in. So lines were occasionally crossed. Dan Oniroku onna biyoshi nawa shiku premiered in Japan today in 1981.
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The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

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1935—Downtown Athletic Club Awards First Trophy

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1965—UFO Reported by Thousands of Witnesses

A large, brilliant fireball is seen by thousands in at least six U.S. states and Ontario, Canada as it streaks across the sky, reportedly dropping hot metal debris, starting grass fires, and causing sonic booms. It is generally assumed and reported by the press to be a meteor, however some witnesses claim to have approached the fallen object and seen an alien craft.

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