Modern Pulp

July 5 2025

FOR BITTEN FRUIT

Ayako gets her first real taste of life and it turns out to be just as sour as it is sweet.

We said we’d soon watch Ayako Ôta’s Nikkatsu Studios roman porno drama Jokôsei: Natsu hiraku kuchibiru, and here we are, four days later. The poster for the film is eye-pleasing, as you see. It’s known in English as High School Girl: Open Lips in Summer, and is a typical Nikkatsu confabulation in which Ôta reacts to being raped in ways only men could conceive, in this case, by becoming attached to the rapist and turning him into a sort of boyfriend. Unlocking suppressed sexuality in women is a standard theme in the genre, only serving to reveal suppressed sexuality in the screenwriters themselves.

As we regularly do, we caution that roman porno movies, despite their racy designation, are actually equivalent to r-rated films, all sex is implied, and frontal nudity is forbidden. But that’s an interesting element of the films—constrained by censorship, Japanese filmmakers pushed the envelope of what was allowable to the the ripping point. In the cleverest of them, you’ll swear you saw something onscreen that never actually occurred. It’s part of what fascinates us about the genre.

It turns out Ôta all along has been searching for her sister Hiroshi Fukami, who ran away from their home in rural Shinshu province to Tokyo earlier with a high school teacher who happens to be the man to whom Ôta gave her virginity. Fukami is now a model for a famous painter played by Ichirô Kijima. He’s one of those horny movie artists who has sex more than he paints. As the plot spools onward, Ôta’s ex-teacher remains a romantic obsession, and she eventually hooks up with him again. Who will finally end up with whom, and who will be happy?

Sensible endings aren’t as important in roman porno as irony and tragedy. Nothing is ever as it seems. The pertinent question for prospective viewers is whether Jokôsei: Natsu hiraku kuchibiru has any merit. In our opinion, it says nothing of serious value. It’s not subversively feminist, socially incisive, technically notable, funny, thrilling, or particularly shocking. So what’s left? Only the uniquely beautiful Ôta, yet another example of an actress working hard to elevate material that doesn’t deserve her. Jokôsei: Natsu hiraku kuchibiru premiered in Japan today in 1980.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Jokôsei: Natsu hiraku kuchibiru, High School Girl: Open Lips in Summer, Ayako Ôta, Nami Misaki, Hiroshi Fukami, Ichirô Kijima, pinku, roman porno, nudity, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

July 18

1925—Mein Kampf Published

While serving time in prison for his role in a failed coup, Adolf Hitler dictaes and publishes volume 1 of his manifesto Mein Kampf (in English My Struggle or My Battle), the book that outlines his theories of racial purity, his belief in a Jewish conspiracy to control the world, and his plans to lead Germany to militarily acquire more land at the expense of Russia via eastward expansion.

July 17

1955—Disneyland Begins Operations

The amusement park Disneyland opens in Orange County, California for 6,000 invitation-only guests, before opening to the general public the following day.

July 17

1959—Holiday Dies Broke

Legendary singer Billie Holiday, who possessed one of the most unique voices in the history of jazz, dies in the hospital of cirrhosis of the liver. She had lost her earnings to swindlers over the years, and upon her death her bank account contains seventy cents.

July 16

1941—DiMaggio Hit Streak Reaches 56

New York Yankees outfielder Joe DiMaggio gets a hit in his fifty-sixth consecutive game. The streak would end the next game, against the Cleveland Indians, but the mark DiMaggio set still stands, and in fact has never been seriously threatened. It is generally thought to be one of the few truly unbreakable baseball records.

July 15

1939—Adams Completes Around-the-World Air Journey

American Clara Adams becomes the first woman passenger to complete an around the world air journey. Her voyage began and ended in New York City, with stops in Lisbon, Marseilles, Leipzig, Athens, Basra, Jodhpur, Rangoon, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Wake Island, Honolulu, and San Francisco.

July 15

1955—Nobel Prize Winners Unite Against Nukes

Eighteen Nobel laureates sign the Mainau Declaration against nuclear weapons, which reads in part: “We think it is a delusion if governments believe that they can avoid war for a long time through the fear of [nuclear] weapons. Fear and tension have often engendered wars. Similarly it seems to us a delusion to believe that small conflicts could in the future always be decided by traditional weapons. In extreme danger no nation will deny itself the use of any weapon that scientific technology can produce.”

TRICK SHOT ARTIST

Uncredited art for Poker de blondes by Oscar Montgomery, aka José del Valle, from the French publisher Éditions le Trotteur in 1953.

DON’T RIDE THE WHITE HORSE

Rafael DeSoto painted this excellent cover for David Hulburd's 1954 drug scare novel H Is for Heroin. We also have the original art without text.

BARN GIRLS

Two Spanish language digest novels from Argentine publishers Malinca Debora and Malinca Nueva Pandora.

Argentine publishers Malinca Debora reprinted numerous English language crime thrillers in Spanish. This example uses George Gross art borrowed from U.S. imprint Rainbow Books.

LOVES OF A BLONDE