NUN NEGOTIABLE

She serves a higher power—anger.

In Japan Catholics make up about 0.3% of the population. In Japanese film, Catholics make up pretty close to 100% of the religion-based sexploitation depicted in Nikkatsu Studios’ roman porno catalog. We’ve commented on this fascination a few times over the years, and there’s no answer for its popularity except that it’s probably seen as exotic by audiences, and it’s a fetish that’s safe to explore because 0.3% of the population have exactly zero power to efficaciously protest the films. Western movies also explored nun sexuality, but examples were fewer. We’ve come across at least thirty Japanese nunsploitation movies, dating from the 1960s and into the ’90s. Shûdôjo Runa no kokuhaku, known in English as Cloistered Nun: Runa’s Confession, is therefore part of a decades-long trend.

Luna Takamura, after three years in a nunnery, moves in with the half-sister who stole her boyfriend and prompted her flight into the arms of the church. Her sister is still with this man, and the two plan to get married. Well—maybe she plans to get married. Anyway, as a woman of God, Takamura has supposedly forgiven everything. She’s working on behalf of her order trying to sell ten hectares of land so the profits can be used for further proselytization, and—wouldn’t you know it?—Mr. Cheater can get together enough money to buy it. He’s up to no good with this deal, and Takamura’s sis is a sexual scammer shaking down men for cash, but this slippery pair may be outdone, because the serene look in our godly nun’s eyes signal some ideas centered around vengeance for three years ago.

Nikkatsu filmmakers, in addition to an obsession with nuns, had an obsession with sexual assault. No means no meant nothing as far as they were concerned. We must caution about that. But as always, we make it a practice not to judge other cultures in any way that could be interpreted as high-handed. That would mean we thought ours is superior, and it manifestly isn’t. Japanese society has a reputation for sexism and misogyny, but we suspect its reckoning will eventually come. Roman porno movies will be exhibit A. However, roman porno, like other types of exploitation cinema such as blaxploitation and women-in-prison, often allows the mistreated to have their revenge. In that respect it’s an improvement on the real world. Shûdôjo Runa no kokuhaku premiered today in 1976.

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

1954—First Church of Scientology Established

The first Scientology church, based on the writings of science fiction author L. Ron Hubbard, is established in Los Angeles, California. Since then, the city has become home to the largest concentration of Scientologists in the world, and its ranks include high-profile adherents such as Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

1933—Blaine Act Passes

The Blaine Act, a congressional bill sponsored by Wisconsin senator John J. Blaine, is passed by the U.S. Senate and officially repeals the 18th Amendment to the United States Constitution, aka the Volstead Act, aka Prohibition. The repeal is formally adopted as the 21st Amendment to the Constitution on December 5, 1933.

1947—Voice of America Begins Broadcasting into U.S.S.R.

The state radio channel known as Voice of America and controlled by the U.S. State Department, begins broadcasting into the Soviet Union in Russian with the intent of countering Soviet radio programming directed against American leaders and policies. The Soviet Union responds by initiating electronic jamming of VOA broadcasts.

1937—Carothers Patents Nylon

Wallace H. Carothers, an American chemist, inventor and the leader of organic chemistry at DuPont Corporation, receives a patent for a silk substitute fabric called nylon. Carothers was a depressive who for years carried a cyanide capsule on a watch chain in case he wanted to commit suicide, but his genius helped produce other polymers such as neoprene and polyester. He eventually did take cyanide—not in pill form, but dissolved in lemon juice—resulting in his death in late 1937.

1933—Franklin Roosevelt Survives Assassination Attempt

In Miami, Florida, Giuseppe Zangara attempts to shoot President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt, but is restrained by a crowd and, in the course of firing five wild shots, hits five people, including Chicago, Illinois Mayor Anton J. Cermak, who dies of his wounds three weeks later. Zangara is quickly tried and sentenced to eighty years in jail for attempted murder, but is later convicted of murder when Cermak dies. Zangara is sentenced to death and executed in Florida’s electric chair.

Unknown artist produces lurid cover for Indian true crime magazine Nutan Kahaniyan.
Cover art by Roswell Keller for the 1948 Pocket Books edition of Ramona Stewart's Desert Town.

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