Femmes Fatales

August 11 2024

HER INTERIOR LIFE

Let's see how it looks out there this morning. Nope, still no compelling reason to seize the day.

Every day we live the same moment Japanese actress Reiko Ike is living in this photo. In or out? Stay or go? Cue the Pulp Intl. girlfriends: “You mean there’s actually a decision-making process behind not leaving the house?” Indeed there is, but it’s not as if we don’t have fun indoors. We don’t know the date on this shot, as it came to us a single page with no information attached, but we’d guess it’s from around 1972. As we mentioned last time Reiko appeared here, we’re not likely to run out of rare images of her. We’ve had this one sitting around for twelve years, but today we finally found a moment to get it uploaded, and that wouldn’t have happened if we’d gone outside.

Japan, Reiko Ike, pinku, pinky violence, nudity

Femmes Fatales

July 3 2024

UNCOMFORTABLY NUMB

Nice for the camera but very hard on the circulation.

Every time Miki Sugimoto stars in a promo photo we can barely believe our eyes. Here the cult action actress is squeezing her frame—or part of it anyway—into a tight space to get this wonderful shot. Wonderful for who? Certainly not her. She played some difficult roles, but this may have been her hardest. By the time she finished riding the rails for this image we bet she felt like her bottom was full of novocaine. Sometimes, though, you have to go above and beyond in the pursuit of art. Click her keywords below to see amazing promo shots and movie posters.

Japan, Miki Sugimoto, pinku, pinky violence, nudity

Vintage Pulp

June 18 2024

POWER AND PASSION

Mount Naomi erupts with deadly consequences in pinku revenge opera.

The Japanese appetite for pinku films was unquenchable. Conversely, ours is mostly quenched, but when we see a poster this striking we have to share it, and that means glancing at the movie that spawned it. Oryu joen: shibari hada, which premiered in Japan today in 1975, was known in English as Oryu’s Passion: Bondage Skin, and it came from Nikkatsu Studios as part of its specialized roman porno line, with the so-called Queen of S&M Naomi Tani in the lead role.

Plotwise, the head of a yakuza clan is assassinated and Tani, his loyal charge, vows revenge. Her search for the killer doesn’t go according to the blueprint, and after a betrayal she ends up in a dank bdsm dungeon along with her sister Terumi Azuma, subjected to rope discipline and forcibly dildoed and dp’ed with yam batter as a lubricant. Yam batter. You know how it goes in those pinku dungeons. Note: for novices, roman porno films are not porn. The term is short for “romantic porno,” and they’re r-rated, equivalently. Or more likely, they’d not be able to obtain ratings at all under the U.S. system. Just thought we’d reiterate that.

Anyway, Tani eventually slips her bonds with assistance, and her long delayed revenge occurs, bloodily. No spoiler there. You knew it had to happen. We can’t recommend this flick. There’s really nothing worthwhile about it unless you’re a fan of the form. Even then it’s middling. Yes, Tani was the Queen of S&M, but she made more than one hundred films, so some will have the feel of going through the motions. Even so, you do get several of the expected roman porno tropes. Like action movies offer gunfire and romance movies offer kisses, it’s what you sign up for. Knock yourself out.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Oryu joen: shibari hada, Oryu's Passion: Bondage Skin, Naomi Tani, Terumi Azuma, pinku, roman porno, bdsm, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

June 3 2024

HER STOCKING STORY

You've garter see it to believe it.

This sensual promo image stars Japanese actress Izumi Shima and was made for her roman porno film Wakazuma ga nureru toki, known in English by the evocative title When a Young Wife Gets Wet. The large text at the right side of the poster says, “When a woman smells mysterious.” So Shima is wet and mysterious. Sweet. We talked about the movie a couple of years ago, so if you want to know more feel to look here. But you can probably guess what it’s all about.

The boys at Nikkatsu Film were true wordsmiths when they put their minds to it. In the smaller text they get lyrical: This year, Izumi Shima has become even bigger as she continues to star in movies. The charm wafts from her kimono, the sexiness spilling out from her see-through nightgown, and the mysterious adult charm that overflows from her black slip. Her limbs, like ripe fruits, are displayed on the screen without hesitation. Let me show you!

They had us at wafts.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Wakazuma ga nureru toki, When a Young Wife Gets Wet, Izumi Shima, roman porno, pinku, nudity

Femmes Fatales

May 24 2024

HIROMI WORSHIP

If Maya manifests in the forest and nobody saw her was she really there?

In the Hindu religion Maya is the goddess of illusion, personifying the concept that the material world is not quite real, but Japanese actress Maya Hiromi is no illusion. She appears here in a photo published in 1977 in Heibon Punch Supplement 33, and in verifiable corporeal form she appeared in movies such as Onna kyôshi: Shônen-gari, aka Female Teacher: Boy Hunt, Kyoran no aegi, aka Morning Frenzy, and Kunoichi ninpo: Hyakka manji-garami, aka Female Ninja Magic: 100 Trampled Flowers. Like many pinku stars she racked up a bunch of credits all at once—seventeen in four years—then pretty much disappeared. But you’ll see her here again.

Japan, Heibon Punch, Onna kyôshi: Shônen-gari, Female Teacher: Boy Hunt, Kyoran no aegi, Morning Frenzy, Kunoichi ninpo: Hyakka manji-garami, Female Ninja Magic: 100 Trampled Flowers, Maya Hiromi, pinku, nudity

Femmes Fatales

April 24 2024

BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER

The unburnable Hitomi Kozue finally strikes gold.

Japanese actress and eternal beauty Hitomi Kozue has finally gotten her tan perfect. She’s been at it since last June, when we shared the first shot in a series she made for Heibon Punch. We checked in again a few months later and she still hadn’t reached her ideal level of sun-baked luminescence. But now the star of such films as the 1974 Dirty Harry reinterpretation Sukeban Deka: daati Marii and the 1975 women-in-prison flick True Story of a Woman Condemned: Sex Hell is perfectly golden and her beach sojourn has come to a close. These two attention getting shots are the last from this particular session, but they’re by no means the last photos of Kozue we have for you. She was prolific, and shall return.

Japan, Heibon Punch, Sukeban Deka: daati Marii, Sukeban Deka: Dirty Mary, Jitsuroku onna kanbetsusho: sei-jigoku, True Story of a Woman Condemned: Sex Hell, Hitomi Kozue, roman porno, pinku, nudity

Vintage Pulp

April 18 2024

REIKO RIDES AGAIN

Oshida makes her mark and it looks like a swastika.

Above is a bo-ekibari style poster for the pinky violence actioner FuryoÌ‚ banchoÌ‚: Ikkaku senkin, aka Wolves of the City: Fast Money. This piece is cousin to the standard sheet for the film we shared a couple of years ago. Just as when we showed you that one we haven’t located the movie yet, but we’ll keep working on it, if only to find out why star Reiko Oshida has a swastika on her back. We’re guessing she’s in a motorcycle gang, and it’s their emblem. FuryoÌ‚ banchoÌ‚: Ikkaku senkin premiered today in 1970. You can see the other poster here, and that entry also discusses briefly the swastika symbol in Japanese culture.

Japan, Toei Company, FuryoÌ‚ banchoÌ‚: Ikkaku senkin, Wolves of the City: Fast Money, Wolves of the City: Instant Fortune, Tatsuo Umemiya, Reiko Oshida, Bunta Sugawara, poster art, cinema, pinky violence, pinku

Vintage Pulp

April 7 2024

A WANDERFUL WORLD

The lone stranger rides again.

We usually watch movies in the order we’re able to acquire them, so as a matter of availability we ended up watching parts one and three in the Rika the Mixed Blood Girl trilogy without having seen the middle entry. Last night we remedied that and screened part two, Konketsuji Rika: Hitoriyuku sasuraitabi, known in English as Rica 2: Lonely Wanderer. You see a rare tateken style poster for the film above—along with a nice zoom—that you won’t find anywhere but on Pulp Intl. We already expounded upon the change in spelling of Rika’s name in the English title a while back. Shorter version: we don’t know why Rica makes more sense than Rika. Probably it doesn’t. Take it up with the honchos at Kindai Eiga Kyokai.

Rika 2/Rica 2 stars Rika Aoki and she’s once again required to right wrongs, as she escapes from the frying pan of reform school and lands in the fire of urban crime and other hazards endemic to pinku cinema. The main plot involves a ship that exploded and sank in Misawa harbor, and a survivor—Rika’s friend Hanako—who’s in a mental hospital as a result. But Hanako is mentally fine. She’s actually hiding in the one place hired killers can’t reach her. Turns out the ship was yakuza owned, and everyone who survived is being hunted down. Rika goes to the police and demands an investigation, but the cops are yakuza owned too. Why must everyone who survived the ship disaster be killed? How high does the conspiracy go?

Rika handles her business with moral outrage and violence, but she also has time for a musical number or two. She’s the Dylan of the Misawa nightclub district. Check out her lyrical stylings:

As with the other films, some of the action in Rika 2/Rica 2 veers into slapstick. Also like the other films, there are racial and political digressions, and they aren’t subtle. For instance, when Rika and a friend are accosted by Americans at one point, the group consists of one cowboy, one hippie, one guy dressed in a suit, etc. Later Rika is told point blank that it’s lucky she’s half white, because being half black like her friend Hanako would make her even more inferior to anyone fully Japanese. These are villains talking to her. The movie’s default setting is anti-racist, which of course is correct and moral, but it’s funny how what’s considered racist evolves over time. Hanako is played by Japanese actress Masami Souda in shoe polish and an afro wig. Oops! For pinku cinema, it’s just another day. But all-in-all, a reasonably fun one. Konketsuji Rika: Hitoriyuku sasuraitabi premiered in Japan today in 1973.

Japan, Kindai Eiga Kyokai, Konketsuji Rika: Hitoriyuku sasuraitabi, Rica 2: Lonely Wanderer, Rika Aoki, Masami Souda, pinku, poster art, cinema, movie review

Femmes Fatales

March 30 2024

SHOT SPECIAL

All you need is one part Reiko and you'll be completely intoxicated.

Above is another look at Reiko Ike perched on a Kyoto bartop from a 1972 promo series that appeared in the Japanese magazine Heibon Punch. As we mentioned, the location was used in her action movie Sukeban gerira. We’ll try to get around to posting more shots from the series at some point. In the meantime, you can see the previous photo here.

Japan, Kyoto, Heibon Punch, Reiko Ike, pinku, pinky violence, nudity

Modern Pulp

March 8 2024

TOKYO PAYBACK

In Japan business is warcomplete with innocent bystanders.

This brilliant promo was painted for Hana to hebi: Shiiku-hen, known in English as Flower and Snake 3: Punishment. It starred Minako Ogawa of Dan Oniroku ikenie shimai, aka Sisters To Be Sacrificed, and in fact the same painter must have produced both posters. Have a look. The central figure is almost identical, no? Right down to her hairy armpits. Since there’s no official info on who the artist is we’ll throw in our two cents. It was bondage painter Kaname Ozuma. He painted at least one other poster for the Flower and Snake series, which you can see here. In the meantime this piece is literally nowhere else to be found in the quality you see here. At least, as far as we can tell.

We watched the film and it’s a typically perverse roman porno tale about a powerful businessman married to Minako Ogawa, who he stole from a subordinate who was helpless to prevent it. When he later declines to help a business associate out of a jam that person has Ogawa kidnapped—literally thrown into a giant bag—taken to an isolated house, sexually assaulted, and coercively trained using bondage, a kielbasa, and other esoterica in order to turn her into a performer for live sex shows. That’s a hell of a twisted retaliation for being refused financial help, but twisted is what roman porno is all about.

Of technical note is the fact that, though it was illegal to show pubic hair in Japanese movies, the ever clever roman porno filmmakers found a loophole. They have Ogawa’s captors, as part of her torment, cut off her pubic hair with scissors. Though it couldn’t be shown attached to her body without bringing down the wrath of censors, they got away with showing it falling into bathwater. You gotta give the pervs credit. They were always thinking outside the—er—box. Hana to hebi: Shiiku-hen premiered in Japan today in 1986.

After a long day on the set filming sex and bondage…

I’m very happy to spend the evening doing this.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Hana to hebi: Shiiku-hen, Flower and Snake 3: Punishment, Minako Ogawa, Yuri Yau, Mariko Kajikawa, Kaname Ozuma, pinku, roman porno, sexploitation, bdsm, nudity, poster art, cinema, movie review

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

September 10

1935—Huey Long Assassinated

Governor of Louisiana Huey Long, one of the few truly leftist politicians in American history, is shot by Carl Austin Weiss in Baton Rouge. Long dies after two days in the hospital.

September 9

1956—Elvis Shakes Up Ed Sullivan

Elvis Presley appears on The Ed Sullivan Show for the first time, performing his hit song “Don’t Be Cruel.” Ironically, a car accident prevented Sullivan from being present that night, and the show was guest-hosted by British actor Charles Laughton.

September 8

1966—Star Trek Airs for First Time

Star Trek, an American television series set in the twenty-third century and promoting socialist utopian ideals, premieres on NBC. The series is cancelled after three seasons without much fanfare, but in syndication becomes one of the most beloved television shows of all time.

September 8

1974—Ford Pardons Nixon

U.S. President Gerald Ford pardons former President Richard Nixon for any crimes Nixon may have committed while in office, which coincidentally happen to include all those associated with the Watergate scandal.

September 7

1978—Giorgi Markov Assassinated

Bulgarian dissident Giorgi Markov is assassinated in a scene right out of a spy novel. As he’s waiting at a bus stop near Waterloo Bridge in London, he’s jabbed in the calf with an umbrella. The man holding the umbrella apologizes and walks away, but he is in reality a Bulgarian hired killer who has just injected a ricin pellet into Markov, who develops a high fever and dies three days later.