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.
