Vintage Pulp

November 3 2024

A LITTLE CONFLICTED

Nagisa and Tani learn that some things aren't meant to be shared.

Above is a poster for the roman porno flick Osanazuma: Zekkyô. We haven’t watched a roman porno since the summer, and there are good reasons for that. They’re not often fun. This one had no Western release, thus no English title. Its official title 幼な妻絶叫!! means in English “young wife screams.” Okey dokey. We watched it and it’s another cookie-cutter entry from Nikkatsu pictures, this time starring Rina Nagisa, who according to legend was discovered in a nightclub and, after an appearance in Semi-dokyumento: Sukeban yôjimbô, eventually installed as the latest hot thing in Japanese sexploitation cinema.

Nagisa plays an eighteen-year-old smalltowner who elopes to the big city with her boyfriend Nagatoshi Sakamoto, but falls on hard times. She and her man both take low wage jobs, and it’s at Nagatoshi’s gas station attendant gig that he’s noticed by none other than Naomi Tani. Burdened by the knowledge that Rina wants to attend night school, he shags Tani in exchange for 50,000 yen to pay for classes. The tryst leads to lingering problems, but meanwhile, on the opposite side of the roman porno plotline, Rina is noticed by a pervy old stranger who clearly believes that desire and consent are two different beasts. We won’t reveal more.

Roman porno movies, which we’ll note again aren’t hardcore but rather the equivalent of envelope pushing r-rated fare, all have the same sexually violent underpinning, and the same unblinkingly voyeuristic approach. In this era, they all read as indictments of male cinematic tastes. In our efforts to understand the genre we’ve learned mainly one thing: there’s a feminist reckoning coming to Japanese society one day, and movies like Osanazuma: Zekkyô will be right at the center of the discussion. It premiered today in 1976.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Osanazuma: Zekkyô, Rina Nagisa, Nagatoshi Sakamoto, Yu Mizuki, Naomi Tani, pinku, roman porno, sexploitation, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

May 7 2020

BABES IN THE WOODS

They finally figured out a way to convince their boyfriends to go hiking.

Above, a poster for Joshi daigaku maruhi report: Nikutai nyûgaku-shiki. This never had a U.S. release, thus no English title, but the Japanese would translate to something like Women’s University (Secret) Report: Body Entrance Ceremony. This one is super obscure, and we were unable to find a copy. Again? Yes, again. It premiered in Japan today in 1977.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Joshi daigaku maruhi report: Nikutai nyûgaku-shiki, Women's University (Secret) Report: Body Entrance Ceremony, Rina Nagisa, Mariko Kitazawa, poster art, cinema, pinku, roman porno

Vintage Pulp

October 21 2019

PINK TWICE

What you see is exactly what you get.

Above are two striking pinku posters, both from the roman porno sub-genre. The first is for Osasuri hentai musume, aka Harassing Perverted Girl, with Rina Nagisa. The English title of this is interesting. You can’t be sure if it refers to a perverted girl being harassed, or a perverted girl who harasses. It’s the former—the Japanese title, which would translate to something like “caught hentai girl,” makes that a bit clearer. The second poster is for Onna kyôshi: Himitsu, aka Female Teacher 6, with Miyako Yamaguchi and Etsuko Hara.

As the title suggests, it was part of a series, a run of thirteen Onna kyôshi movies made between 1973 and 1983. How in the hell did Nikkatsu Studios manage to milk the concept for so many films? Because audiences didn’t care a whit about the plots as long as there was what’s known in Japan as fan sābisu, or “fan service”—i.e., giving consumers (usually males) what they want. It’s technically a manga term, but we think it applies here, as both posters promise it, and in a laudable example of truth in advertising, the films deliver. Osasuri hentai musume and Onna kyôshi: Himitsu both premiered—in what was a banner weekend for roman porno fans—today in 1978.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Osasuri hentai musume, Harassing Perverted Girl, Rina Nagisa, Onna kyôshi: Himitsu, Female Teacher 6, Miyako Yamaguchi, Etsuko Hara, poster art, cinema, pinku, roman porno, sexploitation, nudity

Vintage Pulp

November 12 2012

ZONING OUT

Lost in the neon wilderness.

Above is a poster for the Japanese sexploitation movie Tôkyô neon chitai: Josei jishin de go shidô itashimasu, aka Tokyo Neon Zone: Lesson to You, which is pretty much in the same vein as this movie for which we showed you a poster a few weeks ago. Tôkyô neon chitai starred Rina Nagisa, Mami Sakura and Ami Takashima, and was directed by Shoichi Ikeda. Nagisa made several other pinku flicks, all of which seem to be fairly obscure today. That is to say, we haven’t been able to track down a copy of any of them. However we do have another Nagisa poster we’ll show you later. Tôkyô neon chitai: Josei jishin de go shidô itashimasu premiered in Japan today in 1977.

Japan, Watanabe Pro, Nikkatsu, Tôkyô neon chitai: Josei jishin de go shidô itashimasu, Tokyo Neon Zone: Lesson to You, Rina Nagisa, Mami Sakura, Ami Takashima, Shoichi Ikeda, pinku, poster art, cinema, nudity

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

March 23

2011—Elizabeth Taylor Dies

American actress Elizabeth Taylor, whose career began at age 12 when she starred in National Velvet, and who would eventually be nominated for five Academy Awards as best actress and win for Butterfield 8 and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, dies of congestive heart failure in Los Angeles. During her life she had been hospitalized more than 70 times.

March 22

1963—Profumo Denies Affair

In England, the Secretary of State for War, John Profumo, denies any impropriety with showgirl Christine Keeler and threatens to sue anyone repeating the allegations. The accusations involve not just infidelity, but the possibility acquaintances of Keeler might be trying to ply Profumo for nuclear secrets. In June, Profumo finally resigns from the government after confessing his sexual involvement with Keeler and admitting he lied to parliament.

March 22

1978—Karl Wallenda Falls to His Death

World famous German daredevil and high-wire walker Karl Wallenda, founder of the acrobatic troupe The Flying Wallendas, falls to his death attempting to walk on a cable strung between the two towers of the Condado Plaza Hotel in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Wallenda is seventy-three years old at the time, but it is a 30 mph wind, rather than age, that is generally blamed for sending him from the wire.

March 22

2006—Swedish Spy Stig Wennerstrom Dies

Swedish air force colonel Stig Wennerström, who had been convicted in the 1970s of passing Swedish, U.S. and NATO secrets to the Soviet Union over the course of fifteen years, dies in an old age home at the age of ninety-nine. The Wennerström affair, as some called it, was at the time one of the biggest scandals of the Cold War.

March 21

1963—Alcatraz Closes

The federal penitentiary located on Alcatraz Island in San Francisco Bay closes. The island had been home to a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a military prison over the years. In 1972, it would become a national recreation area open to tourists, and it would receive national landmark designations in 1976 and 1986.

March 20

1916—Einstein Publishes General Relativity

German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein publishes his general theory of relativity. Among the effects of the theory are phenomena such as the curvature of space-time, the bending of rays of light in gravitational fields, faster than light universe expansion, and the warping of space time around a rotating body.