Modern Pulp

January 23 2025

TEACHABLE MOMENTS

It's well known that those who keep learning into adulthood lead more fulfilling lives.

It’s been a long while since we’ve visited with Yuki Kazamatsuri. Onna kyôshi: Yogoreta hôkago, known in English as Female Teacher: Dirty Afternoon, the fourth entry in the Female Teacher series, is a pretty basic roman porno movie, with Kazamatsuri playing a teacher with a difficult past called upon to help highly sexed, extremely beautiful, and emotionally problematic student Ayako Ôta get back onto the straight and narrow. All good, but when Kazamatsuri begins to suspect that Ôta’s itinerant father is a rapist from her own past, things get weird. With Kazamatsuri’s kinky problems she probably isn’t the person to offer a stable example to Ôta, but that’s kind of the point here. Let she who does not have degrading sex throw the first stone. We can’t say Onna kyôshi: Yogoreta hôkago is good, but its stars certainly are. It premiered in Japan today in 1981.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Onna kyôshi: Yogoreta hôkago, Female Teacher: Dirty Afternoon, Yuki Kazamatsuri, Ayako Ôta, Hiroko Fuji, roman porno, pinku, sexploitation, poster art, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

December 25 2024

A VERY MERRY CHRISTINA

She makes any time the best time of the year.

This poster isn’t a great rendering of Swedish actress Christina Lindberg. In fact, if you didn’t know it’s supposed to be her you’d never guess, but the art is interesting anyway, though its creator is uncredited. It was made to promote Lindberg’s sexploitation flick Anita, which in the U.S. was known as Anita: Swedish Nymphet, because, who knows, maybe the Stateside distributors thought that little bit of extra detail would make or break the box office.

The movie, which we talked about ten years ago, concerns a sixteen-year-old so-called nymphomaniac who gets into heaps of trouble trying to quench her fires. Lindberg was actually twenty when she starred, and as is typical of such films, the result isn’t great cinema, but it’s not bad erotica. The movie opened in Sweden today in 1973.

And now, because it’s Christmas, we have a gift for you below—a nice image of Lindberg you may not have seen before. Is she naughty, or nice?

Sweden, Anita, Anita: Swedish Nymphet, Christina Lindberg, sexploitation, poster art, cinema, nudity

Vintage Pulp

December 15 2024

WHEN BUTTERFLIES CRY

This is what it looks like when marriages die.

Today in 1965 the low budget drama Scream of the Butterfly premiered for U.S. audiences. The poster is simple but provocative, which is a fitting assessment of the movie as well. Its central development is a murder that occurs when a couple marries, only for the wife to embark on an affair five days after the wedding, and later be run down by a car. Viewers learn this as a district attorney and his assistant district attorney disagree over the best way to conduct a murder prosecution. The boss wants it done quietly, while the assistant wants a showy trial that generates plenty of publicity, thus the possible opportunity for self-promotion. They both vie against a confident public defender who believes he has an ironclad temporary insanity defense. The three spend the film in the D.A.’s office arguing their respective points of view, while the murder’s circumstances are related via episodic flashbacks.

Argentinian dancer Nélida Lobato stars as the highly sexed victim, her husband is portrayed by William Turner, and the legal eagles are Nick Novarro, Richard Beebe, and Robert Miller. None of this crew can act but the movie is watchable anyway because it possesses an interesting earnestness, exemplified by its tragic soundtrack and artsy tight framing meant to project high melodrama. Also, notably, Lobato shows everything that could be legally shown on a screen in 1965, so the movie has a bit of significance on that front. But on the whole, it’s too poorly put together to be called an actual success, even with its undeniably clever twist ending. At one point, bit player Alan J. Smith laments, “This is like a bad play,” as if he’s making a nostra culpa to the audience. Scream of the Butterfly isn’t like a bad play. It’s like a high-minded but ultimately mediocre play.

Argentina, Scream of the Butterfly, Nélida Lobato, Nick Novarro, Richard Beebe, Robert Miller, poster art, cinema, sexploitation, lgbt, movie review

Vintage Pulp

November 18 2024

TROUBLE TELESCOPE

They'd have been fine if they'd used it to look at the stars.

This rare tateken size poster was made for the roman porno movie Hirusagari no joji: Uramado, which premiered today in 1972 and is known in English as Afternoon Affair: Rear Window. Plotwise, Kazuko Shirakawa plays a beautiful bar worker who’s carrying on an affair with elderly Taiji Tonoyama. He lives in a mid-city highrise and uses binoculars to spy on his many neighbors, which he needs to do to become sexually aroused. Kazuko is more or less fine with this little kink, mainly because she wants to use him to improve her circumstances. She convinces Taiji to move to a higher, larger apartment and buy a telescope so he can get his rocks off even more efficiently.

So basically what you have here is a roman porno take on Rear Window with all restraint removed. It makes sense, right? Admit it—when you watched Jimmy Stewart getting an eyeful of Georgine Darcy you made the same jokes we did about how in real life he’d be getting handsy with himself. Nikkatsu Studios brought those thoughts into the open. We respect it. We do the same with Pulp Intl., which is why it has a sharper focus on sex compared to other vintage book and movie sites. As we’ve said before, many of those novels and noirs are catalyzed by sex, but it couldn’t be described or shown. Nikkatsu took the next logical step. As we do.

Inevitably, peeper and peeped upon meet. Kazuko bumps into Junko Miyashita, then Junko calls on Kazuko later and shares a confidence with her. When Kazuko’s other, younger lover needs a million yen, a desperate Kazuko resorts to blackmail. Think that’s going to work out okay? Then you don’t know roman porno. This one, with its focus on crime rather than sexual domination, is superior for the genre. Since only about 20% of roman pornos are good, we should probably quit while we’re ahead. But we won’t because we love sharing the posters. And speaking of, if you watch Hirusagari no joji: Uramado see if you can spot the Christina Lindberg posters in one scene.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Hirusagari no joji: Uramado, Afternoon Affair: Rear Window, Kazuko Shirakawa, Junko Miyashita, Taiji Tonoyama, poster art, roman porno, pinku, sexploitation, cinema, movie review

Vintage Pulp

November 18 2024

FIND YOUR BLISS

Happiness is often in the place you least expect.

Did we just say to quit with the roman pornos while we’re ahead? Well, we failed. We watched a second movie from the genre, and as it’s our third film of the day you might be wondering why this sudden surplus of screening time has arisen. It’s because the girls are out of town. Into that gap we’ve been plugging every flick we can find that premiered this week, including this one that opened today in 1978—Toruko 110-ban: Monzetsu kurage. Known in English as Bathhouse 911: Jellyfish Bliss, it starred Etsuko Hara, Yuko Katagiri, and Yuki Yoshizawa, and right off the bat we’ll tell you it wasn’t as good as Hirusagari no joji: Uramado. But it wasn’t bad either. Huh? Two decent roman pornos in a row? Two in a row without sexual torture? It really happened. Though we should caution—there’s an enema. But a guy takes it, and it’s played for laughs. So… fine then.

In addition to avoiding too much extreme content, this movie is fantastically shot. It bursts with color, and is largely a clinic in composition in that way specific to roman porno where directors suggested explicitness but weren’t legally allowed to show even a single pubic hair. The story deals with a smalltime pimp who picks up Etsuko Hara on the street and turns her into a prostitute in a bathhouse. When the yakuza move in on his operation and take Etsuko away he suffers in the throes what he’s realized is love. But there’s little he can do, save vividly fantasize about revenge. Will he actually screw up the courage to fight for Etsuko’s freedom? We’d recommend getting a new profession, one where the competition isn’t tattooed guys with katanas, but if the odds weren’t long it wouldn’t be a movie worth watching. Feel free to do so. There’s hope for this genre yet.

Japan, Nikkatsu, Toruko 110-ban: Monzetsu kurage, Bathhouse 911: Jellyfish Bliss, Etsuko Hara, Yuko Katagiri, Yuki Yoshizawa, roman porno, pinku, sexploitation, poster art, cinema, yakuza, prostitution, nudity, movie review

Vintage Pulp

November 17 2024

A RELATIVE PROBLEM

He's an embarrassment to the entire crime family.

Some years ago we showed you a Japanese poster for the U.S. crime drama The Godson. That piece had Orita de Chadwick as its central (if unfortunate) focus, whereas the above version features Swedish actress Uschi Digard. Since she’s a notable figure in the realm of grindhouse cinema we thought this was worth a share. The Godson premiered in the U.S. in 1971, and reached Japan today in 1972.

Japan, Sweden, The Godson, Jason Yukon, Lois Mitchell, Uschi Digard, Uschi Digart, Orita de Chadwick, sexploitation, poster art, cinema

Vintage Pulp

November 9 2024

COMING IN WAVES

The good life aquatic with Liz, Luanne, and the whole gang.

Above: a Japanese poster for the sexploitation flick Tonite… I Love You, starring famed dancer and gangster’s moll Liz Renay, along with model-actresses Luanne Roberts, Kim Mills, and Marsha Jordan. We don’t have time to hunt this one up and watch it, but maybe later. The main goal was to show you this nice art, which is rare. Tonite… I Love You opened in the U.S. in 1972 and reached Japan today in 1974.

Japan, Tonite... I Love You, Liz Renay, Barbara Mills, Luanne Roberts, Marsha Jordan, poster art, cinema, sexploitation

Modern Pulp

November 6 2024

GUNAH GET YOU

But first she's günah have to get a new shirt.

This is a nice piece of art from Turkey for the women-in-prison flick Günah—i.e. “Sin.” The movie was originally made in Italy as Perverse oltre le sbarre, and was known as Hell Behind Bars in English speaking countries. The art here is basically a crop of the Italian promo, and like the original neglects to include the film’s star Ajita Wilson. In fact, nobody in the cast looks remotely like the poster artist’s fantasy woman with her ripped shirt and wonderful white girl afro, so if you watch the movie you’ll have to make do with Wilson, Rita Silva, Linda Jones, et al. But we don’t recommend that you actually do that. It’s pretty bad.

Turkey, Italy, Günah, Perverse oltre le sbarre, Hell Behind Bars, Ajita Wilson, Rita Silva, Linda Jones, poster art, cinema, women in prison, sexploitation, lgbt

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

October 23 2024

VACATION SEX

Around the world in eighty lays.

We said we’d try to eradicate Laura Gemser’s awful 1977 sexploitation train wreck Emanuelle – Perché violenza alle donne? from our memories, but then we found these two U.S. promos above and figured we’d loop back to share them since the movie had its U.S. premiere this month in 1980. They’re basically identical except for length, and bear the film’s English title Emanuelle Around trhe World. You notice they tout the film’s x rating—“X has never been so beautiful.” But it has been so beautiful—in virtually any x-rated film of that era. This was a situation where explicit footage—not of Gemser—was added after the fact. That usually makes for a disjointed mess, and it did the same here. Enjoy the posters, but don’t watch the film. There are better cheap thrills out there.

Italy, Emanuelle - Perché violenza alle donne?, Emanuelle Around the World, The Degradation of Emanuelle, Laura Gemser, sexploitation, cinema, poster art

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HISTORY REWIND

The headlines that mattered yesteryear.

January 24

1961—Plane Carrying Nuclear Bombs Crashes

A B-52 Stratofortress carrying two H-bombs experiences trouble during a refueling operation, and in the midst of an emergency descent breaks up in mid-air over Goldsboro, North Carolina. Five of the six arming devices on one of the bombs somehow activate before it lands via parachute in a wooded region where it is later recovered. The other bomb does not deploy its chute and crashes into muddy ground at 700 mph, disintegrating while driving its radioactive core fifty feet into the earth.

January 23

1912—International Opium Convention Signed

The International Opium Convention is signed at The Hague, Netherlands, and is the first international drug control treaty. The agreement was signed by Germany, the U.S., China, France, the UK, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Persia, Portugal, Russia, and Siam.

January 22

1946—CIA Forerunner Created

U.S. president Harry S. Truman establishes the Central Intelligence Group or CIG, an interim authority that lasts until the Central Intelligence Agency is established in September of 1947.

January 22

1957—George Metesky Is Arrested

The New York City “Mad Bomber,” a man named George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and charged with planting more than 30 bombs. Metesky was angry about events surrounding a workplace injury suffered years earlier. Of the thirty-three known bombs he planted, twenty-two exploded, injuring fifteen people. He was apprehended based on an early use of offender profiling and because of clues given in letters he wrote to a newspaper. At trial he was found legally insane and committed to a state mental hospital.

January 21

1950—Alger Hiss Is Convicted of Perjury

American lawyer Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury in connection with an investigation by the House unAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC), at which he was questioned about being a Soviet spy. Hiss served forty-four months in prison. Hiss maintained his innocence and fought his perjury conviction until his death in 1996 at age 92.

January 21

1977—Carter Pardons War Fugitives

U.S. President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all of the country’s Vietnam War draft evaders, many of whom had emigrated to Canada. He had made the pardon pledge during his election campaign, and he fulfilled his promise the day after he took office.