Nikkatsu Studios promo imagery is usually bold and filled with heavy graphics, but sometimes the company got ethereal too, as in this poster for the roman porno movie Shiroi shôfu: Kashin no takamari, known in English as White Whore: Flower Core. Yuri Yamashina plays a woman who supports her legless younger brother Toru Ohe via prostitution. He has unhealthy sexual urges, including attraction for a mannequin, so she uses some of her earnings to procure a woman for him, but this encounter goes poorly. Ohe is a man searching for his true self.
When a delivery boy for a dry cleaner becomes attracted to Yuri and she starts messing with his head, it becomes clear that Yuri and the wheelchair bound Ohe have some twisted traits in common. He eventually witnesses the delivery boy’s sexual assault of
Yuri and eureka!—problem solved. It seems that what turns him on is his sister’s sexual degradation. This comes as absolutely no surprise. Whichever direction is most taboo is where Nikkatsu will always drag filmgoers.
Roman porno analysis on Japanese websites runs deep, dwelling on color palettes, shot framing, and script details. We’re all about the intellectualization of smut. We get the whole white color palette symbolizing purity of motive and so forth. All of this stuff is a given in roman porno—the filmmakers’ cerebral approach legitimized their prurience (and that of their audiences), but let’s not forget that these films should succeed as fiction too. Shiroi shôfu: Kashin no takamari wasn’t bad but it certainly wasn’t anything special.
The movie’s problem is that, despite the amputee theme and shock shot of leg stumps saved until the end, it runs over the same well-trodden Nikkatsu ground. Ohe could have had legs and he’d have been the same character as in dozens of the studio’s films. His disability brings nothing new. But on the plus side, at least he’s counterbalanced somewhat by Yamashina. In a film that leans into the ethereal she’s a good choice, a delicate hooker with a heart of gold, and a brother very willing to take advantage. Shiroi shôfu: Kashin no takamari premiered in Japan today in 1974.
