Yes, we just saw Hitomi Kozue last week, and here she’s popped up again in the 1974 sexploitation flick Zoku tameiki, which translates as “continuous sigh,” but was called in English Sigh 2. And indeed, the movie is positioned as follow-up to 1973’s Tameiki, aka Sigh, though that film starred Yumiko Tateno. In this one, Hitomi plays an office worker who’s willing but frightened to lose her virginity and manages to get tangled up with her mother’s ex-lover. It’s Nikkatsu Studios once again exploring unlikely sexual dilemmas, with the usual array of pervs, stalkers, and aggressors dragging down the film’s erotic aspirations. That doesn’t mean there aren’t a few stirring scenes. We rather enjoyed when Hitomi checked out her pieces-parts with a hand mirror.
Some reviews of Zoku tameiki say it’s about intergenerational issues. Well, sure, they’re in there. Issues will arise when daughter and mother bed the same guy, and there are suggestions of daddy issues in Hitomi’s fears about embarking upon sexual life, but we’re not buying this as any kind of deep rumination, intergenerational or otherwise. What it is, when you boil it down, is a standard roman porno flick that makes less-than-adequate use of Hitomi Kozue’s presence. As always, she does fine in her role, is amazingly beautiful, and is convincing as a shy girl, but we were unmoved by the script and nonplussed by several comic interludes. The movie isn’t bad. It’s merely that its only true asset is the radiant Kozue. For some viewers, us included, that’s enough, but the filmmakers should have done a bit better. Zoku tameiki premiered in Japan today in 1974.
