Fifty Shades of a Deeper Gray: Fairy in A Cage

Beyond some extravagant and audacious bondage and torture sequences, Koyu Ohara's Fairy in a Cage (Nikkatsu Studios, '77) boasts stellar production values with period detail unique for its budget. Never have these elements been more obvious and lush than on Impulse/Synapse's Blu-ray of this infamous Roman Porno (Romantic Pornography) production. Never released on DVD or Blu-ray anywhere in the world, it finally gets the royal treatment.

Released simultaneously with the just-reviewed and highly praised Female Teacher: In Front of the Students, this superb piece of elegant perversion from '77, the year Star Wars arrived on our planet, is a must-have for collectors and the cinematically adventurous. The 'Fifty Shades of Gray' crowd may not be ready yet for  Mr. Ohara and writer Oniroku Dan's brand of S/M, but, if anybody is looking for a worthy entry point for this unique Japanese genre,  this may be a good place to start.

Mr. Dan is a Japanese novelist whose works have been enthusiastically adapted by erotic filmmakers. A couple of Dan standouts are Rope Cosmetology, Teruo Ishii's The Red Silk Gambler, and various films based on his 'Flower and Snake' books.   He's not big on plot or characterization, but he does imbue the genre with particularly personal touches.  You'll find a lot of rope bondage in the author's work, and Fairy  in a Cage is consistent with that fact.  The film is a catalog of squirmy "tortures" that run the gamut from suspension to spanking to various water-based outrages. Rape is pretty frequent, too.

Ohara, the director of the infamous Zoop Up: Rape Site,  True Story of a Woman Condemned To Hell, Wet and Rope, and the exploitation classic White Rose Campus: Then, Everybody Gets Raped, brings a more tempered artistic style to this tale of military and upper class corruption set doing WWII in the Land of the Rising Sun. The bare-bones story involves a wealthy pervert who uses a dubious military pretext to arrest and incarcerate (in his home torture chamber) a woman (Naomi Tani) that he wants for his own private amusement. Assisted by delightfully deviant wife, he involves Tani in his games, and brings along a devotee of hers (she's an actress!) for additional humiliation.

The film is lavish, somewhat confronting, but fairly predictable plot-wise until the two-thirds mark. It then shoots off on an interesting tangent and re-locates itself to a dense forest where horrors of a more personal kind are experienced by Tani, an actress who never met a torture she couldn't embrace.

The work of cinematographer Nobumasa Mizunoo on Fairy is exemplary. Surprisingly, he had only shot two Masaru Konuma classics before this (Erotic Diary of an Office Lady and Cloistered Nun: Runa's Confession), but produces the work of a veteran artist here, delivering exquisitely lit interiors complimented by striking compositions. The tortures shot through the metal bars of a cell are breathtaking, as is his photographic treatment of the film's final denouement. 

Similar in style to Toshiharo Ikeda's very fine Sex Hunter, Koyu Ohara's Fairy in a Cage is intensely erotic stuff that will arouse the open-minded and shock those bringing traditional expectations of entertainment to it. Like all Nikkatsu 'pornos', it is not, in fact, pornography as we Westerners define it, and steers well clear of hardcore sexual depictions.

That it is now available on Blu-ray is, I must admit, kind of amazing.

I urge you to support this release with a legit purchase in order to encourage Impulse's head honcho Don May to think seriously about releasing such unreleased (in the US) Nikkatsu treats as Rape, White Rose Campus..., Zoom Up: Rape Site, Sex Hunter, and Raping! on Blu-ray.  

Female Teacher: In Front of the Students

What's to be said about Yasuro Uegaki's Female Teacher: In Front of the Students (just out from Impulse/Synapse) is all good. Very, very good, in fact.

Nikkatsu, the old Japanese film studio that, after sixty years, suddenly turned dark and erotic to make ends meet, has, admittedly, made its share of lame efforts such as Nympho Diver and I Like It From Behind, both recently released by Impulse/Synapse. I suppose some folks bought them, but, for mine, they have little appeal because they're doing nothing that hundreds of British and American softcore porn flicks haven't already done.

You can't say the same about Nikkatsu flicks like Assault - Jack The Ripper, Rape!, White Rose Campus - Then, Everybody Gets Raped, Sex Hunter - Wet Target, Sex Hunter (the Ikeda film), Secret Chronicle - She Beast Market, and Zoop Up - Rape Site. All of these feature exploitation elements that are very culture-specific, and do not shun the sticky mix of sexual violence and eroticism that many Western films are afraid of.  Although S/M is being mainstreamed (and reduced to blandly flavored vanilla) by works of dubious literary merit such as 'Fifty Shades of Grey' (a massive bestseller), its harsher, more incendiary essence has been shaved away.

Nothing is shaved away in Impulse/Synapse's Female Teacher: In Front of the Students, a truly subversive Nikkatsu flick that some would describe as "troubling" for its perspective on rape. To take its politics too seriously would be to misunderstand its intentions. It is, afterall, a skin flick for a skin flick audience, so it takes a fantasy often imagined by women to its natural end point. If you think it condones the view that a raped woman can be sexually charged by the resulting trauma, you're projecting too hard. This is fantasy Japan-style, not reality.

The pretty Rushia Santo is 'Reiko', a new teacher at an elite high school. Forced to discipline a group of spoilt brats led by the particularly nasty Takuya (Toru Nakane), she finds herself intimidated by the boy. After an unnerving exchange with the group, Reiko is raped in one of the school's showers. Humiliated, she doesn't report the rape, but she keeps a piece of a jigsaw puzzle dropped at the scene by the masked rapist. Over the next few days, she attempts to identify her attacker, and flashes back to key images of the rape, but  her search is sidelined by a series of highly erotic seductions that relight the fire of the incident.

Like Toshiharu Ikeda's little-seen Sex Hunter (not be confused with Sex Hunter - Wet Target) and the notorious Captured For Sex 2, Female Teacher: In Front of the Students exudes an atmosphere of sexual nihilism and abandon that is downright intoxicating. Director Uegaki demonstrates a superb eye and flair for dark eroticism, and creates a seventy minute masterpiece that sucks us into a sexual maelstrom while never ignoring the story's emotional journey. Santo is excellent as a woman on an odyssey of deep exploration, and delivers a strong emotional, physical, and intensely sexual performance as a teacher torn between tradition and the delicious call of the dark.

The film has an amazing look. It's gritty and beautiful all at once, and the compositions, subtle camera moves, and extreme close-ups are striking. The sex runs the gamut from hetero to lesbian, and there is a potent threeway worked into the mix. The narrative never flags, and the sense of anxiety experienced by Reiko is always felt by the audience.

A great selection from Impulse/Synapse, and, hopefully, a sign of the direction future releases will take. Films like this offer a rare and exotic glimpse into the human mind, and underline why nobody does it better than the Japanese.

Cinematic Love Affair

No longer content to let the bland and generic Hunger Games poster art stink up my blog page, I present to you six evocative and deliciously lurid posters from Toei that truly epitomize why we love and lust for cinema's mysterious pleasures.

Zoom Up: Rape Site

This Zoom Up: Rape Site poster is subtly spectacular with its color foreground and chillingly colorless background.

This Koyu Ohara flick, which gave Nikkatsu many headaches, is not on DVD, VHS, or Blu-Ray.

For an enterprising distributor, this is THE pick of the bunch.

Although available in Japan, Ohara's White Rose Campus: Then, Everybody Gets Raped is also begging for broader Western exposure.

The Earliest Works of Toshio Saeki

 

This had been eluding me for some time, but I finally got my hands on it, and I was not disappointed.

Saeki's very early works lack none of the perverse imagination of his later creations, and it's inspiring to see how themes have remained constant.  

 

For mine, nobody blends the grotesque with the erotic as sincerely as Saeki, although I am certainly not discounting the beautiful and eclectic work of Suehiro Maruo, Jun Hayami, Hiroaki Samura.

 

Saeki's art, for me, is the purest extension of Japanese woodcuts, and explores the theme of man/woman/beast unions with a commitment that's sometimes dizzying for its freshness.

 

The best of the best mines the darkest human catacombs and excavates the brittle beauty of fresh experience. 

I've written extensively on this blog about Saeki, 

so use the search function if you want to see more.

The Utterly Splendid World of Suehiro Maruo

 

Miminashi Hohichi in the Dark (1999, 2011; Seirin Kogeisha)  is another extraordinary excursion into the world of Suehiro Maruo, the prolific artist behind Mr. Arashi's Amazing Freak Show (filmed as Midori) and Ultra Gash Inferno.

Although there have been several English language editions of his books, many have never been translated from the Japanese, and probably never will.

 

Maruo often insinuates iconic figures into his work, so the appearance of Frankenstein's 'Monster' in one story here provides disturbing and fascinating pulp fodder. After encountering a mother and daughter, he proceeds to engage in intercourse with one while the other becomes an equally unwilling participant.

There have been slightly sexualized versions of the Monster's story, but few feature the ferocious carnality of this gem.    

 

 

Georges Bataille's Histoire De L'oeil (Story of the Eye; 1928) surely had a muscular influence on Maruo and many of his contemporaries. Variations of and tableaux inspired by the book's deliciously grotesque eroticism permeate the artist's work.

 

Imo-Mushi (Beam Comix; 2009) is Maruo's take on Edogawa Rampo's Caterpillar story (filmed twice as: Caterpillar, and as one of four stories in the uneven Rampo anthology Rampo Noir). 

 

 

With surprisingly little fanfare, Koji Wakamatsu's Caterpillar (reviewed on this blog several months ago) has finally been released in the US by Kino Video.  

Although I had some reservations about its very plain digital appearance, it is still a very worthwhile and respectful take on the story.

 

As these images indicate, Maruo's version is a more deeply erotic interpretation, eschewing some of the source's political content. Still, the artist amply conveys the horrors of war hero worship and delivers a frightening, brutal yarn.

  An upcoming Maruo translation to English is The Strange Tale of Panorama Island. Although the book has been delayed for a while now, I hope it's release is still imminent. 

Personally, I'd prefer a translated volume of Maruo's insanely brutal and beautiful Lunatic Lovers (2007; Seirin Kogeisha). The images below barely capture the corrupt, vile, transgressive essence of this work.

 

 

 

An exceptionally good source for Maruo's work is  akatako.net

A Big Thank You To You All

This blog now has 536 'Followers'. I'm really grateful for that. Thank you, folks!

I started this blog to share the things I love -- movies, books, music, illustration, graphics, painting, and people whose take on the world is somewhat unique. Like AIDS, I like infecting humans with stuff they won't be able to shake so easily.

I'm not quite sure how often a 'Follower' of this blog drops in, but, since I'm a 'Follower' of a stack of blogs myself, I figure no answer to that question is going to fit all.

 I'm pleasantly surprised that I have a mix of male and female readers because, traditionally, much of the content I post has been considered male-oriented. It gives me optimism to see women (and men, of course, my 'Followers', not approaching pornographic material from a position of offended hysteria. Despite the truth that I derive some sexual stimulation from some of the sexual material I post, my primary reason for posting it is that I believe it has serious artistic merit. I believe that it deserves consideration, or debate, and I certainly believe that it contributes to a better understanding of our darkest, deepest selves.

It is the deep, dark self that I am most fascinated with. Since you're a casual reader and/or a 'Follower' of the blog, I'll confidently assume that you're also interested in the deep, dark self.

From childhood, our deep, dark self is a friend and an enemy. It gives us comfort, satisfaction, and euphoria, like a drug, but it also isolates us from others, and  when you're living in a world that is working hard to bump you onto the grid, the isolation can be painful.

 

 

I started to like horror and the bizarre because it took the edge off my loneliness.  It felt like a friend who'd somehow avoided the grid. It didn't attempt to lure me with lies and empty rhetoric, and it didn't molest me while smothering me with kisses. Horror movies, bizarre images, books of the fantastique, literature of dubious parentage, and what my parents called weird stuff, got me through the long night of childhood. These treasures were a warm hand to cling to, a suggestion that my life didn't have to be a carbon copy of lives endured by others. I had choices. I'd have to fight for them like a fucking pit bull, sure, and nothing would last, but at least there was something else on the horizon.

I hope this blog is a reliable haven of pulp for you, an organic forum for material that gets dismissed elsewhere, totally ignored, or stripped of its worth by mass media with big agendas. I hope it's also a place of truth, where you can proclaim your love for the most marginalized of diamonds, or your disgust for that which all others love.

 

Thank you for deeming this humble gallery of a thousand voices worthy of your time.

For reasons I can't explain, I feel obliged to provide metaphorical shelter to the cultural miscreant in you, and I take my obligations seriously.

So, be yourself while you still have time, and fuck the rest sideways.

"There's nothing to mourn about death any more than there is to mourn about the growing of a flower. What is terrible is not death but the lives people live or don't live up until their death. They don't honor their own lives, they piss on their lives. They shit them away. Dumb fuckers. They concentrate too much on fucking, movies, money, family, fucking. Their minds are full of cotton. They swallow God without thinking, they swallow country without thinking. Soon they forget how to think, they let others think for them. Their brains are stuffed with cotton. They look ugly, they talk ugly, they walk ugly. Play them the great music of the centuries and they can't hear it. Most people's deaths are a sham. There's nothing left to die."

--Charles Bukowski


The Captain Is Out to Lunch and the Sailors Have Taken Over the Ship, 1998

The Dawn of Real Cannibalism

As far as I know, close to the first porn flick to feature actual flesh eating. From Japan, of course.

In the 70's, German fetish series such as Pain, Violence, and Slave Sex covered most of the ground depicted on this video sleeve including the nailing of body parts to tables, extreme piercing, and genital suspension.

These Euro films did not, however, cover initialing the body with knives and needles, and they did not feature a scene in which a piece of the body is removed with a knife and eaten for real.

Truly a film for a narrow, specific market.

Produced by Dragon Image.

***

I haven't seen the film myself, but verification of its content comes from a totally credible source.

Trailer for My New Feature 'FERTISLE'

Blog posts have been spotty this year due to the fact that I've been working on two features and an epic documentary.

All three are finally taking shape as tangible entities and here is the trailer for the first one, Fertisle.

A man at war with himself, washed up on a strange South Pacific island, becomes its unwanted guest, and the target of a native woman who wants nothing but to be left alone.

The film is the first feature of US-, Japan-, and Australia-based production company, Cinenature, an outfit specializing in strong genre material for the international market.

My cinematic obsessions -- male/female relationships, dolls, islands, the ocean, the grotesque, and the beautiful -- are given full voice here.

 

The Egg People of Kei

Baby Angel Egg

Clock Egg and Egg Head Angel

Snake Egg

Easter Bunny Egg.

Lump Fish & Egg

Fans of the egg, rejoice!

Kei's magnificent Egg People represent a new dimension in doll culture.

These shelled creations are truly stunning, and plug a cord directly into our emotions.

Born in Tokyo in '71, Kei began birthing dolls in '95.

This choice Emily Dickinson poem appears on her website:

If I can stop one Heart from breaking

I shall not live in vain

If I can ease one Life the Aching

Or cool one Pain

Or help one fainting Robin

Unto his Nest again

I shall not live in Vain.

Terrific Toei Trio

Japan's Toei Company produced mountains of amazing movies... and amazing movie posters.

Their energetic actioners were complimented by various excursions into the horror genre.

I love how the "fiend" pictured will not resign from his mission to love.

The Erotic Engineer

Chimushi II (Editions Treville for Pan-Exotica, April 2003) is a stunning showcase of Toshio Saeki's more recent color work.

A recurring theme in Saeki's work is aberrant sexuality and the plight of those forced to come to terms with it.


I love the simplicity of this powerful image.

Common also are sex partners of advanced age, figures of authority, and syringes.

Saeki has no peer.

Timothy Leary calls him an "Erotic Engineer".

Who can disagree with that?