The Final Rapeman

THE REIPUMAN 7 (RAPEMAN 7) was the last contemporary entry, and certainly the most emotionally powerful of all the Rapeman films from series director Takao Nagaishi, and writer of five films Jun Kojo. From a production standpoint, it is equally the slickest alongside the sixth entry.  Sadly, the brand ended its contemporary storylines after this entry, and switched to two mostly forgettable spin-offs.

The series, a clever satire, has never been fairly evaluated, and is often dismissed due to its premise. If you can cast your hysteria aside, it is a humble but very fine series filled with everything you want from pulp: political intrigue; a heart-warming relationship between the Clark Kent-like anti-hero Keisuke/Rapeman and his uncle; darkly modest action scenes; and inventive rape sequences that are never terribly brutal and certainly not explicit. Unlike the original manga, this live action Rapeman is a softer touch, surprisingly well written and plotted, but is bizarre enough still for fans of wild and wooly cinema, and never overreaches in terms of its scale. A spare, infectious electronic theme always compliments proceedings.

It took four or five films for the series to find solid footing, so by this seventh entry, the delicate balance of satire, thrills and honest emotion was achieved –– and that's what makes it all the more frustrating that there was no eighth film set in present day Tokyo. I don't know why production company Pink Pineapple decided to set its final two entries in historic Edo, but, for me, they did the series no favors as an historic Rapeman just feels silly and tonally odd, and the heavy-handed slapstick is a real turn-off. On top of that, Rapeman wears a cape and resembles a future version of Batman.

The seventh film involves Keisuke's relationship with a childhood friend whose concern about his girlfriend opens up a hornet's nest of plot twists. Keisuke's "Rapeman Services", which he runs with his lovable uncle, takes on the task of getting to the bottom of his friend's problem, and Keisuke dons his mask once again to "Right Wrongs Through Penetration" (the series motto).

In our ultra-PC age where nothing is considered ironic anymore, Rapeman (all 9 films) walks an even harder road to understanding or acceptance now than it did when released on video in Japan between '93 and '96.  The original manga series debuted in '85 and ran 'til '92 with 13 issues in hand. A fictitious 14th issue appeared as a plot device in an episode about rape in the deadly serious, humorless, moralizing Law and Order: SVU. 

Unfortunately, Rapeman star Hiroyuki Okita, who was a leading teen idol in his earlier years, committed suicide in '99, three years after the series ended, and production company Pink Pineapple re-dedicated itself to sexual-themed anime.

In the film's final minutes, director Nagaishi stages a scene in which Keisuke's friend, the film's true "hero", returns home and finds his girlfriend gone. In her place is a giant Betty Blue poster and an empty chair with a letter on it. The image really resonates as the plot in this episode parallels the mental illness theme of the famous French movie. The follow-up scene in which the friend searches for his girlfriend on the waterfront and finds her is beautifully staged and acted. If you're not a rotten cynic, it will move you as much as it moved me.

Despite the hysteria surrounding this series, which has never been released legitimately outside Japan, a viewing of all seven contemporary entries leaves one with the impression of a unique piece of V-cinema that is, at heart, sweet, heartfelt, and unexpectedly humanist.

That it has never been distributed in a boxed collection outside Japan is most unfortunate.

***I owe my first exposure to the Rapeman series (in '97) to my dear Japanese friend and fellow filmmaker/otaku Tomoaki Hosoyama, the director of Weatherwoman***

Righting Wrongs Through Penetration

In Japan he's called The Reipuman. We know him as The Rapeman.

Seven contemporary films were produced between '93 and '95. Two films set in the Edo period (1603-1867), Oedo Reipuman 1 & 2, were produced in '96.

Quite recently, they have become available on DVD.

Prior to their DVD debut, the only way to see these with English translation was on gray market VHS from Video Search of Miami.

Thomas Weisser and his wife/Japanese actress Yuko Mihara Weisser undertook a massive translation program of dozens of Japanese movies including the first two Rapeman films. They deserve enormous praise for this difficult, pain-staking work.

There has been a lot of harsh criticism of Weisser and his various endeavors over the years. It's a type of criticism I don't think is deserved. Yes, we now know that there are many factual inaccuracies in his books (Japanese Cinema - The Essential Handbook, Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia, and The Sex Films), and perhaps he didn't see every film he covered. So what! He covered as much as he could with the knowledge he had. Most importantly, he got it out there. He published.

For mine, I find Weisser's The Sex Films a far more entertaining read (and much more suited to my tastes) than Jasper Sharp's Behind The Pink Curtain, an admittedly beautifully put together look at pink films that detours around most of the pink/violent pink films I love. I'm sure it's more factually accurate and better researched, but it doesn't have the vibe of Weisser's groundbreaking work.

Sadly, The Reipuman series gets a pissy sixty words of text in Behind The Pink Curtain's 415 pages. If that's not a dismissal of its virtues, what is?

Weisser was the Neil Armstrong of English language pink film journalism. In his Asian Trash Cinema magazine (which is still running under the Asian Cult Cinema title), in addition to covering the usual suspects like John Woo, Jackie Chan, Tsui Hark, and Bruce Lee, Weisser focused his perverted pen on pink films that nobody else was covering in any serious way. He gave them respect. He didn't relegate them to a porn-like ghetto.

Of course, Weisser deserves his own post, so I won't play that game in this locker room right now. My point is Weisser helped bring The Rapeman to English language cinephiles. The legalities of how he did it is another issue entirely.

The series is an extraordinary one. Produced by Pink Pineapple, The Reipuman is based on a 13-volume manga series by Keiko Aisaki and Shintaro Miyawaki. Production on that was between '85 and '92.

Aimed at middle-aged men, the film adaptations began right after the manga was discontinued.

In my 2003 on-line review of the series' first installment, I said this:

Rapeman 1 is a well written and sweet genre hybrid that mainstreams the original manga's more controversial elements and delivers a quality piece of entertainment. Rapeman and his uncle run Rapeman Services, a company catering to wronged, vengeance-seeking spouses and spurned lovers. In this outing, Rapeman and Uncle become embroiled in a political party's attempt to disgrace an opponent. Rapeman, a school teacher by day, rapist by night, is also a detective and has a strong sense of justice. "Righting wrongs through penetration" is the company motto and many wrongs are righted here. Shot on video and given the "film look" treatment, this fascinating genre hybrid is skilfully directed and nicely scored. The actor portraying Rapeman ended his own life recently and, thus, ended this terrific series.


My review of the second installment went thus:

This sequel to the more morally adjusted "Rapeman" amps up the violence and nastiness by making Rapeman angrier. Simple plot involves stolen body parts. Rapeman and Uncle get mad, then even, when a little girl dies mysteriously in hospital after a minor car accident. Turns out she was killed for her kidneys and other internal items. The film's opening sequence reaffirms Rapeman's motto of Righting Wrongs Through Penetration. The beautifully shot scenes of him in his Clark Kent-like guise (he's a schoolteacher) walking to school with his students re-establish his fascinating dual persona. As in the first installment, the musical score is truly beautiful, and the film's final scene, set in a cemetery, is very touching.

The Reipuman films are not the brutal, ultra-misogynistic trash the titles might suggest to some (or most).

They are surprisingly well written and acted, nicely photographed and edited, and the rape sequences are more erotic than brutal.

Reipuman does not kill. The ultimate punishment in these films has a particularly Japanese cultural bias. It is humilation.

Pink Pineapple's artwork is beautiful, evocative, and provocative. It perfectly captures the spirit of the series.


Whether there will ever be a legitimate English language translation of the series is unknown.

Would there be an English language audience for these modest masterworks? Yes. Would that audience be big enough to justify the licensing fees? It's hard to say. I don't know what the licensing costs would be.

A region-free box set with original Japanese audio and English subtitles would definitely be the way to go with this.

Until that appears, I suggest taking the plunge on these titles with cdjapan.co.jp or amazon.co.jp

It is truly tragic that Reipuman actor Hiroyuki Okita took his own life. His star shone brightly for a while.

And so did a rare, original, erotic, surprisingly warm-hearted series.