Director Toshiharu Ikeda Is Dead

I received some very sad news this morning from my Japanese friend Tomoaki Hosoyama. He informed me that Toshiharu Ikeda, a director of more than 20 feature films, had committed suicide by drowning at the age of 59.

Ikeda is probably best known in the West for his horror film Evil Dead Trap (Shiro no wana; '88), a bizarre and inventive splatter flick released by Synapse Films. With its focus on complex killing techniques within a maze-like setting, it clearly provided inspiration for the Saw films and their ilk.

My favorite work of his is Mermaid Legend (Ningyo densetsu; '84), a surreal, bloody revenge fantasy that has been little seen outside its country of orgin. It's a poetic, often brutal study of a wronged woman fighting corporate oppressors in a seaside setting. Ikea's suicide by drowning (the mind boggles!) renders the subject matter of Mermaid Legend just a little bit spookier than it already was. A non-subtitled DVD of the film, a masterpiece in my humble opinion, was released by Geneon.

 
Ikeda began his career as a pink film director and helmed the startling Sex Hunter ('80), surely one of the most audacious and erotic pink flicks of the period. It focused on a kidnapped ballerina who is forced into sexual servitude and liberated by her captors. It is one of the most elegant and exotic pink films of the period and features a volcanically hot young actress.

Quite a controversial work, the trailer recently appeared in America on Synapse Films' Nikkatsu Roman Porn Trailer Collection. There no indication that the company will be releasing the feature itself. The feature is available, though, from Geneon.

Also of interest and worth catching is Ikeda's Angel Guts: Red Porno (Tenshi no harawata: Akai inga; '81), an entry in the series that is top heavy with female masturbation and rugged S&M scenes. Unfortunately, it's not up there with the best in the series, but it can boast a number of graphic rape scenes that are stunningly photographed. 

 

 

In addition to directing Beautiful Prey and Beautiful Beast, Ikeda also contributed to the 'Female Prisoner Scorpion' series with 91's Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat (Joshuu sasori: Satsujin yopkoku).

The late director's final work was Akifukaki ('08),  a confused but ambitious film mixing breast cancer, love, and horse racing.
 
It is terribly sad when when another Apostle of Pulp leaves our midst.

RIP, Toshiharu Ikeda. You will be missed, and your work will endure.

The Fucking Geniuses at IFC

IFC (Independent Film Channel) is my favorite cable TV channel. No, it WAS. Now, it's one of my least favorite cable TV channels because they're breaking up their movies with fucking commercial breaks.

Great idea, huh?

They have the nerve to call it "The New IFC" when it's become "The Shitty IFC".

Some Clever Clogs at the network (probably some dickwad bean counter) came up with a smart idea to make the station better for the owners and worse for the viewers/subscribers.


It's a terrific way to alienate subscribers (who are already fleeing in droves!) and force them to write bitter blog posts about the station that was once a diamond in the cable rough.

My next step will be canceling IFC and, while I'm at it, I'll probably give Sundance the ass, too, because they've also started showing commercials.

Initially, the whole point of cable was that you didn't have to put up with commercials because you were paying the TV station NOT to show them. Free TV was free because commercials paid for it. Fine. But Pay TV was Pay TV because, well, WE paid for it -- that distinguished it from the free variety.

Well, the greedy suits who run the cable giants are now having it both ways -- they charge for their channels AND fill their shows with commercials. The result will be subscribers canceling and fleeing en masse to other alternatives

I can see IFC and Sundance becoming about as much fun as AMC was before it got into original series production. They began life showing movies without commercials -- then they dirtied their drawers with them. But AMC was a little different because you didn't pay extra to receive them. Now they show very decent original programming such as Mad Men and they're still not an upper tier network that you pay extra for. Which is as it should be.

The last hold-out is TCM (Turner Classic Movies), easily the best thing on cable. They have no
commercials, they show stuff in its correct aspect ratio, and you sense that they have some respect for their subscribers.

Let me pose a hypothetical...

If you were IFC and you were being threatened with new alternatives such as Netflix, the torrents, Redbox, and a hundred other options, would you try fucking your Golden Goose in the ass while it's manifesting pre-death throes?

Well?

Wouldn't it be better to help the poor creature up, plop it in a wheelchair, and pretty up its sagging features with some nail polish, lip gloss, and an approach to its condition that will make it a healthier being?

Well, IFC chose the assfucking instead of the wheelchair. Yep, they added commercials to a network that is supported by film purists.

"Let's call it The New IFC and add commercial breaks!" they roared.

Geniuses, huh?! Fucking geniuses!!!

Yeah, "off" like month-old milk.

A Sweet Erotic Trickle From Japan

For mine, these are elegant examples of erotica. Some are more explicit than others, but each suggests erotic potential untapped.

 

Incest-themed erotica from Japanese trades on the traditional image of a mother and turns it on its head.

I find this box cover (above) extremely powerful for its intense understatement.

 

Many of these images succeed in portraying an emotional state in addition to a primitive desire.

The traditional Japanese office lady is the subject of this erotic adventure. Perfect use of wardrobe in an urban setting completes the fantasy.

These are works of art.

An amazing concept here. I love how the bedside status of the woman on the right seems ambiguous.

 

Beautiful portrait of a sensual Japanese woman whose age is clearly an asset, not a handicap. 

Pornography and acknowledgment of the sexual impulse is not the exclusive domain of youth in Japan.

  

 

The mere context of this box cover (it is for a pornographic movie) takes the image of this traditional Japanese housewife -- a modern version -- and makes it a diamond of intense erotic suggestion.

The Japanese are masters at this.

***

I'd like to thank an anonymous reader (you know who you are) for the Ruby heads-up.