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.  

Zoom In: Sex Apartments

 Of all the 'Roman Pornos' that Impulse Pictures/Synapse has released so far, Zoom In: Sex Apartments is the jewel in the crown. Bearing atypical hallmarks of originality, it serves as a reason to celebrate dark art, not find fault with its morality.

Director Naosuke Kurosawa, working with cinematographer Masaru Mori, takes Nikkatsu's trademark rape/murder subject matter and presents it as a frenzy of almost giallo-like surrealism.

Yoko Azusa, who starred as a burgeoning rapist in Yasaharu Hasebe's Assault - Jack The Ripper  four years earlier, plays the mysterious role of a suspected rapist. Betrayed five years prior by the film's female lead, Erina Miyai, a woman married to a professional cyclist (!), Azusa reconnects with her carnally and becomes involved in a spate of unusual crimes. Adding spice to the film's sexual violence is a fire theme: The rapist torches the vaginas of the women he's raped, and goes several steps beyond said item in one memorable scene.

To be frank, the story isn't big on logic and the lead female's inability to put two and two together is frustrating. Despite both these deficits, however, Kurosawa's treatment of the material excuses his sins (for me, anyway).

These Nikkatsu pictures existed to excite audiences with their erotic audacity; they were never meant to be realistic, and they were never meant to be much more than reliable programmers for the studio that switched its focus from mainstream product to erotica with a sucker punch. Occasionally, as in the case of flicks such as Assault - Jack The Ripper,   Secret Chronicle - She Beast Market, Beautiful Girl Hunter, and the film currently under discussion, Nikkatsu produced some remarkable works that transcended their genre requirements.

I'm keen to know when exactly Joseph Ellison's grimy Don't Go in the House ('80) was released in Japan because this Zoom In entry smells of that film's delightfully foul embers both tonally and visually. The rape/burning scenes in both films are downbeat and nihilistic, leaving us with no hope for the human race.  The callous indifference both killers have for their victims is uncannily similar in both pictures also. This nihilism is both disturbing and exhilarating, making it essential art.  

Giallos were clearly an influence on Kurosawa, and the cutting style employed in Argento's early work (Deep Red, Tenebrae, Suspiria) is slavishly imitated here.

At the other end of the spectrum are the films this one clearly influenced; the most obvious is Billy Tang's Cat III shocker Red To Kill, surely one of the most maligned and Roman Porno-esque of the former colony's horror flicks. Kurosawa's focus here on the concrete edifices where the mayhem takes place is carbon copied by Tang in Red. Most obviously, Red's chilling, driving score sounds like a direct bit of thievery from Zoom In. The visual characterization of the rapist here is also echoed in Red, and leaves me convinced that that film's writers saw a tape of this film and were more than impressed with its potent credentials.

Zoom In -Sex Apartments (original Japanese title: 'Zoom In: Rape Apartments') achieves a heightened place in the pink pantheon because it's consistently inventive, audacious in its conceits, and unabashedly vile. It's not a terribly graphic film and the nudity is restrained, but it's a ballsy exercise by a director with an arthouse approach to his material that made me reflect on Koji Wakamatsu's best works such as Dark Story of a Japanese Rapist, The Man Who Assaulted 13 People aka Serial Rapist, and Go Go Second Time Virgin. There's not a celluloid moment here where Kurosawa isn't exploring a strange or powerful idea. They don't all work, but they make for engaging cinema.

 For years, the film has been available as a decent boot, but now is the time to throw that away and support Impulse's stellar presentation with flawless subs, terrific liner notes by Jasper Sharp, and an insert of the original poster art.

I have no idea where Impulse is going next with these releases apart from the imminent release of The True Story of a Woman in Jail: Continues, a must-have sequel. Personally, I'd like to see them forging ahead with darker material like this and other unreleased (with English subs) Nikkatsu product such as the above-mentioned Secret Chronicle - She Beast Market, Zoom Up - Rape Site, Zoom Up - Rape Report, White Rose Campus - Then, Everybody Gets Raped, Raping, Rape, and Sex Hunter.

Yes, yes, yes, as monotonous as these titles sound to the uninitiated, they are all blisteringly unique efforts.

For now, rejoice in the fact that Zoom In -Sex Apartments is available to own and has never looked better.

Retreat Through The Wet Wasteland

Although released by Nikkatsu and marketed as Roman Porno, it is, in fact, a crime thriller with a light sexual undercurrent and an obligatory rape scene in a church. Originally titled Retreat Through The Wasteland, the distributor added 'Wet' to attract an entirely different market after director Yukihiro Sawada took the project in a direction not originally envisaged by the financier. It then became Retreat Through The Wet Wasteland.

The art below is from the reasonably rare Geneon DVD, but the art above, which is sensational, is the original theatrical art. I love the foreground angle and the intense background biker action. I find this super-erotic and ultra-evocative. It constantly refreshes my love of cinema.

The film is a flawed but compelling gem.

Nikkatsu Roman Porno Collection

The Nikkatsu Roman Porno Trailer Collection from Impulse Pictures (an offshoot of Synapse) is representative of a pretty extraordinary commitment (by the distributor) to the audacious work of the unique Japanese studio.

This collection is a compilation of 38 trailers and offers a pleasing taste of, hopefully, a lengthy release schedule that will see many of these films distributed for the very first time -- legitimately -- with English subtitles. It's encouraging, too, that the condition of these trailers is excellent considering their vintage.

To be fair, some Nikkatsu titles such as Assault! Jack The Ripper (Mondo Macabro) and Star of David: Hunting for Beautiful Girls (Discotekmedia) have been released in the U.S. in excellent subtitled editions, but these releases were not indicative of broader releasing plans (of this type of material) for their distributors.

Koji Wakamatsu Volume 2 from blaq out

Only a small handful of French distributors have embraced some of these titles (and works from the likes of Teruo Ishii and Koji Wakamatsu) with equal enthusiasm. Per contractual conditions, however, most of these have not been subtitled in English. The exception is the recent Koji Wakamatsu Volume 2 from Blaq Out.

I've written extensively on Nikkatsu's output in these blogs, so I'm not going to bore you with more introductory history.

The trailers featured in this collection are quite diverse in quality and tone. Nurses Gone Wild is light-hearted softcore, while Yasaharu Hasebe's Rape! is a dark masterpiece.

Yasaharu Hasebe's Rape! may finally see a U.S. release

Although Nikkatsu's 'roman porno' (romantic pornography) output was, by definition, always sex-oriented, there was great variety to be found between the poles.

Of the trailers included in this compilation, I've seen about half of the movies themselves. My favorites of the ones on offer are Rape!, Zoom In: Rape Apartments, Sex Hunter (an extraordinary piece from 'Evil Dead Trap' director Toshiharu Ikeda), Race Across the Drenched Wasteland, Sex Hunter: Wet Target (from Yukihiro Sawada, the director of Flesh Target - Rape), Female Teacher: In Front of the Students, Female Teacher: Dirty Afternoon, Female Teacher Hunting, and The Lovers Are Wet.

It's worth mentioning that these trailers may not be entirely representative of all the features Impulse will be releasing; they may not even release some of these in feature form at all. Recently, on the AV Maniacs forums, Don May Jr., the head honcho of Impulse/Synapse, mentioned additional titles such as Eros School, True Story of a Woman in Jail: Sex Hell, and Woman in Heat Behind Bars.

Race Across the Drenched Wasteland (aka 'Retreat Through the Wet Wasteland')

In anyone's book, these upcoming releases are essential purchases -- not downloads! Clearly, Impulse has made a substantial financial commitment to these titles, and there will be no future commitments if sales are not healthy.

In the long run, we will all lose ouit if the legit DVD's are not supported with dollars. I can not stress this hard enough. Is there a market for such a flood of moist magic? I hope so. I know I'll be snapping up every title. I hope other fans do, too.

The first two out of the gate are Female Teacher: Dirty Afternoon (a favorite of mine) and Debauchery, a film I have never seen. The trailer on the compile looks terribly tasty, though.

There are dozens of Nikkatsu and non-Nikkatsu titles beyond the Impulse titles that have yet to see English-subtitled releases including Raping! and Rape 13th Hour (two dazzlers from Yasaharu Hasebe) and Koyu Ohara's White Rose Campus - Then, Everybody Gets Raped, a spectacular piece of Cormanesque exploitation.

The unreleased White Rose Campus: Then, Everybody Gets Raped!
Available in Japan only

Also of note are Ohara's Zoom Up: Rape Site, Beautiful Teacher in Torture Hell, Captured for Sex 2, and Serial Rape (from Yojiro Takita, the director of the Oscar winning Departures).

Additionally, Pink Pineapple's amazing Rapeman series has only been released on DVD in Japan; it's not subtitled. An English-subbed release of that would be like Xmas.

Logically, if these roman porno titles are supported by fans and fans-to-be, it's highly likely that we'll see legit releases (with English subs) of the above-mentioned and many more.

However, if so-called "fans" opt to download the Impulse titles for free, we can all kiss the prospect of seeing legitimate releases of these films goodbye.

Support the genre with dollars.

There's no other way to assure its survival.

***

A recent release from Synapse that I can't recommend highly enough is Graphic Sexual Horror, a truly amazing documentary about the life and death of insex.com, a website that was closed down by American ('Land of the Free') authorities.