‘Woman With Red Hair’ (1979) & ‘World Of Geisha’ (1973) by Tatsumi Kumashiro. R1 DVDs May 10th 2005.

Reader Comments

1. stauffen 04/28/2005 @ 4:35am

   The original Jigoku is by the horror-master himself Nobuo Nakagawa. Kumashiro’s movie was a remake frome the 1960 original.

2. logboy 04/28/2005 @ 4:58am

   thanks. corrected. damn my memory.

3. stauffen 04/28/2005 @ 5:15am

   If you’re looking for some Roman Porno send me a mail. Maybe we can work out some kind of trade.

4. jasper sharp 04/28/2005 @ 9:29am

   First time I have posted on Twitch, but I’d like to begin by saying that this is a really nice board - maybe the best blog/discussion group on asian cinema I’ve seen.

   Can I just say here that there is a big difference between Pink cinema and Nikkatsu Roman Porno. This error crops up quite a lot in English language writing, but they are not the same thing at all, and no Japanese would confuse the two. I am currently writing a book on the subject, so the exact differences will be spelled out in more detail in that.

   Woman of the Red Hair is a great title, voted best of its year by Japanese critics in 1979.But like World of Geisha (or Four and Half Mat Room Behind the Sliding Door) there is a lot of cultural, historical and intellectual stuff going on behind it that probably wont be apparent to non-Japanese viewers. Also, they are not particularly raunchy.

   Also, Kumashiro’s Jigoku is not quite a remake of Nakagawa’s - the hell sequences are very similar, though the sfx have been updated to 70s standards. But the framing story is totally different.

   There’s loads of great pink and Roman Porno films released, but not a lot with subs. Along with these two films, definitely check out Takahisa Zeze’s Raigyo, and anything by Mitsuru Meike, and my personal fave, Hisayasu Sato.

   Hope this helps!

   Jasper

5. logboy 04/28/2005 @ 10:02am

   hey jasper, welcome. glad to see noteable visitors to twitch… please go ahead and recommend some romanporno / pinku movies with subs. ive seen lots mentioed on midnighteye but tend not to trust UK discs, dont like films without subs, and dont find reviews of discs such as these online…

   i “know” there are differences between all the various romanporno / pinku subsections or subgenres, i think those of us not so familiar are more likely to use pinku / romanporno interchangeably (unfortunately)… theres not enough out for us to access to have a defined knowledge of the variations and differences.
   perhaps i should read up some more...!

   i like this site btw :

   http://s87455100.onlinehome.us/

6. logboy 04/28/2005 @ 10:10am

   btw : forgot to mention. i did contact salvation in the past when they started they “pinku” releases, but didnt get a reply. i would happily review their stuff…

7. stauffen 04/28/2005 @ 10:59am

   The Salvation DVDs are terrible by the way.

   There are many Nikkatsu movies subtitled by Thomas Weisser out there in the bootleg-world. However I find it pretty hard to find good stuff, since there’s so much. Looking forward to your book Jasper! Guess it’ll make things much easier.
   Watched ‘Female Leopard’ by Kouyuu Ohara a few months back and thought of it as a quite entertaining one.
   Hasebe’s movies are cool too.

8. Todd 04/28/2005 @ 7:02pm

   Well, I’m feeling flattered.  Always nice when someone whose work you respect quite a lot says good things about you ... thanks for the kind words, Jasper.

   It should be pretty much common knowledge around here already, but if you’re not already reading Midnighteye.com regularly, you should be ... And buy their book, too.  It’s good.

9. jasper sharp 05/01/2005 @ 4:20am

   Sorry it took a while to get back to you guys. I was back in transit from Udine Far East Film Festival, and still recovering from a heavy bout of great movies there.

   Well, pink/porno recommendations are pretty difficult if you don’t like watching non-subbed stuff, because there is so little available. These two Kumashiro titles are must-sees, but as far as Roman Porno goes, I would avoid anything by Weisser (because its illegal - believe me, it is).

   Pete Tombs put out some great stuff in the uk a few years ago - Noboru Tanaka’s Watcher in the Attic (a beautiful film), Chusei Sone’s Hellist Love (aka Immortal Love) and Tatsumi Kumashiro’s Street of Joy, all on his Pagan Label. If you like your SM heavy stuff, it has to be said that Masaru Konuma does it with far more style than most, and so check out his Wife to be Sacrificed DVD.Objectionable stuff, but very well made. And the same can be said by the Angel Guts films, recently put out in a boxed set by ArtsMagic, with a good deal of extras such as the original trailers, interviews with the directors and commentaries by yours truly. Some great transfers on most of them, the films are certainly worth seeing if you havent already, especially Noboru Tanaka’s Angel Guts: Nami, the third in the series.

   For Pink, Screen Edge put out a few from the early 90s - the best two are Hisayasu Sato’s The Bedroom and Toshiki Sato’s Tandem, though both directors have done better. Hisayasu Sato’s Naked Blood, while not pink, if you haven’t seen it already, is far better than its blood and guts reputation suggests. He’s definitely the David Cronenburg of the pink world.

   The Salvation releases do leave a little to be desired in terms of packaging and extras, but the films themselves are what should draw you. Zeze’s Raigyo and Toshiki Sato’s Lost Virgin are pretty good. Watch up for the upcoming release of a film called Ambiguous though - which made my top 10 last year under its original pink theatre release title of Obscene Internet Group: Make Me Come.

   And of course, the early releases of Koji Wakamatsu, such as Violent Virgin, Go Go Second Time Virgin, Skeletons in the Closet etc.

10. stauffen 05/01/2005 @ 7:07am

    Isn’t Weisser running ‘Video Search of Miami’?

    As for Wakamatsu, there might be a big surprise by the end of the year.

11. logboy 05/01/2005 @ 11:02am

    raigyo is on sale at play.com for £7 or something similar. ‘wife to be sacrificed’ remains on my list. i really enjoyed chusei sone entry in the ‘angel guts’ boxset. wanted for sometime to see ‘watcher in the attic’ and ‘a woman called sada abe’ but havent yet. have ‘naked blood’ but havent watched it yet, and soon to get “star of david’ too… also noticed ‘the bedroom’ and ‘tandem’ mentioned before, but i must say i distrust UK dvds for so many reasons - and i am in the UK…

    anyone know why salvation havent put any more of their pink / romanporno stuff out, as i am sure they licensed a massive amount of it. their site seems to stop dead late 2004.

12. jasper sharp 05/01/2005 @ 2:34pm

    For 7quid, I really suggest you pick up Raigyo.

    I think Salvation will be releasing stuff fairly regularly until the end of the year. They seem to have one or two new titles coming out every month, so keep watching what they put out.

    Of course, Woman Called Abe Sada is also great- surprised I forgot that one. Star of David is neither pink nor RomanPorno, and I am not a great fan of this film - far too Sadean for my liking, though v well made. I also forgot the Dutch release of Wet Rope Confession, the Nikkatsu nun movie. A fun title, but hardly essential.

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