While it might be too much to say that the Japanese film industry was in shambles by the late 1960s because of the popularity of television and Western films, it is indeed appropriate to say that it had fallen on hard times. Kurosawa and a number of his contemporaries were either no longer making films or, because their needed budgets were quite high, had their films produced in foreign countries. Even independent film directors such as Oshima Nagisa directed television documentaries in order to support their film endeavors? So what type of film dominated theater screens during the late sixties and the early seventies? Pink films, or soft core porn. While they were viewed as the lowest form of film art, they did draw (male) audiences and a few of the starlets from these films did in fact become quite recognizable.
As for content, most of these films were quite vacuous and, of course, the aim of titillation was more important than plot or true innovativeness. Yet, there were some pink film directors such as Wakamatsu Koji who tried to add an artistic treatment to his pink films. With extraordinarily low budgets, say around one million yen per film which was valued then in the late sixties around five thousand dollars, which led to him using non top of the line pink film starlets, Wakamatsu created films that to some might seem philosophical and to others nothing more than porn with airs of something higher, but it should be noted that his film effort, Affairs Within Walls (1965) did receive acclaim from the judges at the Berlin Film Festival, but it also led to his being fired by Nikkatsu in 1965.In 1969 Wakamatsu directed ten films, including Go, Go, Second Time Virgin and the film I am about to review Violent Virgin or Gewalt! Gewalt: shojo geba-geba.
Filmed entirely in a desolate field, Violent Virgin opens with two cars traveling along a dusty road. Three men and three women, apparently members of a gang, have a couple bound and blindfolded. After they reach their demonstration, they drag the man and woman, whose names we soon learn are Hoshi and Hanako, out of the cars and dump them on the ground. It seems that Hanako was the boss's girl, but she eloped with Hoshi. Captured, it seems that they are going to be murdered, but not before they are humiliated by the other gang members. Their clothes are eventually stripped off and Hanako is tied to a cross. Hoshi is informed that the big boss has ordered that he be made into the "boss" for the day. The male members of the gang refer to Hoshi as "boss" and each of the female members intend to have sex with him before he is killed. However, Hoshi strangles the first prostitute and runs. After this, things really begin to become bizarre.
It would be too easy to call Violent Virgin a disturbing film. The quality of acting and the surreal setting of the setting keeps the viewer from being truly drawn into the film, but the film does touch on a number of issues that the viewer cannot help but ponder after the film, almost mercifully, comes to an end, such as the distinction between man and beast and how thin the wall separating the two might truly be. While I cannot recommend this film to the casual viewer of Japanese film, it might be an interesting film to view for those interested in Japanese New Wave films or those interested in a director who is often considered to be an outcast amongst outcasts.
As for content, most of these films were quite vacuous and, of course, the aim of titillation was more important than plot or true innovativeness. Yet, there were some pink film directors such as Wakamatsu Koji who tried to add an artistic treatment to his pink films. With extraordinarily low budgets, say around one million yen per film which was valued then in the late sixties around five thousand dollars, which led to him using non top of the line pink film starlets, Wakamatsu created films that to some might seem philosophical and to others nothing more than porn with airs of something higher, but it should be noted that his film effort, Affairs Within Walls (1965) did receive acclaim from the judges at the Berlin Film Festival, but it also led to his being fired by Nikkatsu in 1965.In 1969 Wakamatsu directed ten films, including Go, Go, Second Time Virgin and the film I am about to review Violent Virgin or Gewalt! Gewalt: shojo geba-geba.
Filmed entirely in a desolate field, Violent Virgin opens with two cars traveling along a dusty road. Three men and three women, apparently members of a gang, have a couple bound and blindfolded. After they reach their demonstration, they drag the man and woman, whose names we soon learn are Hoshi and Hanako, out of the cars and dump them on the ground. It seems that Hanako was the boss's girl, but she eloped with Hoshi. Captured, it seems that they are going to be murdered, but not before they are humiliated by the other gang members. Their clothes are eventually stripped off and Hanako is tied to a cross. Hoshi is informed that the big boss has ordered that he be made into the "boss" for the day. The male members of the gang refer to Hoshi as "boss" and each of the female members intend to have sex with him before he is killed. However, Hoshi strangles the first prostitute and runs. After this, things really begin to become bizarre.
It would be too easy to call Violent Virgin a disturbing film. The quality of acting and the surreal setting of the setting keeps the viewer from being truly drawn into the film, but the film does touch on a number of issues that the viewer cannot help but ponder after the film, almost mercifully, comes to an end, such as the distinction between man and beast and how thin the wall separating the two might truly be. While I cannot recommend this film to the casual viewer of Japanese film, it might be an interesting film to view for those interested in Japanese New Wave films or those interested in a director who is often considered to be an outcast amongst outcasts.