Tatsumi Kumashiro

Considered to be one of the best Japanese films of the ‘70s, Tatsumi Kumashiro’s The World of Geisha is a keen examination of the swirling nexus that attracts sex to money and money to power. Set in a geisha house just before the Russo-Japanese War, a beautiful Geisha spends the night with a first-time customer who is about to be married. As an experienced geisha, she is not supposed to become personally involved (or sexually excited), but does anyway. Her fellow geishas, both young and old, become involved with a variety of relationships as Kumashiro boldly analyzes the politics of the period using images of rice riots, Korean uprisings, and the eventual Japanese invasion of Siberia.Read More »

Sachiko is on the run from the law after being implicated in the murder of her mistress. In her travels, she comes across the charming, squeaky-voiced Yoko who offers her refuge in her candle-lit inn. She can’t believe her luck. But of course, things are never that easy. Yoko calmly informs her that her husband, Ryûnosuke, is a cruel and violent man. Upon meeting him, it becomes clear that Yoko’s claims were not unfounded – though she has left out the part about how she enjoys cruelty and sexual deviance just as much as her significant other. The couple blackmails her and threatens to deliver her to the police. Sachiko has no other choice but to obey them.Read More »

The story of Takeha, a free-spirited genius poet who lived through Taisho Romanticism, and the women who gave themselves over to his ambitions.Read More »

It’s the evening before the day all brothels must be shut-down, according to the new law, in 1958. At the Kofukuya’s (literally, the house that sells happiness), five prostitutes decide to celebrate the day. Erotism, drama, and comedy mix as each hour, and a different event passes, in which all the women’s stories come to the surface.Read More »

Based on a polemic novel by Amy Yamada, Bedtime Eyes is about the intense love relationship between a second rate Japanese jazz singer and a black American GI on the margins of the law.Read More »

Quote:
This self-reflexive pinku eiga film may be to Nikkatsu softcore what Boogie Nights was to American hardcore. Shin Kishida stars as Juzo, a self-important pinku eiga director clearly modeled on Nagisa Oshima. Production is halted on his new film when lead actress Meiko is too obviously pregnant to film sex scenes. Looking for a replacement, he comes across the ubiquitous Naomi Tani, starring here in one of the rare roles which doesn’t require her to be bound with rope. Everything goes well until Tani starts a sex scene with Hajime Tanimoto, who got Meiko pregnant. Juzo realizes that he’s in love with his new starlet, so he cancels the film, marries Tani, and lives happily ever after.Read More »

Synopsis
In 1923 a Japanese comes to Munich and immediately falls in love with a street artist with a red hat, without knowing her past is. She turns to the Japanese, for the first time she thinks she has found her really great love- exotic stranger attracts her. They say a lot, but they do not understand each other – but they can show their love. Nevertheless, the relationship is doomed to failure from the beginning. Disappointment, death and loss.Read More »

Quote:
“Bitterness of Youth (1974) was Kumashiro’s first non-roman poruno (<– wrong), based on a novel with a family resemblance to Dreiser’s “An American Tragedy “and set in a milieu of imploded student radicalism: A callow law student impregnates the classmate he is tutoring, then dumps her for his wealthy cousin. The most extraordinary scene has the antihero and his ex revisit the ski resort where they began their affair—carrying on in the snow in a long, behavioral sequence that recapitulates their relationship as they roll struggling and screaming downhill toward a raging river.”Read More »

The Taisho era was a time of turbulence in Japan. From new marks of modernity to full-blown riots, a sense of revolution filled the air. The Dam Dam Group is a small anarchist organization lead by Daijiro, a silver tongued “Benshi”, a performer who provides narratives for silent films, playing multiple roles. In other words, he was a master at the art of deception, a handy talent when it came to ‘doing jobs’ for his group. His revolutionary ideals attracted many to his squadron, but among them was a young girl who was oblivious to his group’s activities. Her name was Shino.Read More »