When it came to the golden era of Roman Porno, the late Tatsumi Kumashiro was Nikkatsu’s greatest asset. Beginning with the successful Wet Lips (1972), he directed many of the company’s biggest hits, many that featured “wet” in the title like Ichijo’s Wet Lust (1972), Lovers Are Wet (1973), and the subject of this article…
WOODS ARE WET: WOMAN HELL
original title: 女地獄 森は濡れた (Onna jigoku: mori wa nureta)
Japan, 1973, Tatsumi Kumashiro
Sachiko can’t believe her luck. But of course, things are never that easy. Yoko calmly informs Sachiko that her husband, Ryûnosuke (Hatsuo Yamaya), is a cruel and violent man. Upon meeting Ryûnosuke, 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 creepy couple keep Sachiko prisoner and enlist her help in the rape and murder of two customers of the inn. In a typical Roman Porno, the customers would be women, but in this case we have two unsuspecting men. Before being dispatched, the men are forced to have sex with Sachiko and Yoko at gunpoint. If that’s not enough, Ryûnosuke joins in, buggering the men from behind before blowing their brains out mid-fuck.
Woods Are Wet: Woman Hell‘s first act is subdued and, while it has an undeniably ominous tone, it certainly doesn’t give any hints of the jaw-dropping depraved hell it will soon transform into. The film’s centrepiece, the rape and murder of the two guests, is shocking not so much in its bloody violence but the creative sadism employed by Yoko and Ryûnosuke.
Set somewhere in the first half of the 20th century, Woods Are Wet is deceptively beautiful. Much of it takes place in darkness, with candlelit rooms and moonlight as the onscreen sources of illumination. Kumashiro flits between claustrophobic close ups and lengthy, unsettling wide shots.
As a creative choice, Kumashiro exaggerates the censorship imposed by the Japanese government. Instead of the usual fogging, Woods Are Wet features intrusive slabs of black that hack out any sight of genitals and pubic hair. While I appreciate Kumashiro’s message, the censorship is extremely frustrating and takes away some of the power from the film’s nastier moments.
The cast perform brilliantly in their roles. Hatsuo Yamaya is perhaps the least interesting as the archetypal pinku sicko, though he deserves credit for maintaining his manic energy in the film’s more uncomfortable and depraved scenes. Hiroko Isayama’s character calls for a more restrained approach and she is quietly excellent. Rie Nakagawa is easily the standout. As the truth about her character is revealed, her entire voice and physicality changes. Early on, she creates much of the film’s tension.
I’ve seen far more repulsive Roman Pornos, but there’s something exceptionally unnerving about Woods Are Wet. The delight that the characters take in death and humiliation, the sudden brutal change in tone, the sweaty piles of boning bodies (both dead and alive) — it’s all very unpleasant. It’s also incredibly well made. Kumashiro mixes sex, death and sadism into the bleakest of tales. This is one Roman Porno I won’t be forgetting in a hurry.
Availability:
Woods Are Wet is available on DVD in Japan, unfortunately with no subtitles. There are, however, fan subs that some lovely person made floating around online.
2 comments
Japanese-cinema lover says:
Aug 25, 2015
Movies like this are evil and should not be enjoyed but shuttered at and left to bestroyed. Some will claim, like here, that it should be preserved as part of histoey, but you realize that the yakuza made these films and the women involved are more than likely forced into ths with humiliation and fear.
Mondo Exploitation, just stop with this sickening gerne. Its not healthy and its not making the world a better place, in fact its making it worse. The fact that its a roman porno should stop any person from watching it. Its great to know that you went through the trouble of telling us its a porno, but its sick and wrong. You generally find that almost everyone involved in porn feels it ruined their lives, was dehumanizing, and even sexually abused at one pount in their lives. You want some statistics, do yourself a favor go find them yourself.
What kind of message do you think porn sounds young veiwers or readers? Do you want your child to grow up being involved in the porn industry?
“As a young boy of 12 or 13, I encountered, outside the home, in the local grocery and drug stores, softcore pornography. Young boys explore the sideways and byways of their neighborhoods, and in our neighborhood, people would dump the garbage. From time to time, we would come across books of a harder nature – more graphic. This also included detective magazines, etc., and I want to emphasize this. The most damaging kind of pornography – and I’m talking from hard, real, personal experience – is that that involves violence and sexual violence. The wedding of those two forces – as I know only too well – brings about behavior that is too terrible to describe.”
– Ted Bundy, Final Interview
Dave Jackson says:
Aug 25, 2015
It disturbs me that people like you exist. No one was forced into making this film. These are actors who had long and successful careers. This was made by one of Japan’s biggest film distributors, not some seedy gang of snuff peddlers. A “Roman Porno” is also probably not what you think it is either, so you might want to do some research before you lambaste someone on the internet.
“You generally find that almost everyone involved in porn feels it ruined their lives.” — That is the most absurd, generalising statement I’ve heard in a while. And quoting psychotic serial killer Ted Bundy to back you up isn’t doing you any favours.