Abnormal Family: Older Brother’s Bride (1984)
I love that pink cinema can be a place where careers begin rather than end. More specifically, I love that pink cinema can be a place where Yasujirô Ozu is lovingly paid tribute.
Molester’s Train – Japanese poster
Molesting people on trains. It seems like it would be an absurdly specific fetish yet it spawned an entire sub-genre of pink films. We live in a strange and hilarious world.
Real Time Tapping Report: Pillow Talk (1993)
Pillow Talk is an impressive achievement and staggering proof that thoughtful cinema — on both a visual and thematic scale — can be made with next to no money and a tight schedule.
Trapped in Lust (1973)
Trapped in Lust is exactly the sort of pink film that got me interested in the genre in the first place. From its super cool poppy soundtrack that always kicks in at the right moment to its swaggering leading man, this is a film dripping in style.
Woods Are Wet: Woman Hell (1973)
I've seen far more repulsive Roman Pornos, but there's something exceptionally unnerving about Woods Are Wet. Kumashiro mixes sex, death and sadism into the bleakest of tales. This is one Roman Porno I won't be forgetting in a hurry.
Abortion (1966)
Abortion, as you might guess from its title, is a parodic take on the exploitative birth film genre. Adachi was not the only filmmaker to parody the genre. A slew of abortion films appeared in the late 60s and early 70s essentially becoming a sub-genre of its own.
Milk the Maid (2013)
If you're in the mood for a light and fluffy pinku eiga, free from nihilism and weeping, then Milk the Maid may be for you.
The Bedroom (1992)
Satō's films generally leave me feeling physically ill, and The Bedroom is no exception. The Bedroom is not graphic, but Satō's characteristically bold deconstruction of perversion, alienation, and voyeurism is unflinchingly grim.
Black Snow (1965)
With Daydream, Tetsuji Takechi made the first mainstream pinku eiga, but with Black Snow, he really ruffled feathers. Yet for all its importance, Black Snow is largely forgotten.
The Blowjob Messiah
This scene from Whore Angels features an angelic prostitute healing the sick and the old through the power of a good blowjob.
Violated Angels (1967)
Violated Angels takes a similar approach to Wakamatsu's The Embryo Hunts in Secret. Both take place almost entirely in a single location, and both are viciously misanthropic.
Pinku triple bill at Ueno’s Okura Theater
When I interviewed Jasper Sharp, author of Behind the Pink Curtain, last year, I mentioned that I was visiting Tokyo soon and whether there were any pinku theatres still in operation that I could visit. Sharp mentioned Ueno’s Okura Theater; an OP Eiga owned theatre recently reopened and refurbished with a steady stream of clientele....
