From 1971 to 1988, the Japanese studio Nikkatsu famously cranked out more than a thousand sexploitation films so a horny populace could, y’know, crank ’em out. The riotous Nikkatsu Roman Porno Trailer Collection offers the “coming” attractions for 38 of them, giving you a taste of not only an hour’s worth of Nikkatsu’s arty, yet over-the-top output, but of how insanely fucked-up the country’s culture can be. How else to explain such ludicrously lurid titles as I Love It From Behind!, Painful Bliss! A Surprise Twist, Nurse Diary: Mischievous Fingers and Nympho Diver: G-String Festival?
Most of the trailers look similar to the others, with men violating women in acts of (I assume) simulated sex, but under the Japanese censors’ fairly stringent rules of verboten visuals, i.e. genitals and penetration. Therefore, everything else is amped up to fill the gap, so to speak, from dialogue (“How do you rape? Try it on me? Let’s see you try! Fill me with your pistil!” per Female Teacher Hunting) and scenarios (orgasmic Olympic hopefuls of Female Gymnastics Instructor: Jump and Straddle) to those say-it-all/do-it-all titles (Nurses’ Dormitory: Assy Fingers, anyone?) and their taglines to match.
Ah, yes, the taglines. Consider:
• “A house of pleasure wreathed in the fragrance of semen.” (Sex Hunter)
• “The woman’s flame awaits the man’s sap with her moistened lips trembling.” (Zoom Up: Beaver Book Girl)
• “Sexy women should make love while they’re still hot!” (She Cat)
• “Tear it apart! Punch them hard!” (Sex Hunter: Wet Target)
• “Give it all to fuck ‘n’ roll!” (Oh! Women: Dirty Songs)
• “Between the legs of island girls can be found awabi clams, akagai clams, sea urchins, and sea slugs … even the first catch of the season goes into that moist place.” (Pearl Divers: Tight Shellfish)
If I already didn’t eat seafood, that last one would do it.
The so-called “romantic pornography” of “Roman Pornos” run the genre gamut, offering serious melodrama (Affair in the Early Afternoon: Kyoto Tapestry), horror (Zoom In: Rape Apartments), superhero comedy (Sex Fiend), historical costume pageantry (Confidential Report: Prostitute Torture Hell), crime thrillers (Race Across the Drenched Wasteland), movie spoofs (New Company Girls: 9 to 5) and the how-to instructional (Rape Me! Sexual Assault in a Hotel Room) … well, instructional if you need to know how to make an impromptu beer-bottle douche. Soccer moms, before you get all holier than thou, be sure to stick a bookmark in your copy of Fifty Shades of Grey first, please. —Rod Lott