Kirsten Cather
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824835873
- eISBN:
- 9780824871604
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824835873.003.0005
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Asian Studies
This chapter discusses the censorship trial of Nikkatsu Roman Porn, a Japanese porn film industry ran by the Nikkatsu studio. It particularly examines the predicaments of the defendants: three ...
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This chapter discusses the censorship trial of Nikkatsu Roman Porn, a Japanese porn film industry ran by the Nikkatsu studio. It particularly examines the predicaments of the defendants: three directors, three Eirin inspectors, and three film studio executives. Each group of defendants retained its own legal counsel, and one of the directors appointed his own, resulting in an unwieldy total of four lawyers representing nine defendants. To make matters worse, one of these defense lawyers was appointed by the Nikkatsu labor union, which lurked in the background of the trial as a not-so-silent player and aligned itself with the state prosecutor as well as with the Japanese Communist Party. The defendants were charged under article 175 for “making male and female actors enact poses of sexual intercourse, raping women, girl-girl sex play” accompanied by frank facial expressions, vocalizations, and the like.Less
This chapter discusses the censorship trial of Nikkatsu Roman Porn, a Japanese porn film industry ran by the Nikkatsu studio. It particularly examines the predicaments of the defendants: three directors, three Eirin inspectors, and three film studio executives. Each group of defendants retained its own legal counsel, and one of the directors appointed his own, resulting in an unwieldy total of four lawyers representing nine defendants. To make matters worse, one of these defense lawyers was appointed by the Nikkatsu labor union, which lurked in the background of the trial as a not-so-silent player and aligned itself with the state prosecutor as well as with the Japanese Communist Party. The defendants were charged under article 175 for “making male and female actors enact poses of sexual intercourse, raping women, girl-girl sex play” accompanied by frank facial expressions, vocalizations, and the like.
David Desser
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780748691104
- eISBN:
- 9781474406437
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3366/edinburgh/9780748691104.003.0006
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
As with American film noir, named retrospectively by French critics, so, too, Japanese noir was similarly imagined from a retrospective point of view. Criterion’s release of a group of films in their ...
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As with American film noir, named retrospectively by French critics, so, too, Japanese noir was similarly imagined from a retrospective point of view. Criterion’s release of a group of films in their Eclipse series under the rubric “Nikkatsu Noir” marks a good place to start a conversation about Japanese Noir. This chapter traces Japanese noir from the late 1950s, when Nikkatsu Studios initiated a series of dark, violent, paranoid thrillers, through the turn of the new millennium. Along the way the chapter traces the recurrence of common character types, in particular the professional killer, or hit-man, and the private eye; particular narrative motifs, such as flight, vengeance and attempts to go straight; and defining images, including “borderlessness,” and, especially the gun. There is also examination of gender issues, highlighting the significant presence of women in the genre through examination of the career of Kaji Meiko, Natsume Rei, and Yonekura Ryoko. These films, often dubbed “girls with guns,” distinguishes Japanese neo-noir from much other international noir. And major directors are examined, including Nomura Takashi, Suzuki Norifumi, Miike Takashi, Hayashi Kaizo, Ikeda Toshiharu and Tsukamoto Shinya.Less
As with American film noir, named retrospectively by French critics, so, too, Japanese noir was similarly imagined from a retrospective point of view. Criterion’s release of a group of films in their Eclipse series under the rubric “Nikkatsu Noir” marks a good place to start a conversation about Japanese Noir. This chapter traces Japanese noir from the late 1950s, when Nikkatsu Studios initiated a series of dark, violent, paranoid thrillers, through the turn of the new millennium. Along the way the chapter traces the recurrence of common character types, in particular the professional killer, or hit-man, and the private eye; particular narrative motifs, such as flight, vengeance and attempts to go straight; and defining images, including “borderlessness,” and, especially the gun. There is also examination of gender issues, highlighting the significant presence of women in the genre through examination of the career of Kaji Meiko, Natsume Rei, and Yonekura Ryoko. These films, often dubbed “girls with guns,” distinguishes Japanese neo-noir from much other international noir. And major directors are examined, including Nomura Takashi, Suzuki Norifumi, Miike Takashi, Hayashi Kaizo, Ikeda Toshiharu and Tsukamoto Shinya.
