Filling the late night Saturday slot at the Shinsedai Cinema Festival is a double bill of ‘pink’ films. For those of you unaware of the sub-genre, pink films are short Japanese erotic productions. These were long ignored in the West, with most dismissing them as nothing but pornography, but have fairly recently been seen in a different light through the writing of Shinsedai’s Jasper Sharp in his book Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema, and the dedicated distribution of such titles by the label Pink Eiga.

What became apparent after more of the pink films were brought to a wider audience, was that many of the titles were wildly imaginative, with young directors making the most of the opportunity to make films with no restrictions. Of course budgets and timescales were limited, but this pushed many directors to just run with whatever they had, making for some exciting and madcap movies. For this reason, the films were often used as stepping stones for the directors to move on to full length, more respectable features. For instance, Yojiro Takita, director of the Oscar-winning Departures made his start in pink films.

Showing at the festival are Sexy Battle Girls (1986) and New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave (2007) and below are my brief thoughts on the titles. Now I must admit, despite being a big fan of Japanese cinema and having a fairly decent knowledge of its exploitation output in particular, I haven’t actually seen any ‘true’ pink films. I’ve seen Female Prisoner #701: Scorpion which comes close, but with its heavy doses of gore and action it’s classed as one of Toei’s ‘pinky-violence’ films which are a little different. So my reviews should give a glimpse of what a newcomer might take from experiencing these films (I watched them pretty much back to back too).

Sexy Battle Girls

Director: Mototsugu Watanabe
Screenplay: Masumi Hirayanagi
Starring: Saeko Fuji, Kyôko Hashimoto, Yukijirô Hotaru
MPAA Rating: UNRATED
Running Time: 59 min
Year: 1986

Sexy Battle Girls is exactly the sort of thing I picture when I think of pink films. Lots of sex of course, but also featuring plenty of schoolgirls, some brutal violence and large doses of absurdity.

The concept/story is laid out from the offset (after an extended sex scene of course). Mirai (Kyôko Hashimoto) has been cursed with an extremely dangerous ability – the ‘Venus Crush’. This is basically the ability to slice and dice anything that enters her vagina. After accidentally performing said action on her first true love (her teacher), her father scolds her and reminds her (i.e. tells the audience) that she should only use her Venus Crush for a great revenge that he has long been planning. After the incident, Mirai transfers schools to a rough private one, unaware that the school’s headmaster is the man her father wants to bring down after he took his wife from him.

Sexy Battle Girls is pretty batshit crazy and all the better for it. From Mirai’s ludicrously over the top chastity belt, to the headmaster’s random bird that perches on his shoulder throughout the film, to the pen darts that Mirai’s rival uses as a weapon, there is much fun to be had in the film’s eccentricities. Best of all is the introduction of the ‘dildo-catcher’, which is sort of a yo-yo weapon that has a secret dildo inside that is aimed at any enemy’s private parts to incapacitate its victims. It is used on several occasions and the results are drawn out for maximum exposure.

This brings me to a big issue I had with the film though. As manic as much of the film is, the sex scenes are always long and drawn out and slow the pace down dramatically. Of course these are meant to be erotic films and at their core intended for the ‘dirty mac brigade’, but that side of things wasn’t what was drawing me in, so I tended to lose interest. For the erotic connoisseurs, I guess these scenes were much more inventive and classy than in your standard top shelf material and were erotic enough (away from the rape sequences), but for me they made the hour of running time feel like an hour and a half.

For my first taste of pink cinema I could see the appeal of Sexy Battle Girls though and I very much enjoyed the insanity frequently on display, I just felt more than a little awkward sitting at home with a notepad watching the lengthy sex scenes.

New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave

Director: Osamu Satô
Screenplay: Akira Fukuhara
Starring: Rinako Hirasawa, Kikujiro Honda, Tarô Araki, Komari Awashima, Naoyuki Chiba
MPAA Rating: UNRATED
Running Time: 62 min
Year: 2007

The festival programmers have chosen two wildly diverse examples of the pink genre. Whereas Sexy Battle Girls was all crazy fighting schoolgirls and bizarre sex toy weaponry, New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave was something else entirely.

Pitched more like a straight up drama, New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave is an odd film that is reminiscent of Steven Shainberg’s Secretary, but with less humour and more graphic sex/sadomasochism. The story, as to be expected, is kept very simple. Reportedly based on lead actress Rinako Hirasawa’s personal experiences, the film tells the story of a masochist who becomes a personal slave for her boss. Despite the horrific nature of his actions to her, she is quite happy in this situation, until a co-worker expresses his love for her and she toys with the idea of a ‘normal’ life.

Even though there is a lot of highly graphic sexual content here, New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave didn’t feel as much of a ‘dirty movie’ to me as it first looked. The central performance is believable and highly effective, and the story or at least the situations are strangely fascinating and surprisingly engaging. The acts of sadomasochism aren’t overplayed, allowing the viewer to understand Hirasawa’s character’s motivations, even if they don’t necessarily share her tastes.

The film is also very inventive in its direction and visuals too. There are some clever transitions between scenes, including a cool dream sequence which uses footage on a TV to introduce itself. A couple of sequences are made up of still images too, which paces up those sections by filling in gaps quickly and efficiently. The opening shot of the girl tied to a tree in a barren landscape is a powerful image too and goes to show that even armed with a dated video camera and minimal crew you can create beautiful imagery.

It’s maybe not a film I’d rush to see again and it’s a little too sparse to be massively memorable, but as a fascinating look into the psychology of a masochist it is certainly worth a watch. A strangely straight approach to such unusual subject matter makes for a unique experience.

Sexy Battle Girls and New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave screen together as a double bill at the Shinsedai Cinema Festival @ The Revue Cinema on Saturday, July 14, at 9:30pm. Click here for more info.