(View of Los Angeles Downtown, Sunrise, 1/1/09)明けましておめでとうございます！今年もよろしくお願いします！
Wishing you all the best in 2009!
Okay, so towards the end of last year I helped the Pink Eiga folks out by doing some writing for them. As such I've had a chance to check out several of their releases and previews of many more and I have to say that these guys are doing good work.
But what I'm worried about is that they're also doing thankless work that no one will buy... It's no secret that the world economy is in the tank [duh!] and add to that the fact that DVD sales are down and you get how tough it is to be a new DVD company on the block.
Now, add to that the fact that Pinku Eiga is relatively unknown genre outside of Japan and is frequently mistaken as Nikkatsu Roman Porno or regular old softcore porn and you start to see the difficulties that Pinku Eiga might be facing. (For a good write up on this all, I humbly defer to my pal Jasper Sharp's excellent new book Behind the Pink Curtain -- or you can check out the preview of it on the Midnighteye website.)**
At any rate, the folks over at Pink Eiga are putting out good stuff. I definitely recommend that you check out their site and, if possible, purchase directly from them since you get both free shipping [yes!!] and a bonus disc [score!!!]. This is good deal for them too, since they stand to earn a few more dollars from the sale by cutting out the middle man.
Anyway, here's an excerpt from the press release, talking about their first releases:
Los Angeles based distributor PINK EIGA Inc. was established in 2008 to promote this unique genre to the international market. Their inaugural titles are: “S&M Hunter” (1986, Dir. Shuji Kataoka) and “New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave” (2007, Dir. Osamu Sato). “S&M Hunter” had its North American premier this year at the popular Fantastic Fest held in Austin, Texas. Greeted with an enthusiastic response, the audience was riveted by this hitherto unknown genre.Here's a trailer for one of their first releases, S&M HUNTER!
“S&M Hunter” is an action fantasy film that references Japanese Manga and Anime. Definitely not politically correct, it tells the story of the S&M Hunter—a man who has the ability to dominate women by using his rope. After a man’s boyfriend is kidnapped by a girl gang called the “Bombers,” he hires the S&M Hunter to track down his missing lover. Certainly an equal opportunity offender, “S&M Hunter” leaves no taboo unturned—or so we think—until we reach the unbelievable conclusion of the film, with the ultimate coup de grace: a rope bondage stunt where a woman is bound and dangled from the end of a 200ft high crane! This ending has become legendary in Japanese film history.
By contrast, PINK EIGA Inc’s other release, “New Tokyo Decadence: The Slave” is a BDSM semi-fictional autobiography of the film’s star: Rinako Hirasawa. Telling of Hirasawa’s journey in discovering her inner-masochist, we’re introduced to a young Rinako as a sexually promiscuous high school student who gets ‘extracurricular’ lessons (in BDSM) from her math teacher. Once graduated and in the working world, Rinako discovers that the boss at her new job wants her as his slave. Falling comfortably into this role, Rinako discovers that this is her raison d’etre. The rest, as they say, is bondage!
And here's a trailer for NEW TOKYO DECADENCE: THE SLAVE!
You can check out more about the films and their upcoming release slate on their site, pinkeiga.com.
**Incidentally, I'd avoid what's written up on Wikipedia about Pink Eiga-- it's filled with errors.
2 comments:
Hooray for pink eiga! And Pink Eiga, too.
I wish these guys only the best, and really hope that they can find a receptive audience. It's difficult to know whether it's better to market to a general crowd (probably not, given the subject matter), the Japanese fanboy crowd (again, probably not - they'll find out about these releases on their own) or the raincoat / perv crowd (probably the best bet, since they'll buy anything that fits their particular fetish). From within the world of Japanese film, a world anybody reading this blog already inhabits, these seem to be shoo-ins, but I have to keep reminding myself that 99.9% of America has no idea what you mean by "pink film", let alone any familiarity with the titles themselves.
Still, kudos to Ayumu and Nadav and crew for taking a brave step. I hope their investments in the titles and manufacturing aren't too great and they can coast for a few months until they get a bunch of stuff into the marketplace. This kind of stuff seems like a no-brainer for downloading and mobile devices, too - that's an area I'd like to see them get into.
I agree that all of their hardwork may be vain, but I feel like it up to the hardcore fans out there to step up and help promote the genre. I work for a online retailer who specializes in international, erotic, or skinema (I hate that term). We have received pretty positive feeback from films relating to the pink gengre. Over the past several months (espeically after speaking with Nadav) I have been trying to use our business as a tool to make people more aware and shed light on this amazing, dark little corner of film.
I can only hope that releasing companies with the heart and knowlege for the genre, like Pink Eiga, will be what brings new light to Pinku. I wish them the best of luck, and I can not wait until they have more releases come out that our company will be able to carry. It would be really nice to portion out a section on our site dedicated to Pink film (well, that's what Id like to see).
Viva La Pinku!
LuridPink
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