pinku films 1

[Roland Domenig]

> The UK video of The Bedroom is, I believe, quite heavily cut.
> I haven't seen Dream of Garuda, as it looked like it was pretty tacky but if
> anyone has any comments on Tandem I'd appreciate hearing them.

Although I haven't seen the UK video version of "The Bedroom", I don't think
it was cut but that it is identical with the subtitled film that was shown
at the Rotterdam Film Festival and the Viennale. According to the catalogues
of both festivals as well as the Visionary homepage the length of the film
is 60 minutes as opposed to 64 minutes quoted in most Japanese sources.
Because Visionary and the Rotterdam catalogue list all pink eiga with 60
minutes, they seem not to give the exact but only an approximate time. The
demo-tape of the subtitled film that I have (which should be identical with
"The Bedroom") is 63 minutes long and without cuts.
However, if compared with the 75 minute Japanese video version of the film
that was released under the title "Yume no naka de okashite koroshite" by
Eafiirudo (Airfield) 2 years ago, the English version may appear to be
heavily cut. This is not the case, however, because the extended Japanese
video is not identical with the original film version but was made later to
fit into the program of the video distributor.
[Besides, the naked woman wrapped up in cling film, that Jasper mentioned,
appears only briefly, even in the longer Japanese video version]

I also think that Zeze's Dream of Garuda is not tacky, but a quite
interesting film. In Dream of Garuda Zeze further developed the main theme
of his previous (and following) films, rebirth, making references to ancient
Japanese myths like the Yamato Takeru legend or the saigu-system of the
Ise-Shrine. The film therefore is also a complex philosophical refection on
topics such as life, destiny and guilt.

Roland Domenig
Institute for Japanese Studies
Vienna University