IKIJIGOKU and LOVE/JUICE

[Roland Domenig]

> I've got a quick question about this LOVE/JUICE.  Or perhaps not about this
> LOVE/JUICE... I recall there was a similarly-titled film on the Eiga
> Geijutsu top 10 list (???` something-or-other).  Are these the same thing (I
> doubt it)?  If not can somebody provide a little information about the title
> that was in the top 10?  I've been looking for a video, and a few weeks ago
> I asked a friend who works at Tsutaya about this.  He said he had never
> heard of it.

The film that made it into Eigei's Top Ten is a pink eiga with the title
"Love Juice" (OL no aijiru - rabu juusu) by Tajiri Yuji. It is some kind of
90's version of Kumashiro Tatsumi's "Woman with Red Hair" (Akai kami no
onna) about the love-affair of an OL, who was just sacked by her lover, with
a 8 year younger student.
Tajiri started as assistant director for Sato Hisayasu and Zeze Takahisa and
together with Imaoka Shinji, Ueda Toshiya, Enomoto Toshiro and Sakamoto Rei
belongs to the post-'shitenno' generation of pink eiga directors. "Love
Juice" was his second film and got him wide acclaim, which can be seen in
the fact that the script of "Love Juice" was included in the July edition of
the 'Sceneario'-magazine (a very rare thing for a pink eiga). Nr. 70 of the
magazine PG features a long interview with Tajiri.
There also is a video but, as so often with pink eiga, it was released under
a different titel: "Hataraku oneesama Aftaa 5 wa gaman dekinai" by Airfield.
It is certainly worth to look out for it!

Roland Domenig
Institute for Japanese Studies
Vienna University