Pink 50th Birthday and Re: Top 32 Nikkatsu Roman Porno

[M Arnold]

On 2012/03/18 3:07 PM, Jasper Sharp wrote:
> I still shudder at the memory of sitting huddled into my overcoat,
hiding, in a packed British Film Institute screen 2 while watching Wife
to Be Sacrificed...

At least you were dressed appropriately!

Jasper, do you remember any specific comments from the audience about
the Wife to Be Sacrificed screening that you would be willing to share
here?

The Eurospace Roman Porno program looks exciting, even if it is missing
a few of my favorites. The timing is puzzling though. 2012 may be the
100th anniversary of Nikkatsu's first film, but Roman Porno didn't start
until 1971. I think most or all of the titles on this list are currently
available on DVD too.

2012 is also the 50th anniversary of the first so-called Pink Film,
Kobayashi Satoru's Nikutai no ichiba, which was released Feb. 27 1962.

The new Ueno Okura theater has planned a couple of weeks of special
screenings to celebrate the history of the Pink Film. The most
interesting looking title in this week's program is Yamamoto Shinya's
1974 "Mysteries of the Butt" (Oshiri no shinpi). The Okura staff tweeted
that Shintoho had to dig up an old 16mm print for the screening, but
couldn't find any publicity materials or information about the film. (I
assume they then transferred it to video, since the new Ueno Okura
doesn't show film prints.)

http://uenookura.blog108.fc2.com/blog-entry-1246.html

According to the P.G. website, Cine Pathos in Ginza is planning some
anniversary screenings in May, but the schedule hasn't been finalized
yet. Cine Pathos is also set to host the 24th annual Pink Taisho awards
ceremony on May 13.

The scale of this event seems to be shrinking in recent years. Cine
Pathos has three screens, but the biggest room only seats about 175. In
2009-2011 the Pink Taisho was at Teatoru Shinjuku (218 seats). For most
of the 2000s it was at Shin-Bungeiza in Ikebukuro (266 seats).

I suppose this makes sense considering that the industry only put out 43
new films in 2011 (49 in 2010, 52 in 2009, if I counted correctly). Most
of those films are from Okura. Only two films from 2011 are Xces, and
three are Shintoho. The Shintoho films played at Pink theaters, but I
believe they were all shot on video with sync sound, and I'm not sure if
they were completed within the usual budget, so it might be a stretch to
even call them Pink.

I imagine there will be more Pink-related events in the coming months.

Michael Arnold