I’m proud to give you the first in a two-part video series covering Japanese nunsploitation film. This first video provides a thorough introduction to the wild and perverse world of pinku eiga, providing key context we’ll need to even begin to understand strange, surprising phenomenon of Japanese nunsploitation. The second half of the video then proceeds to a close reading of the foundational classic School of the Holy Beast (1974).

This video has been a long time coming. When I first took up my research and writing on nunsploitation film, I knew I’d need to tackle the Japanese school eventually. What’s unbelievable about Japan’s nunsploitation cinema is that it’s second only to Italy in terms of the number of features produced in the 1970s and 80s, but also how closely Japanese nunsploitation movies resemble their western counterpart. It’s always been fairly obvious why nunsploitation flourished in Roman Catholic markets like Italy and Latin America, but why in Japan?

This is a difficult question to answer, and most of the sources I consulted did not give me a satisfying answer. Most commentators acknowledge that it’s a bit puzzling, but usually these remarks end in a shrug. My goal with these videos was to consider the question of Japanese nunsploitation closely, and to provide an account that pulls together the historical, cultural, and aesthetic dimensions at play.

But here is where I’ll issue my obligatory disclaimer. I’m far from an expert on pink film, and I can only begin to understand Japanese culture and history as an outsider. My investigation into this world has led me far outside of my comfort zone, and has required even deeper research than usual. Prior to undertaking work on this video, I was almost completely unfamiliar with pink film and only casually acquainted with Japanese pop culture here and there.

I’ve tried my best to rely on reputable and intelligent sources in forming my understanding. On a practical level, these sources are from western (English-speaking) academics and writers who have spent significant time studying or living in Japan. I attempted to find Japanese commentators, but I was unable to find much. (There’s little serious writing on these films to begin with, let alone in English!) These are the main books and articles I consulted:

Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema by Jasper Sharp

Pink samurai : love, marriage & sex in contemporary Japan by Nicholas Bornoff

Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films by Thomas Weisser and Yuko Mihara Weisser

Eros in Hell: Sex, Blood, and Madness in Japanese Cinema by Jack Hunter

“The prerogative of confusion: pink film and the eroticization of pain, flux and disorientation” in Screen (vol. 60 issue 1) by Alexander Zahlten

But it’s inevitable that I’ll be less than perfect in my analysis. Some of this is my take, informed I hope, and reasonable genre observers may disagree on some of the finer points. It’s also perfectly possible that I’ll get things wrong about Japanese culture, religion, or history. If I do, I hope you’ll be generous in offering corrections. Where appropriate, I’d be happy to add errata notes on this post.

Timestamps:

0:00 - nunsploitation cinema in the context of post-war religious life in Japan

2:25 - where did Japanese nunsploitation film come from?

3:53 - pink film history: 1960s origins, Nikkatsu “roman porno”, and Toei “pinky violence”

9:46 - emergence of pink nunsploitation

10:16 - School of the Holy Beast aka The Transgressor (1974 dir. Norifumi Suzuki)

19:22 - pink theaters and the modernization of Japanese religious identity

Part two will provide an even deeper dive, exploring five more Japanese nunsploitation films and concluding with an analysis of how nunsploitation relates to the wider picture of pink film and Japanese cultural aesthetics.

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