Thursday, May 31, 2012

The Road to Shion

I would like to introduce my readers to the lovely Shion Amane, whom we see at left in her IZM DVD, Muchi pocha hounyuu doll (むちぽちゃ豊乳DOLL; ICD-180; March 2012). If boredom sets in during the following recitation of my online activities, feel free to study Ms. Amane's voluptuous and curvy form instead.

At Boobpedia I started a couple more Munekyunkissa bios in the morning, and added some DVD release info to my prep-list in the afternoon. I made the following submissions to IMDb:
1977-07 New Bride Attack (新妻を襲う - Niizuma o osou) [Shintôhô] dir: Giichi Nishihara
1977-08 Pervert's Medical School (痴漢性医学部 - Chikansei igakubu) [Shintôhô] dir: Genji Nakamura
1977-11 Poruno mukou san genryô donari: Tsure komi apaato (ポルノ向う三軒両隣り 連れ込みアパート) [Shintôhô] dir: Minoru Inao
1977-12-10 Semi-dokyumento: Kankô basu nure nure jakku (セミドキュメント 観光バス濡れ濡れジャック / 観光バス濡れ濡れ・ジャック) [Watanabe Pro / Nikkatsu] dir: Gô Kuga

Last evening's viewing was Road to Bali (1952) with Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. Continuing our theme of Hogan's Heroes personnel in non-Hogan roles, one of the minor players was the person my son and I were waiting, and waiting, and waiting to see: General Burkhalter himself, Leon Askin. It was OK, and Askin was worth the wait, but the Road series had obviously run out of steam by this point. The jokiness seemed a bit forced and tired, the songs rather formulaic, and the plot... well, there was none really. Still, it obviously had a much higher budget than most of the stuff I have been watching lately, it was all professional, slick and enjoyable. If not terribly exciting, at least not a bad way to kill an evening. Six stars out of Ten.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Rafureshia / Après Kimiko le déluge

I spent my afternoon session online adding some Arzon / Amazon data to a new Cherry series, prefix OHO-. According to Arzon it's put out by Crystal Eizou, an important early AV company. They discovered Kaoru Kuroki, who helped make the AV "respectable"... well sort of respectable... with her appearances on mainstream talk shows. Also, director Tôru Muranishi started at Crystal, then went on to found Diamond Visual. This short-lived studio created the "kyonyuu boom" with the discovery of Kimiko Matsuzaka. We see her at left in what I believe was the first image I ever saw of her, in 1989... and I have not recovered yet... Several more recent JAV girls outsize her in every way, but Kimiko still retains her beauty, that pale skin, and that innocent, earthy charm...

My IMDb submissions for the day were:
1979-06 Seifuku kyôhaku okashi (制服脅迫犯し) Shintoho Company; dir: Kiyoshi Nakayama 61分
1979-01-20 Semi-Documentary: Fake GYN Doctor (セミドキュメント にせ婦人科医 - Semi document: Nise fujin-ka-i) (Banmei Takahashi; prod: Den'ei [jp])
1978-09 16-sai no koukishin: Onna ni shite! (16才の好奇心 女にして!) Shintoho Company; dir: Kaoru Higashimoto (Kaoru Umezawa (as Kaoru Higashimoto)
1979-03-06 Zetsurin Toruko mansion: Mitsugi (絶倫トルコマンション 密戯 / 絶倫トルコ・マンション 密戯) [Seinen Gunzô] dir: Kô Hayasaka
1978-10-07 Ganbare chikan: Yubi zeme (がんばれ痴漢 指ぜめ; Shinya Yamamoto (I) Y.S. Enterprise / Nikkatsu;
1978-10-21 Harassing Perverted Girl (おさすり変態娘; Osasuri hentai musume) (Genji Nakamura; Watanabe Pro / Nikkatsu
1978-10 Hatsujô apaato: Rangyou shûdan (発情アパート 乱行集団) Shintoho Company; dir: Minoru Inao
1978-10 Hikô joshigakusei: Nure hajime (非行女子学生 濡れはじめ) Shintoho Company; dir: Mamoru Watanabe
1978-01 Jokôsei maruhi seihanzai (女高生(秘)性犯罪) Shintoho Company; dir: (Kaoru Umezawa (as Kaoru Higashimoto) Kokuei Company / Shintoho Company
1978-07 Jôfu okashi (情婦犯し) Shintoho Company; dir: Giichi Nishihara

And my old submissions that went live today:
Semi-dokyumento: Meiki no kenkyû (Tadashi Yoyogi, 1975)
Osanazuma: Shoya no wananaki (Mamoru Watanabe, 1976)

I returned to the wild world of Pink cinema for my evening's viewing pleasure last night: Hisayasu Satô's Rafureshia, or Slut Wife: While Husband's Away (すけべ妻 夫の留守に; Sukebe-zuma: otto no rusu ni; Kokuei / Shintôhô; 1995). I haven't found a poster to this film yet, but here it is on a Japanese VHS double-feature with Toshiya Ueno's Best Film of the year at the Pink Taishô: Keep on Masturbating: Non-Stop Pleasure (連続ONANIE 乱れっぱなし; Renzoku onanie: midareppanashi; Shintôhô; 1994).

Satô is a director with whom I've had an odd history. I learned about his work in Thomas and Yuko Mihara Weisser's Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films (1998). Weisser paints him as some kind of madman, with a "bitter, sledgehammer style". He claims Satô's films are "difficult to watch, filled with savage brutality, rape and sexual abuse," etc. The pictures in the book of Satô, and his films similarly show a criminally insane crackpot at work. I do enjoy a rather more extreme type of cinema than most people, but I was repulsed by what I read, and had no desire to see Satôs cinematic atrocities. However, when some of his films were made available to the U.S. DVD market, I gave them a look just out of curiosity. After that my opinion changed completely. I have found the few films of his that I've seen (four or five out of over 50 that he has made), to be thoughtful and well-made, if, yes, shocking, radical and experimental. It's possible I have just seen his "tamer" films, but then one of those I've seen is Naked Blood (1996) which is often cited as one of his most extreme. (For a hint of this film's content, IMDb lists as a Continuity Goof: "After frying and eating her hand, in another scene she uses cutlery to cut bits of herself off and both hands can be seen.")... I have found Satô himself, in interviews, to be an intelligent, enthusiastic and humorous artist, and I have found all his movies that I have seen to have just this sort of character.

Rafureshia was made towards the ends of Satô's first run in directing, roughly ten years during which he made over fifty films. He would take a break from filmmaking a couple years after Rafureshia. Though still amazingly low-budgeted, this one had a higher budget, and a longer shooting schedule than his previous Pink films. So he had five days to shoot instead of the usual four. Satô says his intent in this film was to show, in a darkly humorous style, three characters locked in unsatisfying lives, all making the jump to a new, freer existence. Satô's most notorious films were scripted by Shirô Yumeno, but this one was by Taketoshi Watari, a younger screenwriter with more interest in fantasy and manga than realism. Satô claims Watari is a more adaptable writer than Yumeno, which is why he asked him to write this atypical manga-based comedy project. Watari appears in the film as one of the group of homeless men who find and rape the cooperative Alisa after she has escaped from her incestuous father.

Though the film features the inter-locking stories of three women, the main character is probably Alisa, played by the actress Kinako, who made her film debut here. This is the only film she made with Satô and Kokuei studio, but she went on to act for several other major Pink directors like Satôru Kobayashi, Minoru Kunizawa, and Kinya Ogawa. She gleefully performs one of the more outrageous scenes in the movie, in which she goes overboard at a sex club where she has been hired to play chainsaw-wielding Sadist to a Masochistic man in a diaper sucking a bottle and whimpering "Mummy, mummy". Them chainsaws can be dangerous, you know...

The luscious and intelligent Yumi Yoshiyuki plays Harumi, the put-upon housewife who is the "slut wife" of the theatrical title. Yoshiyuki debuted in 1993 and was a major Pink film actress throughout the '90s. She won Best Supporting Actress at the Yokohama Film Festival for her roles in the mainstream films Murder on D Street and Daikaijû Tôkyô ni arawaru (both 1998). She began directing in 1996, winning several awards at the Pink Taishô. She continues to act and direct, and she remains a gorgeous woman. We see her at left in director Tôru Daimon's (no entry for him at IMDb yet?!) 1999 Xces film Misoji dôsôkai: Hageshisugiru seiyoku (三十路同窓会 激しすぎる性欲; re-released in 2009 as 三十路の痴女たち 浮気妻・セレブ妻・恥じらい妻).

Harumi's nagging and perverted mother-in-law is played by Satô's favorite actress, Kiyomi Itô. Itô had debuted in 1984, and began working with Satô when he was assistant director to Academy Award-winner Yojirô Takita. Itô starred in Satô's directorial debut in 1985, and stuck with him until she retired from full-time film work to run a Tokyo bar.

The main actor, Koichi Imaizumi, is also a frequent collaborator with Satô. Despite his roles in more than 100 straight films, Jasper Sharp, in his DVD commentary, reports that Imaizumi is flamboyantly gay. Critical of the way gays are portrayed in Pink films supposedly geared to a gay audience, he began writing his own gay Pink film screenplays. At least one of these was directed by co-star Yumi Yoshiyuki by the way.

Anyway, Rafureshia, like many Satô films, has to be seen to be believed or understood. It is very imaginative, and giving away the bizarre plot will spoil most of the surprises. How many "Porn" films contain a refutation of Einstein's Theory of Relativity? The plot, while completely lucid when seen a couple times, is not presented simply and linearly, but disjointedly, having the characters each follow their own stories, which then tie into each other. Uniquely, as far as I am aware, for a Satô film, it is a comedy, but it is a very black comedy. It gives few out-loud laughs, and those are more from the outrageousness of the situations rather than traditional comedy. Nevertheless, the bizarre but whimsical tone does make it a comedy... If any US Pink film DVD producers are listening out there, give us more Satô, please! The guy is a wacky, perverted genius, and we need more of his stuff! I see I gave this film a phenomenal nine stars at IMDb when I first saw it a few years ago... and who am I to argue?... Let's conclude this day's discussion with another glance at the beautiful Ms. Matsuzaka. She was in the spotlight all too briefly-- less than two years, but made a hefty impact on JAV style. Before her, nothing but skinny girls. As far as the big-boobs and the BBWs, Après Matsuzaka le déluge. Gone but not forgotten.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Crash of Moons

Since today's film features a lunar theme, I thought this would be a good chance to travel to some of the lushest lunar surfaces of the great Japanese Adult Video industry. We start our journey with a visit to one of our favorite models, pleasing whether approached from the front or from the rear: Karen Toudou. We find this moon-shot in the JAMS DVD, translated at English sites as Super Big Boin (唾ぐちゅボイン妻 むちコス発情勃起喰い 藤堂カレン; VOL-02; January 2010).

The morning's Boobpedia session was pretty frustrating. I had planned to start two or three bios, but when the first one was ready to post, I found out she already had an article under a different stage name. I merged the two, then found out she had a THIRD alias, with an article for that name too... I was still sleepy, and got things screwed up in creating the merges, the redirects, etc. Not a very good start to the day... I finished cleaning up the mess in the afternoon, then spent the rest of that 20-minute session doing a little category work. Above left we find another perennial favorite, Tamaki Yasuoka. This full lunar shot comes again courtesy of the fine folks at JAMS from the DVD Super Class M-Cup! Lusty Wife Working Overtime (SND-25, October 2009).

My IMDb report for the day is accompanied by a fine lunar probe of IZM's Erika, at right, from 152cm!! Super Huge Tits (ICD-165; October 2011). I only submitted two new films to IMDb today: Ranjuku Joshidaisei (乱熟女子大生, Genji Nakamura, Genji Production / Million Films, 1979-05-08) and Ryôshoku okashizuma (猟色犯し妻, Giichi Nishihara, Shintoho Company, 1979-09).
The following recent IMDb submissions have now gone live:
Nuresugita mesuneko (Banmei Takahashi, 1979);
Chikan yokochô joshi ryô mae (Tadashi Yoyogi, 1978);
Chikan waisetsu kôen (Minoru Inao, 1978);
Chikan saishû densha (Minoru Inao, 1978-- waiting one cast member verification)
Chikan kakueki teisha: Ossan nani surun'ya (Minoru Inao, 1978-- which my Japanese poster book translates as "What the Hell Are You Doing, You Old Geezer?!");
Chikan genkôhan (by the man the Weissers honor as "Japan's Sleaziest Director": Giichi Nishihara, 1978);
Blue film no onna: Chissoku (Genji Nakamura, 1978); and
Sex semi dokyumento: Renzoku fujo bôkôma (Seiji Izumi, 1975).

The evenings B-movie fun brought another sci-fi flick my way: Crash of Moons (1954), for which we can thank the lunar theme of today's post. Not a theatrical release, this one had been stitched together from three episodes of the early TV space-opera, Rocky Jones, Space Ranger. The show was quite the big-budget production in its day, for TV, inspiring a hefty publicity and merchandizing campaign, as attested to by this website. Also it was mocked by that Mystery Science Theater show-- which I dislike. The fact that they release that show on DVD without the option of seeing the films on their own, without the jokes and insulting commentary shows the condescending arrogance that goes into the making of it.

The special effects are actually rather charming and the way they are photographed is very atmospheric. For some reason they put me in mind of both the outer-space shots in Eraserhead (1977), and the early scenes of the Space Counsels on the Emerald Planet in the Japanese Super Giant series. The only complaint I have against these special effects is that they are just inserted between the real "action" of the film, which consists mostly of people seated at desks or control panels, talking. Still, it's better than having nothing but sitting at desks talking without the added special effects, which I believe was the style of the other early TV space-operas. The leader of one of the moons was none other than Sgt. Schutz himself, 15 years younger and dozens of pounds thinner: John Banner. He was fun to see in a different role, but he seemed just a bit too... nice to be a leader. Supposedly he played evil Nazi bastards in WWII-era films, which I just cannot picture-- I'll have to seek out one of those films. He really found his place in loveable, bumbling old Schultz. Patsy Parsons as Cleolanta, the leader of the other moon, is just the opposite-- shrill, illogically stubborn, petty-- probably a sexist stereotype, I guess, but there are plenty of people of both sexes who act pretty much that way... Anyway, Crash of Moons gets a respectable Five stars out of Ten from me. And here it is, available for all humanity to view for free at the Internet Archive.

And we conclude our survey of the great moons of Japanese Adult Video with a double siting of what is purported to be the largest lunar surface in the entire industry: Sara Aikawa.





Above left we see her assets bursting the clothing which struggles to contain her vast hemispheres. And on the right, her lunar orbs descend in their full glory, setting on her partner. Both sitings are from her April 2012 DVD for IZM, Chô shiri nikukai (超尻肉塊167cm; ICD-182).

Monday, May 28, 2012

The Twisted Path of Thunder-Thigh Fetish Dolls

Tonight's viewing was something more appropriate to the nature of this blog than the old American B-films I've been watching. I dived head-first into the wild world of Nikkatsu Roman Porno: Lovers Are Wet (恋人たちは濡れた - Koibito-tachi wa nureta), released in Japan on March 24, 1973, and recently released on DVD in the U.S. under the title Twisted Path of Love.

The director, Tatsumi Kumashiro, is probably the most highly-regarded of Nikkatsu's Roman Porno directors-- or, at least, he was the most honored while the series was being produced. He has four films listed on Kinema Junpo's list of the best Japanese films of the 20th century (#69 "Twisted Path of Youth" would be this film). Like Ozu, his fans call him one of the "most Japanese" directors (though it's pointed out Kumashiro, unlike Ozu, is a "little" artist). I fell in love with Ozu's films at first sight, and he remains one of my favorite of all directors. But I've had more difficulty warming up to Kumashiro. I have only seen two films of his films so far, and neither impressed me much. I have seen A Woman with Red Hair (1979), and I first saw this one-- Twisted Path of Love-- a couple years ago and was underwhelmed by both. This time, however, I was positively impressed. It's a rather plotless, impressionistic sort of film of the style that was popular in the early '70s, in U.S. film as well. It's "adult", not just in that it concerns sex (it actually has about the bare minimum amount of sex that can be included in a film that is supposed to be about sex), but in that it assumes the audience is mature, can think for themselves, and does not need a lot of non-stop razzle-dazzle action to keep from getting bored.

The plot, such as it is:
A young man returns to his hometown (a fishing village in Katsuura, Chiba Prefecture) hoping no one recognizes him, and insisting he is not Katsu when they do recognize him and call him by name. He takes a job at a porno theater run by an older married woman and he gets involved with a young couple. We find out he has returned from Tokyo after killing a man, and is being pursued by the yakuza. He has an affair with the theater owner. When he leaves her she hangs herself. He goes out of town with the young couple.

Not much of this is presented straightforwardly. It has to be worked out and surmised through hints in the dialogue. Kumashiro does not appear to be interested in telling a story, but more in presenting a setting and a group of characters, and letting them live, interact and reveal themselves in an elliptical yet lyrical way. The cinematography is by Shinsaku Himeda, who worked often with Kumashiro. He was nominated for a U.S. Academy Award for his work on Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), and worked with Imamura on such classics as Pigs and Battleships (1961), The Insect Woman (1963), Intentions of Murder (1964), The Pornographers (1966) and Vengeance Is Mine (1979). The music was rather interesting, touching on a wide variety of styles present in contemporary Japan: Traditional music imitated on the guitar, enka, Brahms, shunka ("bawdy songs"), etc.

Kumashiro is said to have been a staunch opponent of the Japanese censorship policies, and to have laden his films with anti-censorship jabs. He makes fun of Japanese censorship practice here by exaggerating the black blocks on the screen which were used to hide genitalia. At times almost half the screen is hidden by a wandering black block. The sex scenes very modest, even by Japanese softcore standards, yet it appears that frames are removed randomly, giving them sudden minor jumps. Again, rather than really serving the purpose of censorship, this seems to actually be mocking censorship forced on Japanese filmmakers. But the story itself doesn't seem to have an obvious relationship to censorship, so I don't get how these visual jokes tie in with the story... True, much of it is set at a porno theater, and Katsu has to work as a barker, singing obscene songs in praise of the films being shown... but no signs of problems with censorship is shown in the narrative... (Should anyone doubt that censorship is still a problem-- even a bigger problem now than it was in Japan in 1973-- just look at Eigapedia / Wikia's article on this film. The eunuch über-Admin Brandon has deleted both posters to the film as "against TOS"-- the only applicable "Term of Service" being "no pornography". So today, in the year 2012, in the English-speaking world of the Internet, these two artistic images can be labeled pornography and censored-- yes, CENSORED-- by any twit who has managed to get in favor with Jimbo Wales and his cult... and you think YOU had it rough, Kumashiro?)

Predictably enough for its time, style and place of production, there was nothing very stimulating to the Dekkapedian aesthetic of big, jolly, bouncy ladies. The theater-owner, was rather attractive in her mature way, and the main featured actress, (Rie Nakagawa) was good in her role as Youko, the woman of the young couple. There was one plump village girl, Sachiko (played by Senro Azame -- 薊千露-- IMDb has her as Chizuyu Azami) who caught my attention, but, unfortunately, her only purpose in the film is to function as a rape victim... While I am now convinced this is a good movie, and I'll probably re-visit it later on to see if my approval and understanding grows with time, there was not much here to stir my libido. So just to keep my own interest aroused, allow me to present for your viewing pleasure above left, the Dekkappedlian Konata (aka Konata Yuusei (遊星こなた), in director Ryudai's Wagnerian epic, Thunder-Thigh Fetish Doll (IZM; ICD-162; September 2011). And with that, I bid you a soft, warm, cuddly good night.

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Transparent Men, Solid Women

My Boobpedia work today consisted of continuing the project of starting bio-stub-articles for actresses in the Munekyunkissa DVDs for which I spent the previous month starting articles. I started articles on models who had starred in DVDs on the fourth and fifth lists of 10 DVD releases.

My evening's dip into the risky treasure vault of B-film drifted towards sci-fi: The Amazing Transparent Man (1960). Some fairly respected people were involved in this obviously very low-budget production. The director was Edgar G. Ulmer, who made at least one poverty-row masterpiece: Detour (1945). Jack Pierce, who was Universal Studios' makeup guru in the 1930s horror films did the makeup in this one. Obviously a variation on The Invisible Man (1933), Pierce's presence points out both the similar themes, and the sad decline in the quality of films he was working on later in his career. The film's score, by Darrell Calker is... while not quite great... interesting. It uses an ostinato in the bass, which is systematically worked to death throughout the film-- inverted, retrograded, and all the other usual countrapuntal tricks, not usually expected in a film score-- particularly not in a score for a Z-grade sci-fi. The fine-print in the poster above right indicates that some William Castle-esque shenanigans were pulled on the theatrical audience during the showing of the film. I didn't have any invisible people goosing me while I watched it, though. I just had to sit back and take it for what it was...

The plot concerns Joey Faust (any relation? Never explained), a top-notch safe-cracker who is broken out of prison by a mad ex-general who has blackmailed an ex-Nazi scientist into creating a technique for invisibility and plans to take over the world with an invisible army. Yes, the film is as ridiculous as would be expected given that plot. But, clocking in at a trim 58 minutes, this one really moves along. It packs a lot of story, and never pauses long enough to get boring. I've always thought that was one thing that made Gilligan's Island successful-- sure it was predictable, low-brow humor, but man did they pack those 25 minutes with story! So, this film is to sci-fi what Gilligan is to comedy: No real quality to speak of, but it zips by so fast it's fairly painless. Like ripping off a bandage. It's over before you realize it. Now that didn't hurt, did it?... If you've a mind to, catch it yourself at the Internet Archive. Five stars out of Ten from me. Perhaps I had better pause here before ending this post to remind my audience that, while I don't care whether men are transparent or not, I prefer solid women. (For example, the opaque lovelies on the left, Usagi Minagi and Honoka Kitazawa in Pocha Friends: Minagi Usagi Kcup / Kitazawa Honoka Jcup; July 2007; TIA-503.) Nice and solid!

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Men Don Black, Woman Doffs It

I went with my son to see Men in Black 3, without much knowledge of critical reaction, or of much hope for enjoying it. I didn't care much for the first film, and have never seen the second. I have to admit though, I rather liked this one. It didn't over-do the CGI crap that is so popular nowadays. Sure, it was there, but no more than necessary. There were a couple of obvious looks right at the screen that are telltale signs of self-conscious 3D, and sure enough, I see now that it was released in 3D-- we saw it in 2D. (Note that the most self-consciously 3D touch in Scorsese's Hugo [2011] is when the train comes directly at the audience off the screen, as in the film from the 1890s-- and that this is perfectly appropriate by using 3D to comment on movie history, which is what the film is about...) What got to me in this one especially was towards the end where the relationship between Tommy Lee Jones' and Will Smith's characters is explained in one very touching scene. That one scene, naturally, makes a much deeper and lasting impact than all the CGI put together. I would like to think that Hollywood is getting the message that non-stop gratuitous CGI is un-watchable without things like, you know, character and plot. But then I am getting Transformers-like vibes from the advertising for the Battleship, film, and, consequently, staying away. Anyway, MIB3 is a decent little time-travel sci-fi comedy with a heart. Josh Brolin is perfect as the younger Jones, and Jemaine Clement makes a good, likeably hate-able villain. Seven stars out of Ten from me.

My Boobpedia work was spread throughout the day. Working off & on I succeeded in starting bio stubs for all the actresses on the second and third lists of 10 DVD in the Busty Amateur Nakadashi series, totalling probably around a dozen or so new bio-stubs.

Now for the rest of today's post, in honor of the day's movie, let's pay a visit to the lovely Ms. Noa Serizawa while she performs her own three-part "Black" series. First we see "Lady in Black", a still from Serizawa's DVD, Mega Busty Expansion! Super Boobs Advertisement Plan (May 2010, JAMS, SND-35).

Our next visit with Ms. Serizawa gives us Black II, "Lady Removing Black" from the DVD 凄い乳房!!妄想コスプレ勃起喰い女教師 (Hyperedge, December 2009, VOL-01).













And Noa finishes the trilogy with most the critically acclaimed of the series, "Lady Totally Out of Black" from Voluptuous Busty Girl Beautician (JAMS, September 2009, SND-24).

Friday, May 25, 2012

A Life at Stake

I'm in the middle of changing gears in the Munekyunkissa project. I finished up the main ALB- / Busty Amateur Nakadashi 10-film template list articles and main article for the series last night. I also did more preparation for the Actress-bio stage of the project. This morning I worked out some final bugs in the skeleton file, and started one bio: Aimi Sakamoto. My evening session was spent starting bio stubs for the rest of the list of Busty Amateur Nakadashi series DVDs: 001 - 010. I got all but one started-- couldn't find enough info on that one... All the actresses in the first 10 DVDs have been of pretty actresses, certainly, but of non-Dekkappedlian proportions. Skinny, model-pretty.. I do like the chubby girls... I'll no doubt go to a more BBW-centric project after this one-- MAGURO maybe (our much-admired Yuuki Manaka is featured on the cover of MAGURO-014 at left)-- or updates on other big-girl labels like JAMS or IZM...

I spent most of my afternoon BP session adding new actress bio-stubs started by other editors to the List of Big Breasted Japanese AV Actresses. That list was one of the first things I started at Boobpedia, and, not long after it had been added, the founder of the project told me it was one of the most-viewed pages at the site. This list actually started from a list of Japanese AV Actresses that was deleted at Wikipedia back when I first got suckered into contributing there-- 2006. One of the popular reasons for deleting things in those days was because they were "unsourceable". "How do we even know these people exist?" So, before it was deleted, with the intent of restoring the list, I saved it for myself and spent my free hours sourcing every entry I could, and removing the very few I couldn't. By the time I had it all sourced, I had come to realize that, of course, the ruling class at Wikipedia just plain didn't want that kind of information there, but they won't say so openly. They have to do lip-service to "Not censored / not biased / neutral point of view" and all those other lies. This all applies only to the English Wikipedia, of course. Japanese Wikipedia still stays true to the spirit under which Wikipedia was founded-- the honest presentation of information-- and so, like any project claiming to aspire to "the sum of human knowledge", they do have hundreds of articles on these models who have appeared in internationally-distributed media. Japanese Wikipedia's problem is that its users rarely cite their sources-- and yet I have found JWiki to be almost always correct in its information-- information that would be / is banned at English Wiki. When I finally had had enough of the garbage at Wikipedia, I considered just staying full-time at JWiki. My Japanese isn't good enough (to say the least) to contribute text, but I could have provided citations to back up unsourced facts. But the same problem which ruined English Wiki still looms at JWiki: There are no real policies, no set-in-stone statement that X is allowed here, and Y is not. Style X is used here, Style Y is not. There are no policies and no authorities. It's all in flux, up for non-stop argument, and subject to change either through the interpretation by anonymous users, or the complete making up from scratch of policies by anonymous users. For anyone there to contribute information, it's a recipe for disaster, one that has come true at English Wikipedia, and could (probably eventually will) happen at the other Wikis. If I did take the time to cite all that information, any one or group could come along and say, "Any source that covers subject X is not a 'reliable source'" and then delete it. This has happened at English Wiki. Contributing to any Wiki that does not openly state "We cover X, but not Y", is a waste of time. Anyway, when Boobpedia was started, I picked out the "Busty" entries and gave the list to that fine project. Wikipedia's loss.

Meanwhile, back at IMDb, it turned out Sharp had nothing much to say about Sex semi dokyumento: Renzoku fujo bôkôma-- which I've been holding off on submitting-- except to cite it as a typical misogynistic rape pinku, with the slightly odd fact that one of the main actresses-- Rumi Tama-- was the step mother of the director-- Seiji Izumi. So I went ahead and submitted it today. I see one of my previously-submitted articles has gone live: Poruno repôto: Bôkô-ma (1976). I made a fair amount of new submissions today also: Blue film no Onna: Chissoku (ブルーフィルムの女 ちっそく; Genji Nakamura; Genji Production; 1978-11), Chikan genkôhan (痴漢現行犯; Giichi Nishihara; Shintoho Company; 1978-10), Chikan kakueki teisha: Ossan nani surun'ya (痴漢各駅停車 おっさん何するんや; Minoru Inao; Shintoho Company; 1978-05), Chikan saishû densha (痴漢最終電車; Minoru Inao; Shintoho Company; 1978-08), Chikan waisetsu kôen (痴漢ワイセツ公園; Minoru Inao; Shintoho Company; 1978-11), Chikan yokochô joshi ryô mae (痴漢横丁女子寮前; Tadashi Yoyogi; Watanabe Pro / Nikkatsu; 1978-12-02), and Nuresugita mesuneko (濡れすぎた牝猫 / 濡れた牝猫; Banmei Takahashi; Takahashi Pro; 1979-07-10).

My evening's entertainment continued the survey I started unintentionally a couple nights ago of Angela Lansbury's film noir/femme fatale career. This one was A Life at Stake (1954). It was almost as good, not quite, as the last one. Fine acting from all the leads helped this one quite a bit. Besides Ms. Lansbury, the major roles were taken by Keith Andes as her lover/possible victim, Douglass Dumbrille as her elderly, but spry, husband, and Claudia Barrett as her shy and goodhearted (and much more attractive in my eye) younger sister. Even the minor characters had memorable and capable performers such as Ma Joad herself-- Jane Darwell. Paul Guilfoyle's directing was competent, but this one was flawed by budget and screenplay. Lansbury's motivations were never quite clear: Was she really in love with Andes, and cheating on her husband with him? Or was she working with her husband to seduce Andes and bump him off for insurance money? This question could have been used to create suspense, but instead it was just confusing. We never really know, even after the scheming couple meet their untimely end... Still, it was an entertaining little thriller. If you need a painless way to spend 75 minutes, check it out for yourself at the Internet Archive.

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Cleanliness is Next to Boobliness

A recent post at the Hyperedge Blog shares new images from gorgeous Karen Toudou's new DVD, QDN-17. At left we see Karen getting into the bath with some lucky guy. The two images below show Ms. Karen displacing a rather substantial amount of the bath. Our protagonist, being a gentleman, nevertheless generously makes room for the lady, and then even helps her with her ablutions. The left boob is as good a place to start as any, isn't it, ma'am?...

I set up the template for the ALB- (Munekyunkissa) actress bios last night, in preparation for the next stage in that project. I started the main article for the series this morning, then three of the templated 10-DVD filmographies, finishing with List of Busty Amateur Nakadashi series DVDs: 021 - 030. Because of the difficulty the server has with these film templates we use in the DVD articles, we have to limit the amount that can be contained on any one page, making the awkward smaller filmography pages necessary... I spent the afternoon session organizing a bit: Adding categories for the Munekyunkissa DVDs & actresses, and sub-categories to the BOINBB sub-lists.

I see a few of my new IMDb film submissions from a few days ago have gone live: Kôkishin Fujin (1975), Semi-dokyumento: Shinjû sex go jû-nen-shi (1975), Semi-document: Bôsô sex shûdan (1976), Shin mibôjin geshuku: Oku no ma kashimasu (1975), Semi-dokyumento: Otoko isari (1975), Suke komashi gundan (1978; still waiting for one cast member to be approved), Kan'in no zange: Aru gôtô no shuki (1976), Nureta kaben no sanshimai (1976), Osanazuma: Shoya no wananaki (1976; waiting for two cast members), and Poruno repôto: Bôkô-ma (1976). Another one: Sex semi dokyumento: Renzoku fujo bôkôma (1975) is ready to submit, but I first want to look through Jasper Sharp's book. I think he mentions this one a few times, and he might have some useful information to add. I did some updating to my list of information for IMDb submissions. I added raw data from JMDb, which I will have to translate and reformat. That was quite a lot of work, but I did have time to submit one film: Bôkô: Yadosu (暴行 宿す; Kaoru Umezawa - as Kaoru Higashimoto; Shintoho Company; 1978-08).

Sunday, May 20, 2012

D.O.A.

Working off & on sporadically through the day, I got stubs started on ALB-130 - ALB-140. There were two or three of these DVDs which were not Boobpedia-worthy. They didn't interest me either, but I just started templates for them, to include in the complete series listing when that gets started. Frustratingly enough, my article-making routine is so efficient it took about twice as much time to start a template for a DVD that did not have an article... Searching around the Net, I see that the jaw-droppingly gorgeous cosplayer, LUU, has added new images to her blog. In an email to her fans yesterday, she jokingly complained about the hot weather being rough on chubby people. She hopes winter comes soon. While I give her all my sympathy, and I do like colder weather myself, if this image from her blog is any indication of what she looks like sitting around the swimming pool, I'm sure I join her other fans in hoping the warm spell holds on for a good, long while.

I couldn't wait, and cracked open a new Mill Creek 50-movie box this evening: Dark Crimes. Though I've still got plenty to watch in my other boxes, this newly released box has a film I've heard about and wanted to see for quite a while-- D.O.A. (1949 or 1950-- reports vary)-- and I couldn't resist the temptation. For a change, this one lived up to its reputation. Though it was obviously done on a shoestring budget, it's a very tense, twisted, gripping, sardonic, entertaining little noir. It starts out with a man staggering into the police station to report a murder-- his own murder. He is a dead man. Naturally enough, the rest of the story is told in flashback to lead up to that first scene. It's funny that this kind of thing was considered so "new" and "radical" when Tarantino did it 40 years later in Reservoir Dogs (1992) and Pulp Fiction (1994)... and everyone was saying he must have got that playing with the narrative structure from Asian films-- Hong Kong or Japanese. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Tarantino and Asian films, but, WTF? Look at these old noirs! That's where this comes from... (And they have their own antecedents, of course... German expressionism and U.S. gangster films of the '30s... And Billy Wilder takes this idea one step further in Sunset Boulevard (1950), in which the narrator is already dead at the beginning of the film.)

After the intro, the film starts giving off a deceptively romantic-comedy vibe. The first half of the movie takes place in San Francisco, giving some nice views of the city, including, apparently, scenes shot guerrilla-style, with the main character running into innocent pedestrians on the street. (This brought to mind that stupendous opening of Female Prisoner Scorpion: Beast Stable (女囚さそり けもの部屋 - Joshuu sasori: Kemono-beya; (1973) when Meiko Kaji goes running through a busy downtown street with a policeman's severed arm handcuffed to hers and flopping around behind her. The looks she gets from passing pedestrians are priceless.) The only sour note was towards the beginning. Whenever the main character looks at an attractive woman, you hear a slide whistle on the soundtrack go "WOO WOO!" like a wolf whistle. I mean, all of us guys walk around with one of those whistles going off in our heads constantly, but here it was just a bit too much. Dmitri Tiomkin did the soundtrack, but I doubt he would have done that though... don't know who's to blame. Speaking of the soundtrack, though it was obviously post-synced, there is a terrific little jazz combo featured in these early scenes in San Francisco which helps make the lighter scenes pass more enjoyably. After getting fooled into thinking this would be a mildly enjoyable, ignorable screwball-noir, it really pulls you into the story. The darker half of the film takes place in L.A., giving a minor tour of some of the seedier areas of that city. Among many good supporting players, Neville Brand makes an especially despicable, sadistic thug-- I was sitting there, squirming, thinking I'd like to beat the living shit out of the bastard myself. Now that's the sign of a good villain... Irony and fatalism are typical tools in noir, but in this one they are cranked up a couple notches. I am sure this is one that will reward multiple viewings... IMDb says it was entered into the National Film Registry in 2004. And it gets a whopping Eight stars out of Ten from me. Here, watch it for yourself at the Internet Archive.

Saturday, May 19, 2012

The Man on the Eiffel Tower

I started four ALB- stubs in the morning starting with Mikuru Shiina in Also, My Girlfriend Is My Brother's Daughter: Azusa (November 2011; ALB-126) and finishing with the lovely Yuri Shirasaki in 108cm Bouncing Big Boobs with an Erect Clit: Kozue (November 2011; ALB-129). Shirasaki has appeared in the "Pocha Doll" series (yet to make an appearance at Boobpedia), and here she is, on the left, in a DVD for MAGURO-- one of the DVD series I've got to start on once the ALB- project is finished.

I've been neglecting my work at IMDb in favor of Boobpedia, so I spent my afternoon session adding three Pink films: Kaoru Higashimoto's Kôkishin Fujin (1975) Nihon Cinema / Shintoho Company, Shin'ya Yamamoto's Semi-dokyumento: Shinjû sex go jû-nen-shi (1975) Watanabe Pro / Nikkatsu; and Genji Nakamura's Semi-document: Bôsô sex shûdan / Semi-Documentary: Runaway Sex Gang (Weisser's title) (1976) Watanabe Pro / Nikkatsu. Pink films and Roman Porno are often said to be separate entities: Pink films were produced and released outside of the big studio system, while Roman Pornos were produced and released by the big studio, Nikkatsu. However, the latter two titles mentioned were of that interesting variety of Pink film which was independently-produced, but released by Nikkatsu as a third-bill for its Roman Porno series. So they are both Pink films and Roman Pornos.

Last evening's entertainment was a glimpse at Burgess Meredith's The Man on the Eiffel Tower (1949). Unlike with Walter Matthau a few weeks ago (Gangster Story; 1959), Meredith's directing was quite good. Possibly even better than his acting role: a poor, near-sighted knife-sharpener who is framed for murder. This character, naturally, brought to mind Meredith's classic Henry Bemis character in the Twilight Zone episode, "Time Enough at Last" (1959), though, unliked Bemis, this guy just wasn't very likeable. Charles Laughton plays Inspector Maigret, and he's always a joy to behold, though a little exaggerated-- cartoony-- in this one. Franchot Tone as the main bad guy is an overly-self-impressed, manipulative, condescending yet incompetent, arrogant sociopath. In other words, he's the kind of guy who accumulates power in real life, and fucks things up for the rest of us. He would be warmly welcomed into the august ranks of Wikipedia's deletionists and administrators. And like them, he turns out to be full of hot air when the chips are down and it comes time to live up to his word-- jump off the Eiffel Tower in this case. He surrenders to the police and eventually leaves us instead with an unsatisfactory off-screen government-approved beheading... The acting and directing were fine in this one, as was the scenery and cinematography, but it still came out not very good... I suppose it was the screenplay's fault. Despite some similarities to Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train (1951) it was a fairly routine inspector story.

Obviously I've been thoroughly enjoying these Mill Creek boxes, but I will have to say this is one film where the cheapness... er, affordability... of Mill Creek damages the quality of the viewing experience. First, this film was in color, and like most old color films in public domain presentation, it looked much worse than contemporary black & whites. The colors were washed out and drab, and the film had many scratches-- not so annoying in B&W for some reason. Considering a good deal of the quality in this film lies in the photography of Paris, this is a major draw-back. Also, the copy used in this box had so many skips it was sometimes difficult to follow the dialog, which was muffled even at best. Oh well-- if you pay $10 for 50 movies, you're bound to have a clunker or two... Still not an entirely wasted experience. The direction and the acting somewhat make up for the other weaknesses, earning it Six stars out of Ten from me.

Friday, May 18, 2012

The Dictator

Let's start off by answering the question most likely to attract readers to this blog entry: Who is the woman who breaks bricks with her boobs in the trailer to The Dictator? We see this performance on the right. Well, since first making this post, I have done a little research on the identity of the mysterious boob-crusher. If my research is correct, she is none other than Susan Sykes aka Busty Heart, with her double 20-pounds of deadly-weaponry. Wasn't Chesty Morgan a member of the Israeli Army? Maybe this is some kind of Special Ops force? Deadly Weapons indeed... But let's set aside our review of The Dictator to take care of some Boobpedia-related items first...

I was able to work on Boobpedia off & on most of the day. I started the morning off by adding a little to the stub on Sara Aikawa which I started last night. Then I got back to work on the Munekyunkissa / ALB- project. The final day's tally came to stubs for ALB-105 through ALB-125. The day's highlight, I suppose, was Rin Aoki in Pussy Fart from the 110-cm Magnum Big Boobs: Haru (June 2011). It's kind of amusing that Munekyunkissa is taking this "Amateur" charade so far as to attempt pass off as well-known a star as Rin Aoki as an amateur named "Haru"... She's always been a very pretty girl, but rather too thin for my tastes. She seems to be filling out rather nicely in more recent appearances though. I may start following her career with more interest...

Rather than the "Pussy Fart" titles (I don't mind the occasional pussy fart during sex, mind you, but I can't say I make a fetish out of it...), I was interested in the titles of a new couple videos using the "Kakure kyonyuu" (hiding big boobs) theme. The covers to these particular DVDs (Scoring with the I-cup Girl who Hides Her Big Boobs: Eri for example) seem, actually, to have the girls showing them off. But I think it would make a nice series: Big-boob Japanese gals who try to dress so that their bust is not noticeable, but the things are just too damned big to hide... As a demonstration of what I have in mind, above right we have the super-abundant Yuuki Manaka in DVD DDK-040 shyly realizing that--OOPS!-- some cleavage is peaking through. One thing leads to another and soon we have the modestly proud unveiling (below left; from DVD MAGURO-021). I leave it up to my esteemed readers' imagination to surmise where the DVD's narrative leads from there...

In 2006, before he was fired from Mainichi for writing about such shameful things in English, so that foreigners could read them, Ryann Connell reported on an article in Spa! (December 2006) covering the "Kakure kyonyuu" phenomenon. Connell's article was titled "Japan's latest titillating trend: Hiding those huge hooters!" It indicated an inconsistent attitude towards big boobs. It claimed that the majority of Japanese women were A- or B- cups before the mid-1980s, and that bigger-busted women were ashamed of their breasts, and kept them hidden. Hence, "Kakure kyonyuu" was going on at that time. In the '90s, however, in the wake of the "Kyonyuu boom", bigger boobs became more widely-admired in Japan. These days (in 2006 that is), A-cups account for less than 20%, and smaller-busted women are exaggerating their busts through padded bras, etc. Yet, according to the article, "Kakure kyonyuu" is still widely practiced among buxom women who do not want to attract undue attention.

And now for The Dictator, which I saw today. I found it not nearly as offensive as Sacha Baron Cohen's previous two-- Borat and Brüno-- and therefore not as hilarious. Still, it wasn't bad. Probably what made this one a little less biting than the others was that, though U.S. culture gets a few jabs, the main target of satire seems to be the Dictator himself. In Borat, Baron Cohen used an anti-Semitic character to ridicule the anti-Semiticism of the Americans he tricked into lowering their guards. In Brüno, he uses a flamboyantly gay character to ridicule the Americans' (and others') homophobia. But here, rather than poke fun at American prejudice against Moslems, or Middle Eastern stereotypes, he seems to be using the Dictator more to make fun of... Middle-Eastern dictators. Not exactly the sharpest subject for satire. Along with that comes the feeling that we're laughing at another group of people, rather than laughing at (and therefor learning about) ourselves, as in the previous two films. Cheaper laughs.

As far as I know (I don't follow Baron Cohen's career that closely), this is his first "straight" movie with a screenplay, and all actors. He abandons the guerilla-style filmmaking he used previously, where he gets unaware, real people in uncomfortable situations to record their reactions. It's one thing to ridicule the people of a culture or nation for being one way or another with fictional characters, it's something else to actually show real people being that way, and to get humor out of that. For example, there is a scene where he and another Middle Eastern character are talking in pseudo-Arabic, using occasional English words ("Statue of Liberty", "Empire State Building!") and making explosion noises and laughing while sitting behind two American tourists. The subtitles tell us it's a perfectly innocent conversation, and we are supposed to laugh at the reactions of the American tourists. Well, we do laugh, of course-- it's funny. But wouldn't it have been much funnier-- more unpredictable and true-to-life-- if, like in the previous films, they had really been American tourists, rather than actors? There is more bite to the satire in the guerilla style, when it works right. But then, no doubt, his growing fame prevents that style from being as easy to pull off anymore... So, unlike the great Martin Scorsese (above left, in custody of the Dictator himself), I can't claim I think it is better than Raging Bull (1980). But then unlike Scorsese, I am not being held hostage with electrodes attached to my privates while writing this review... But seriously... Baron Cohen is no doubt the best satirist working in film today. If he's not quite at his best in this one, it's still much better than the majority of comedies coming out these days. If (as I think) this is his first completely fictional film, then it's a very worthy first effort. Either way, Seven stars out of Ten.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Warning! Safe for Viewing at Work!

I started four new DVD stubs this morning: ALB-101 - ALB-104 In the afternoon I finished the categories for the ALB- DVD directors. I will start adding studio / director categories to the actress articles later. I got a Boobpedia-related question in an Email concerning Sara Aikawa. The question related to her 2008 Radix / Tiara DVD Pocha Pocha Princess Pretty: Splendid!, and the new release I mentioned a few days ago. IZM only uses the name "Sara" in its DVD promotion, but according to her profile at Arzon, she is indeed the same person. A little more research turns up her full name used at the IZM site, which links also to her blog, and to all the IZM DVDs in which she has appeared (quite a few it turns out). Let me first just say, she is one gorgeous lady. Just take a look at the image at left. I know, after ticking the "Adults only" box to this blog, that I'm under a moral obligation to provide raunchier material. But, my God, just look at that face! Isn't she gorgeous? (On the other hand, if I were to post this at Wikia, Brother Brandon would delete it as "Pornographic"... Brother Brandon, you see, considers any image of an attractive woman to be "Pornography"... but that's another story...) Add to that face what IZM purports to be the biggest butt in the Japanese Adult Video industry, and I don't know how I managed to overlook this beauty before. I made up for this negligence by starting a bio for her in the evening. After that I turned in for the night.

After having seen the Tim Burton / Johnny Depp film, my son was interested in seeing some of the original TV series (1966). I didn't mind taking a look at it myself, for old time's sake, so we watched the first episode, when Barnabas returns to Collinwood. My son wasn't very impressed with it-- I wouldn't imagine many teens these days would be-- but it brought back lots of good memories for me. I wouldn't mind seeing the whole series again someday. I see the the entire series is coming out in one huge coffin box. It's priced at $600. My budget is more in the Mill Creek Entertainment range (on sale, with a discount coupon), so I'll wait for the price to drop... er, plummet... before I buy it. Fortunately it is DVD, while everything is going Blu-Ray these days, so maybe that will help make its value bottom out quicker...

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Oh, Nurse!

I started four ALB- articles in the morning, finished up to ALB-100 in the evening, then spent most of the rest of the evening online hour re-naming the new screenshots, and preparing some of the DVD covers which were not yet ready. I looked around my usual sites during my final quarter hour or so online, and it was a pretty generous day in the JAV-BBW-sphere. More images from Tamaki Yasuoka's WZA-004 continue to trickle out onto the Net. The beautiful LUU posted a few new images at her cosplay page, and MAGURO posted more of MAGURO-029. Above, left we see a scene from this DVD in which two gents are complimenting nurse Shizuko Fujiki on her absolutely gorgeous... eyes...

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Yasuoka Bound

I got back into the Munekyunkissa project this morning, starting articles for ALB-091, ALB-092, and ALB-093. The discovery of the evening was a new set of screen-caps from Tamaki Yasuoka's JAMS DVD: Tit-Fuck Skill Update (パイズリスキル更新 - Paizuri-skill koushin; WZA-04). This set consisted of a boob-binding and -fucking scene. Performing under the name Tomomi Nagamine, we see the jolly and eager Ms. Yasuoka preparing for her apprenticeship in this skill-development seminar, over on the left. I see that this is the twelfth post in which I have managed to put an image of Tamaki-san. Has it become apparent yet that she is one of my all-time favorite models?... I started out the afternoon session by setting up some categories for the video Directors, and for the future model articles. I noticed that in the reference citation for the information on the DVDs, I had put a DVD item code in the link to the Arzon mainpage. So I spent the rest of the session un-screwing that screw-up. Still feeling poorly at night, I went to bed without any BP work or even a show.

Monday, May 14, 2012

The Lady Confesses

I spent my afternoon and evening sessions ownloading the screencaps I'll use for the next batch of ALB- articles, as well as the 50 or so early ones started without screencaps. Exploring the realm of BBW JAV after my Boobpedia work turned up some new screencaps from the new IZM DVD release-- ICD-187-- featuring the abundant Ms. Hiyoko Makino. We see one over on the left.

The evening's entertainment consisted of the dubious pleasure of The Lady Confesses (1945). I was busy preparing myself a scotch & ale during the opening credits, and so didn't see that the lead actor was Hugh Beaumont. Consequently, I spent half the film thinking, who is that... who IS that... until it finally came to me... "That's the BEAVER'S DAD!" The movie was not much to brag about-- another PRC quickie. It wasn't a noir-- none of the conflicted characters, moral ambiguity, narrative and stylistic experimentation, etc. of that genre-- but more of a straight, old-fashioned, if inept who-dunnit... Which I've never cared much for. The mystery is solved with some blatant and unbelievable plot manipulations. Characters change from "good" to "bad" and vice-versa at the drop of the hat, as the plot mechanics require. And not only that, the lady never even confesses ferchrissakes! What a rip-off! Neverthless, its compact duration (64 minutes) and constantly-moving plot at least staved off boredom. Check it out at the Internet Archive if you've a mind to. A middling Five stars out of Ten from me.