A mystery solved: Harumi Tajima!

Mystery girl of my adolescent dreams...

Tonight we take another walk down mammary lane to the ancient days of Japanese erotic entertainment to revisit some of the early images with which I first became obsessed in my life-long fascination with Japanese erotic entertainment. In December 1975, Adam Film World, ran a story on a Japanese film they called Naughty School Girls. The black & white images above and below are scanned from the used issue of that magazine that I bought in the late '70s-- probably about 1978. It has taken me almost four decades of on-an-off search, to finally get the details on this movie, and the big-boobed girl we see here.

"Naughty School Girls"

The film may have played in the US, or somewhere in the English-speaking world, under the title "Naughty School Girls", but outside of Adam Film World, I find no evidence of that. This was back in the days when a girl needed just a little bit more fleshiness than the skinny girls held up as the ideal to be qualified a lady as "boin" or busty and voluptuous. In those days I had to satisfy my craving for images of chubby Asian ladies with some pretty thin girls. Naturally, the big-boobed girl in this movie is the one who caught my eye in this article.

Poster to Terrifying Girls' High School: Animal Courage (Harumi Tajima above left)

When the Pinky Violence Collection DVD set was released in 2005, I was able to work out the correct title of the film. It is the fourth, and last of Toei's "Terrifying Girls'  High School" films, titled Kyôfu joshikôkô: Animal dôkyôsei (恐怖女子高校　アニマル同級生). The more common English title for it today is Terrifying Girls' High School: Animal Courage. It was directed by Masahiro Shimura and released in Japan on December 1, 1973. Above is a poster to that film, with the girl of my quest in the upper left with a knife held to her nipple.

Harumi Tajima's debut in the trailer to Terrifying Girls' High School: Animal Courage

Even after I identified the movie and had cast listings, I was unable to tell which cast member was that big, bouncy gal. But a couple nights ago, while browsing on Youtube, I came across a 90-minute video called Pinky Violence: Essential Trailers (1970-1977). This film's trailer is included, and at about one hour, 17 minutes into the video we see the above image of the girl, with her boobs all a-bounce right over her name. Now I know who she is: Harumi Tajima! (田島晴美) The image capture above also states that she is a "Newcomer", so, presumably this was her film debut, and most Japanese film databases confirm this. In the poster above, Harumi is listed second after star Reiko Ike-- probably the major actress in the Pinky Violence genre.

A little investigation showed that Harumi was actually in a film released on November 17, 1973, one month before this "debut". Titled, Young oh! Oh! Nihon no joushiki desu (ヤングおー！おー！　日本のジョウシキでーす). It appears to be a comedy, but I find no other information on it. IMDb has no listing for it. Harumi's name can be seen listed last in the cast section, all the way in the lower left-hand corner of the poster. Ann Mari, from Seijun Suzuki's 1967 Branded to Kill is also in the cast, and can be seen on the poster.

Harumi Tajima, busty girl of the '70s

With that information, a furious search for more information and images on the Internet quickly ensued. Here's a posed image from the Japanese sight "Big boobs in my life", an interesting online diary of one Japanese man's obsession with boobs. If you are interested in the history of the appreciation of big boobs in Japan, I recommend browsing through this blog. Pukiwiki magazine index wiki indicates that she appeared nude in the January, May, and September 1974 issues of Heibon Punch (平凡パンチ増刊号).

Lucky guy gets a face full of the good stuff from Harumi

Other Japanese blogs point out that Harumi was known not only for her boobs, but also for her baby-face. I came a cross a video compilation of Harumi's film appearances here. As can be deduced by this image and a few of the others, the big-boobed girls weren't considered sexy by the filmmakers, but more as comic relief.

 Sukeban: Taiman shobu

As far as I can tell, she appeared in six films, all but the first one were in Toei's Pinky Violence genre. For anyone unfamiliar with this excellent genre of Japanese sexploitation film, the Grindhouse Cinema Database offers a brief introduction and profiles of several films in this genre. Harumi's second film was directed by Ikuo Sekimoto and released on January 15, 1974. Titled Sukeban: Taiman shobu (女番長　タイマン勝負), it was the sixth entry in the Sukeban series. I can't make out which girl she is in the poster, but her name is listed fourth in the cast section, with major Pinky-violence star Reiko Ike getting top billing. [note 9/7/2014 - Having now seen this film, I can report that, unfortunately, Harumi-san has a pretty small role in this film, with no nudity. She gets drunk with Reiko Ike, pees in the street and passes out in one scene, then gets picked up on the road to join the girls in more drinking and eating sukiyaki in the final scene.]

School of the Holy Beast

Busty Harumi's third film appearance was in the role of Tamao Oka in director Noribumi Suzuki's legendary nunsploitation classic, School of the Holy Beast (Seijû gakuen - 聖獣学園), released on February 16, 1974. I've got a copy of this film, but only saw it once, and don't recall noticing Harumi in it. Of course I had no idea she would be in the film, so I wasn't watching for her. Another look is called for. I do recall a scene in Meiko Kaji's first Scorpion movie in which a busty girl smothers a prison guard with her boobs. It was made in 1972, a little earlier than Harumi's career started. But since it is from Toei too, I'll have to look at that one again and see if this buxom marauder could be our Harumi...

Shikijô Toruko nikki

Her next film was in director Kazuhiko Yamaguchi's Oh Wonderful Utamaro! (IMDb title; Japanese: Shikijô Toruko nikki - 色情トルコ日記). JMDb does not list her, but IMDb does, and her name can be seen listed second in the cast on the poster.

Harumi in the public bath

Above we have a scene of Harumi in a public bath. Since the above film has a "Turkish bath" theme, I'll take a guess that it might be from that film. She and her nude companions capture a peeping-Tom and humiliate him in this film clip.

Poster to Sukeban: Tamatsuki asobi (Harumi in upper left)

The last film I find with Harumi listed in the cast is director Ikuo Sekimoto's Sukeban: Tamatsuki asobi, released October 19, 1974. When I started working on this post, IMDB didn't list Harumi in the cast, but her name can be plainly seen second from the left in the poster, and her image in the upper left section, also Allcinema lists her in the cast, though JMDb doesn't. I submitted her name to IMDb, so, except for the "Young oh!" title, her filmography there is complete. Other English sites mention that she has an eye-catching run on the beach in this film, the last in the Sukeban series. I haven't found any images of it, but I presume that this run is topless, and involves a good deal of Harumi's signature bouncing.

Harumi getting the rough treatment from fellow bad girls

Here is another unidentified scene from the collection of video clips I linked to above. In this one a group of girls captures and abuses the buxom Harumi. This discovery of Harumi Tajima and survey of her career, short as it was, has given me a broader perspective on this charming vision from my youth. In my mind's eye, she was always the feisty, dangerous "bad girl", ready for a knife-fight, and getting her chest slashed in a sword fight with Reiko Ike. I now see she could also project a comic presence with her baby face.