Cinema and Sexual Expression: Between Literature and Pornography (1965-1950s)

Cinema and Sexual Expression: Between Literature and Pornography (1965-1950s)

From the late 1960s through the 1970s, the Japanese film industry experienced a turning point. Amid the diversification of entertainment associated with Japan's rapid economic growth, television rapidly spread to households, and movie theaters began to decline. As the business of the major film companies began to decline, "pink films" and "romance pornography" suddenly came into the limelight.

Pink films were low-budget, short-run entertainment films for adults, and their number increased rapidly after "The Market for the Body" in 1962. Following this, Nikkatsu changed course in 1971 and launched the "Roman Porno" brand in earnest. Roman Porno was produced by a larger production company than Pink Porno, and was made with an awareness of "prestige" that ensured a certain degree of artistic and literary quality.

In the midst of this change, young viewers were approaching these films not simply with a lustful gaze, but as a means of engaging with them in some kind of literary interest or social engagement. Some young people sought to see in the depictions of sexuality the roots of human loneliness, entrapment, and lust.

They would say, "Take a deep poke--I see, this is what hehe is all about."

As the impressive recollections such as "I see, this is what hehe is..." show in the text, pornography for them was not only "sexual knowledge" but also "knowledge of the world. It was a contact with "reality" filled with reality and smell, which was different from "intellectual masturbation" based on the knowledge they had acquired from "Castries" and translated books.

In the 1960s, Japan was still repressive in the public sphere, despite talk of sexual liberation. School rules were strict, male-female relationships were closely monitored, and even at home it was almost taboo to talk about "sex. Against this backdrop, the darkness of the movie theater offered a place where one could "watch" without being disturbed, and the anonymity of the theater attracted many young people.

These films also reflected the traditional "freak show" culture of the performing arts. Like geisha and dancers, who were supposed to be seen by the audience, actresses played the role of "showing" on the screen, and moderation and skillful direction were emphasized in the way they were presented. There was a mixture of obscenity and stylized beauty, as in the theaters of the Edo period.

In this way, pink films and roman pornography were more than mere commercialization of sex; they were objects of "appreciation," extensions of "literature," and places of "escapism, They were also devices of "rebellion," and took on a variety of meanings depending on the viewer. Especially for the young generation, it was their "first sexual education," and at the same time, their "first friction with society.