pink films are indie movies from japan featuring nudity and often softcore porn. it encompasses everything from horror to drama to action movies, and are frequently experimental. i've seen political dramas, historic dramas, horror, women in prison, psychological thrillers, everything under the sun- as long as they feature the required amount of nudity, directors are allowed to do what they want. it's incredible to see how much creativity is put into such low budget movies. it's easy to reduce the genre to merely sleazy misogynistic torture porn, but it's so incredibly diverse and full of absolute masterpieces. pink films like female prisoner #701: scorpion and sex and fury have been incredibly influential, inspiring films like sion sono's love exposure, satoshi kon's perfect blue, and quentin tarantino's kill bill.
i plan to write full summaries at a later date so some of these are placeholders from my letterboxd ^^
i THINK this movie was about men playing god and the futility of chasing happiness but y'know. loved the pacing, loved the tone, loved the cinematography and sfx and acting
absolutely brilliant twists, brilliant presentation, hilarious way to find out i'm absolutely not into period sex in the slightest. highly recommend to anyone with a very strong stomach because i had to look away for the more graphic parts. really enjoyed the commentary it made on the adult video industry. real manhunt vibes
some absolutely brilliant shots in here. i really enjoyed the character of the crime hunter, i thought she was quite compelling. i enjoyed the antagonists too, the reveal did surprise me :) beautiful cinematography, slow paced but thankfully not overstaying its welcome. i really enjoyed the camera murder weapon. i really liked the sombre music in the end credits
it's a little shallow but the russian roulette framing device is brilliant. it's not as good as sato's later movies, but even here you can see he's got a real talent. i thought the cinematography was nice too, lots of neat symbolism. i wish sato had put more thought into the detective character since he's probably the weakest link in the movie in my opinion but it could just be the lack of dialogue working to the movie's detriment. the ending was a surprise, i think it's a bit cheap to go for unnecessary shock value when the movie was just fine without it. it felt a little style over substance and could have been a little more satisfying but who can really complain when the style is so good?
a movie about the leader of a biker gang who gets cold feet about raping schoolgirls because of his little sister or something. i don't know what i expected, but this one was utter trash. i genuinely don't think it had anything to say- i don't even think the rape was a metaphor for something or anything. nonsensical plot, flat characters, bizarre logic, i wouldn't recommend this one. i thought the character of nami was interesting, but she barely gets any dialogue at all. i know the sequels focus on her more, so here's hoping, but i wouldn't watch this first one again. the most tragic thing about it is just how uninteresting it is.
oh man this film truly is brilliant i would give it six stars if i could... an absolutely amazing movie that i'll be thinking about for a long time, i think it's even more poignant in the internet age yet i'm not sure i can recommend it to anyone i know...
taken at face value as a standalone film, this is a really great movie about the sensationalisation of rape and exploitation of its victims and how journalists are scum! as a sequel it's an even more fascinating exploration of how victims can become what they despise as they seek out the stories of others in an effort to feel better about their past trauma, retraumatising themselves and often revictimising themselves in the process
i love nami and her horrible horrible decisions i wish she could have peace but she won't ever let herself. doing it over and over and over again is the only way for her to feel better about herself. i think the movie is far more interesting when you consider nami's history and that she's lying when she says she's never experienced anything like that before, it adds so much depth
the themes of the victim becoming the abuser, revictimisation, and how rape effects everyone in the victim's life were really well handled in my opinion, it really resonated with me and i wish there were more movies that tackle these themes, it turns into a straight up horror movie in the second half which was very welcome given the subject matter truly is horrific