Jasper Sharp and Marc Walkow join forces to take us "Behind the Pink Curtain"

by Chris MaGee

Way back in March when the Toronto J-Film Pow-Wow blog started up we told you about Jasper Sharp's upcoming book "Behind the Pink Curtain". Originally planned as a documentary the project turned into a comprehensive book covering the history of Japanese sex cinema. Fab Press will be releasing the title next month to coincide with Austin's Annual Fanatstic Fest genre film festival, but you may be asking why. Well, if any of you remember Fab Press also launched Mark Schilling's "No Borders, No Limits: Nikkatsu Action Cinema" at Fantastic Fest and shortly thereafter Schilling joined forces with Outcast Cinema's Marc Walkow to tour the "No Borders, No Limits" touring film festival. The penny dropped, didn't it?

Yes, Jasper Sharp and Marc Walkow will now be teaming up to bring us the upcoming "Behind the Pink Curtain" programme at at Fantastic Fest 2008 in Austin, Texas. Between September 22nd and 24th at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema South Lamar Jasper and Marc will be screening four pinku eiga that have never been shown ijn North America previously: "Blue Film Woman" (1969) directed by Kan Mukai, "Gushing Prayer" (1971) directed by Masao Adachi, "A Lonely Cow Weeps at Dawn" (2003) directed by Daisuke Goto and "S&M Hunter" (1986) directed by Shuji Kataoka.

Now, I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for "Behind the Pink Curtain" to have the same kind of extensive tour that "No Borders, No Limits" had. As Marc mentions at the Outcast Cinema blog it was a major uphill climb to get "No Borders, No Limits" shown due to technical issues with subtitling the unsubtitled 35mm prints (a problem that kept the series out of Toronto), but a whole new set of issues faces a retropective of pinku eiga. Rape? Torture? Sex? Might be a hard sell for most cinematheques. Still Marc isn't ruling out some limited screenings around North America if the opportunity presents itself. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Thanks to Marc Walkow for heads up on this, and here's looking forward to speaking with Jasper Sharp about this fascinating new book. Keep checking back for the one-on-one interview!