Nikkatsu gets back into the roman porno business with two remakes of classic films

by Chris MaGee

It seems that us folks in North America and Europe are the only ones discovering the seemingly endless catalogues of pink films and roman porno produced in Japan over the past decades. The second of those, the roman porno films, were produced exclusively by Nikkatsu Studios during the 70's and early 80's in an attempt by the oldest movie studio in Japan to stave of financial ruin, but they also aspired to produce films that weren't straight ahead pornography but films that captured eroticism and romance, thus the name roman for romance. Nikkatsu went back to making mainstream films by 1988, but the venerable studio can't ignore the current international interest in sex cinema from Japan as well as the rise of what they call "empty, mass-produced adult videos" that have no hint of "eros". So 22 years after they ceased production on adult films Nikkatsu is getting back in the roman porno business!

In a press release that went out at the end of last year Nikkatsu announced that they have produced two new roman porno films, both remakes of two of the most popular original roman prono titles - Shogoro Nishimura's 1971 "Danchizuma hirusagari no joji (Love in the Afternoon: Wife Complex)", one of the very first roman porno films, and Koyu Ohara's 1980 film ""Ushiro kara mae kara (From the rear, from the front)". The former remake (above) has "Concent" and "Tomie: Forbidden Fruit" director Shun Nakahara at the helm and tells the story of a sexually frustrated housewife who embarks on a series of affair at a nearby love hotel, while the latter is directed by Shoichiro Matsumoto and follows the erotic adventures of a female taxi driver.

Nikkatsu isn't just gearing these two new roman porno films just to chain-smoking men in darkened rooms. Both have been shot in HD and will be released in theatres in Tokyo in January as well as being made available simultaneously on SKY! TV pay-per-view so that female audiences can feel safe watching them. Nikkatsu reps are saying that these films have been, "...made with an emphasis on women so that they can enjoy them. Through eroticism [these films] will stir the imagination and we hope to have a new storm in Japan's film industry." If the storm goes well we may very well see more roman porno coming from Nikkatsu in the very near future...

You can check out the "Roman Porno Returns" website that Nikkatsu has set up here although there's not much content there yet. Thanks to Fujiko Takeyama of UniJapan for forwarding this press release to us, and to Sankei Sports for additional details.