by Rich Porter

Created on: October 26, 2007

Pinku eiga or "pink film" is a style of Japanese soft-core pornography. Nudity and sex were very taboo in Japanese films during the years after World War II and leading up to the 1960's. Eroticism in Japanese film was first introduced with an on-screen kiss in 1946 and throughout the years more and more flesh was being shown. More graphic depictions of sexuality were made illegally by independent producers and could only be viewed in single reel stag films, or adult films, as we know them today.

"Erotica," soft core," and "sexploitation" are often used to describe pinku eiga films. However some argue that it is the very censorship laws focused on the films that have given the pink film its unique style. Donald Richie, an American author who has written many books about Japanese culture and cinema is quoted as saying "American pornography is kept forever on its elemental level because, showing all, it need do nothing else; Japanese eroductions have to do something else since they cannot show all. The stultified impulse has created some extraordinary works of art, a few films among them."

In 1962 Satoru Kobayashi introduced the controversial and popular Nikutai no Ichiba, or Flesh Market, a soft-core torture tale about a sadist who captures three girls and allows friends and businessman to have their ways with them. With an almost nonexistent plot, Flesh Market merely showcased intense and eroticized torture including bondage, whipping and forced enemas. The film grossed over 10 million Yen and saw the star of the film, Tamaki Katori, go on to enjoy a rather lucrative career in the pinku eiga industry. Kobayashi would remain an active and influential director in pinku eiga films until the 1990s.

In 1964 Tetsuji Takechi, a Japanese theater and film director, directed the first large budget pink film Daydream. The film revolved around an artist and a young man who cross paths while waiting in a dentist's office. When the artist is given anesthetics, he falls into an imaginative state and envisions scenes where the young woman suffers various forms of sexual abuse including rape and torture. He awakens from his anesthesia to find clues revealing what he imagined may not have been imagined at all. Tetsuji Takechi was arrested the following year for Black Snow (1965) and held in custody on charges of obscenity. A high-profile trial illustrated the battle between Japan's artists and conservative establishment. Tetsuji Takechi won the lawsuit and this victory opened the

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