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Pinku Eiga: More than the sum of its (censored) parts.

Japan has seen many periods of censorship and resurgence regarding the production of erotica. In the late 1800's, fearing that the European nations it was attempting to emulate would think them "backward," the Japanese government all but banned the subject. It wasn't until after World War II that pornography once again became more acceptable in written work and illustrations (though the burgeoning film industry was still heavily controlled).

The censorship laws in place in the early 1960's ironically gave rise to a new generation of erotica. Due to the restrictions placed on film productions, which were not allowed to show genitalia, the "Pinku Eiga" (pink film) genre was created. Characteristics of the films were their budget of $35,000 or less, their filming time of one week, and their length of approximately one hour. Sex scenes too were regulated: pinku films were required to have one every five minutes. Most film-makers had difficulties achieving this, however, and instead made the scenes longer to compensate. Aside from those general standards, it was an "anything goes" mentality regarding the pinku eiga.

Although pinku films are considered soft-core, the subject matter they present is far from "soft." One trait of a typical pinku film is violence towards women. Erotic film from the East did not show women as being the "free-love" types depicted in the West in the '60's; themes of rape, degradation, and sadomasochism were most prominent. Oftentimes in these themes, however, there was an undercurrent of revolt. Pinku films could be highly intellectual at the same time they stimulated, showing subtle glimpses of social and political commentary. At this period in Japan, much was changing and even pornographic movies were shaded by the situation.

(A contributing factor to the creation of this new style of pornography was, surprisingly, the detonation of the hydrogen bomb on the Bikini Atoll in the South Pacific in 1954. With that act, a genre was born that paved the way for the creation of pinku. The bombing inspired director Honda Ishiro to let loose on Japan the monstrous figure of Gojira (Godzilla) - a mad, rampaging beast intent on annihilating everything in its path. Gojira's release marked a change in Japan, where movies that were "low-budget, quickly-made genre films full of sex, violence and extreme morality" were fast becoming the norm.)

Director Satoru Kobayashi was the first to break onto the scene

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