[citation needed] Director Shōhei Imamura began his career there and between 1958 and 1966 made for them such notable films as Pigs and Battleships (1961), The Insect Woman (1963) and The Pornographers (1966). Starting in 1971, homosexually-oriented magazines began to appear, including Barazoku. Schwarzacher, Lukas “Spotlight: Japan: Nikkatsu at 90: Studio Returns to Form After Seeing Softer Days” Variety 388:5 (16 September 2002-22 September 2002): pp. + 1 booklet (39 page : illustrations ; 17 cm.) Many young directors began their careers directing a Nikkatsu Pink film. The postwar film industry expanded rapidly and, in 1951, Nikkatsu president Kyusaku Hori began construction of a new production studio. A few, including the film directors Yasuharu Hasebe, Keiichi Ozawa, Shōgorō Nishimura, and Koreyoshi Kurahara, stayed. They were concentrating more on the body than the mind and were tapping in to the experimental culture of youth in Japan. Here’s an essay and a collection of films I wrote on the Japanese film studio Nikkatsu and the series of films it made during the Sixties and early Seventies. His character and persona were much like Yujiro’s was only a few years earlier. Few films remain from this early period of the film-maker’s work, except for a partial version of Tokyo March (1929), restored by Cinémathèque française, and Home Town (1930), Mizoguchi’s oldest remaining full film and the first attempt at sound film in Japanese history. Silver, Alain & Ursini, James. Shareholders are Nippon Television Holdings (35%) and SKY Perfect JSAT Corporation (28.4%).[2]. Return of Daimajin (1966) 10. The Demon of Mount Oe (1960) 3. 1st Logo (Late 1920s) Films produced by Nikkatsu. Much like ATG’s early years playing in underground cinemas and cult theaters (Mirasawa, 21). “Too much cinema destroys cinema” (Douchet, 16). In Nikkatsu he made three groundbreaking films: Pigs and Battleships (1961), The Insect Woman (1963), and Intentions of Murder (1964). The academy award winning filmed Departures was produced in conjunction with Nikkatsu under Namco Ltd. Who bought them in 1997 (Ibid). The culture of American films, music, magazines and celebrities had burrowed their way in to the youth of Japan. 24. It could even be called a resonance of pop art and modern ideals. The first two films in the Godzilla series were produced in 1954 and 1955, and were followed by a seven-year hiatus during whic… His films as a produced include the monster movie sensation Gamera series (1995-99, Daiei), the box-office blockbuster Death Note series (2006-08, … Dark shadows, youthful sensibilities, deadly Gangsters, modern idealism and foreboding film noir atmosphere. Chuck Stevens names I am Waiting (1957) as the start of Nikkatsu’s run of great film noir / genre bending theatrical experiences. The Nikkatsu Corporation (日活株式会社, Nikkatsu Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. Finally it comes to the answer as to what were Nikkatsu studios truly trying to accomplish in their films of this time? 193-204. Japanese filmmakers have made some of the greatest films of the world in this genre. Suzuki made dozens of films for Nikkatsu from 1956 onwards, developing an increasingly inventive visual style, but was controversially fired following the release of his 40th, Branded to Kill (1967), which Hori deemed "incomprehensible". It also witnessed the emergence of such new directors as Tatsumi Kumashiro, Masaru Konuma and Chūsei Sone. ^ "Nikkatsu Production (official website)". Nikkatsu gained fame in the 1960s when they produced big-budget films about yakuza, and they gained even more fame in Japan when they released adult films such as the Roman Porn series of films. Nikkatsu is now largely associated with its torrent of erotic films released en masse from 1971 when the company launched its Roman Porno brand as a reaction to the crisis then hitting the film industry. Many of these Japanese films had very limited or art-house showings in the States. No longer a tough guy, Yujiro’s image was more sensitive and in touch with his body than his mind (Raine, 211). is a nine-film series of pink films made mostly by the Nikkatsu Corporation between 1978 and 1994. “ATG’s Early Years and Underground Cinema”. The reformed Nikkatsu continued to prosper as an exhibition company but ceased all film production. The term Film Noir was coined by the French and made its way from film to film until its style of conveying fatalistic narratives, femme fatales, chiaroscuro lighting and deep focus photography was felt in many films from black and white to Technicolor (Silver and Ursini, 11). Pp. 26-28. It was, however, during the late fifties and sixties that this essay will discuss; the height of Nikkatsu’s distinct style and youthful assertion with a new Japanese audience. Experiencing a few scenes in Branded to Kill like the montage of sequences of torture by fire or any of the chase sequences and one has a feeling that the sequencing of shots and editing are not mainstream or linear in any regard (Miyao, 200). The films were based on the manga series by Takashi Ishii. The name Nikkatsu amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Motion Pictures". It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. However, the company had a much more distinguished pedigree. The characters in these films can be attributed to many of the heroes bound by Westerns in the states. 202- 226. The structure is disorienting and lends itself to the nightmarish feeling and tone the film is trying to express (Miyao, 201). By the end of Seijen’s Branded to Kill the hero finds himself literally in a boxing ring with his final enemy. Nikkatsu, set to merge with the two weakest companies, Shinkō Kinema and Daito, were verbally displeased. A film which its very title evokes the sound of a western or adventure picture. ISBN 1-56931-681-3. Over the last few years, Japan’s box office has been dominated by TV network-produced films, which are staffed by their own production crews — a trend that many in the industry believe is shutting out new directors. Experiencing only a few Nikkatsu films one can see a great Film Noir aesthetic flowing through their productions. The Nikkatsu produced films showcased this fatalistic attitude through their male body-minded protagonists (Raine, 206). In September 2012, Nikkatsu celebrated its 100th anniversary. Angel Guts (天使のはらわた Tenshi no Harawata?) B2, B4. Nikkatsu’s genre bending B- films of the Fifties and Sixties held influence from many international sources and yet retained a cultural significance with the youth culture under a new rising sun. Both of those Seijun films use a gangster (Yakuza) themed narrative, filled with murder, violence, chases and sex. Subjects: Yakuza -- Drama. Pinky Violence/ Nikkatsu/ Pink Films by ajcblake_77 | created - 25 Jan 2015 | updated - 25 Jan 2015 | Public Refine See titles to watch instantly, titles you haven't rated, etc. TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion. They have codes and are usually ruthless gunfighters or vicious badmen. The anti or sensitive heroes of 1950’s American films harbored an interesting influence in the iconic persona Inshihara Yujiro’s dandy hero (Raine, 207). Gamera vs. Barugon (1966) 9. Nikkatsu gained fame in the 1960's when they produced big-budget films about yakuza, and they gained even more fame in Japan when they released adult films such as the Roman Porn series of films. The advent of home video brought an end to active production at Nikkatsu. An audience beckoning for something fast moving, jazzy and action packed. Nikkatsu, Japan’s oldest major film studio that nurtured the careers of directors such as Shohei Imamura and Seijun Suzuki, produced over 500 Nikkatsu Action genre films beginning in the mid-1950s, of which Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter and Branded to Kill may be the best known. Angel Guts (天使のはらわた Tenshi no Harawata?) It is one of the best films of Nikkatsu Roman Porno, which deals with S&M themes, particularly kinbaku. [citation needed] The company began making movies again in 1954. The films made in Japan by Nikkatsu studios were as much a study (albeit a more playful and less theoretical study) as the French nouvelle vogue. Dark shadows, youthful sensibilities, deadly Gangsters, modern idealism and foreboding film noir atmosphere. The films Nikkatsu produced during this time were elemental sums of all genres, mixed in…. It was the heyday of entertainment and art in Japan. The films were based on the manga series by Takashi Ishii. The Japanese soundtrack is presented in mono with English subtitles. [1] The studio also employed such stars as Yujiro Ishihara, Akira Kobayashi, Joe Shishido, Tetsuya Watari, Ruriko Asaoka, Chieko Matsubara and, later, Meiko Kaji and Tatsuya Fuji. One that would solidify the Japanese film industry as more than just art house fair but of a sort of pop-art mentality. The influence is not just one, it couldn’t be, given that cinema had existed for nearly seventy years before these films came to be. Nikkatsu Roman Porno movies were once all the rage in Japan. SEX HUNTER: WET TARGET is one of the earlier titles from Nikkatsu after they changed production over to adult films and it shows it with the style and artistry within the film and its themes. [T]he first phase of The Sushi Typhoon's films will be released in late 2010 and early 2011, with the company self-distributing their titles in North America. Buddha (1961) 4. Nikkatsu sums up a conglomerate of Western influences in an attempt to drive the Japanese film market in to a new and more youthful terrain. The committee formed to establish the value of each company retaliated by purposefully undervaluing Nikkatsu, which led to Shinkō becoming the dominant head of production. By 2011, the company had produced seven feature films. The title itself resembles many crime novels written in the thirties that had so much of an effect on film noirs in America in the forties (Silver and Ursini, 12). Hori resigned over the change in focus, and many stars and directors left the company. Kujira Gami(1962) 5. These were experimental aspects that wanted to push new grounds, even when many of the filmmakers denied making these decisions consciously. This site is a tribute to the often INNOVATIVE, sometimesWILD, and always ENTERTAINING, cycle of action films produced by the Japanese studio, NIKKATSU, beginning in the late 1950's and continuing throughout the 1960's. One only has to look at many Seijun films like Branded to Kill or Tokyo Drifter (1968) to see the avant-garde and pop art aesthetic used in its presentation and narrative (Rayns, 27). However, Nikkatsu has since bounced back in a big way, producing and distributing everything from prestigious historical dramas to the most extreme films of a midnight madness program. Nikkatsu sees the roman porno revival as an opportunity for emerging filmmakers and actors to make their mark. Nowadays Roman Porno movies have won acceptance, as "art" not "porno", all over the world. With a country struck by atomic destruction the films showcased a hero that never really wins, with a love interest who never really lives happily ever after. The Sushi Typhoon arm of Nikkatsu creates low-budget horror, science fiction, and fantasy films aimed at an international audience. Gamera vs. Gyaos (1967) 12. Couldn’t have written it without the amazing theorists and authors listen at the bottom. The waiter at the Blue Sky nightclub thinks Frank, played by Danish-Japanese actor Masumi Okada, … The Nikkatsu Corporation is a Japanese entertainment company formed in 1912 and well known for its film and television productions. 1996 acquired by a Japanese leisure company, This page was last edited on 6 January 2021, at 15:01. Between 1974 and 1986, Nikkatsu promoted a number of their leading Roman Porno actresses of the popular BDSM niche under the epithet "SM Queen" (SMの女王, SM no joō). By the 1960’s the term “Film Noir” had not yet garnered the reputation and recognizable presentation that it does now. In French cinema of the sixties the need to simply represent reality was not seen as artful cinema. Pp. In conclusion, these films made between the late 1950’s and in to the late 60’s were calling cards to cinematic discourses of the past and, at the same time, addresses of the modern Japanese audience. However, its form is a hybrid of experimental and film noir much like the Breathless (1960) by Goddard or any number of New wave classics. They were made by men who found awareness in the study of mainstream cinema as sophisticated and rooted with many intricate studies of art and humanity (Douchet, 16). Nikkatsu films often scattered gratuitous foreigners in the background of shots, but Crazed Fruit turns the novel’s anti-Americanism into a cultural style. Hope you find a few hidden gems in here you would have never have seen otherwise. July, 1945: Japan's army is on the run. The aesthetic is not realistic but makes one question the certain aspects of living and what they are watching. The Films are as much film noir influenced from European cinema in a pre-war world and used as the primary narrative front runner in many of the films as they are avant-garde structured movies (Miyao, 199). Nikkatsu is an independent film production company.. ContentsFilms produced by Nikkatsu Edit After World War II that fatalism became a culturally specific stereotype through out the world. Diary of a Shinjuku Thief (Nagisa Oshima, 1968) The third film from Oshima on this list, “Diary of a Shinjuku Thief” contains fewer erotic elements but enough pinky elements to be considered a pink film. ACADEMY AWARDS; GOLDEN GLOBES AWARDS; GOYA; MAR DEL PLATA FILM FESTIVAL; SEE ALL; COUNTRY; NETFLIX; HORROR; ACTION; COMEDY; GENRES; NEWS; Nikkatsu. Pink films dominated the Japanese film market through 1960s to the 1980s. These are the characteristics one sees in the films of the Nikkatsu studio during the late Fifties and in to the Sixties. The Sushi Typhoon arm of Nikkatsu creates low-budget horror, science fiction, and fantasy films aimed at an international audience. A platoon in Burma sings to … Japan had once again risen to a respectful acceptance on an international scale with Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi’s films. [10] The Sushi Typhoon arm of Nikkatsu creates low-budget horror, science fiction, and fantasy films aimed at an international audience. It has co-produced films with Asian partners in Indonesia and Korea, as well as co-developing remakes from the company's library with mainstream Hollywood producers. We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. With a country struck by atomic destruction the films showcased a hero that never really wins, with a love interest who never really lives happily ever after. This list tried to include many classic pink films, which can be Nikkatsu Roman Porno, Toei Pinky Violence, or other Japanese erotic films. ‘Roman porn’ was the name for a number of Japanese soft porn films produced by Nikkatsu film studio between 1971 and 1988. Like all pink films the major theme is sex, but there is plenty of violence involved as well. Since these Nikkatsu films share just as much influence with experimental avant-garde films as with genre pictures like the Gangster picture and their aesthetic visuals of a film noir; the ending to many of these films harkens back to the same argument all of these categories share with Nikkatsu films… They are in a sense a hybrid or all of these influences. While it kept making historical films, the studio produced films focusing on contemporary issues ( … America’s influence after the war is hard to underestimate. By the end of many of these Nikkatsu films the main character; whether he was an anti-hero, passive aggressive protagonist or reluctant knight would always face the ultimate bad guy, a man usually head of the organization that had been tormenting the protagonist and his love interest. Nikkatsu's latest production strategy includes a special focus on international co-productions. [3] The company enjoyed its share of success. Pp. The rain drenched atmosphere, the suicidal female role and the male hero driven to a fatalistic ending. Current leading Japanese film directors such as Yojiro Takita and Hideo Nakata cut their … Color, detail and celluloid texture are all spot-on. American Influence after the War: Yujiro’s influence was felt in entertainment magazines and he was a soaring star by 1958 (Raine, 213). Take anther example of Joe Shishido, the actor of Seijun’s film Branded to Kill (1967), Nomura’s A Colt is my Passport (1967) and Furukawa’s Cruel Gun Story (1964). Outlaw gangster VIP : the complete collection / a Nikkatsu Corporation production. [9], In 2005, the company was sold to Index Holdings and in 2010, a revived Nikkatsu studio announced new production of Sushi Typhoon, a movie series made in partnership with a U.S. During that time this great studio--with its highly talented crew of charismatic stars, flamboyant directors, and brilliant craftsmen (including set designers, writers, and composers)- … Format/Description: Video 3 videodiscs (541 min.) The Postwar film market in Japan was a sullen landscape filled with a hunger for new and more exciting films. Today Nikkatsu is a smaller and more focused organisation with an international perspective. They have a final gunfight guided by their morals codes of conduct. Frustrated, Isao invents all sorts of stratagies to disgust Ikuko´s ... (1972) Retaliation. : the complete collection Publication: [United States] : Arrow Films, 2016. p. 188. 16-18. is a nine-film series of pink films made mostly by the Nikkatsu Corporation between 1978 and 1994. The company enjoyed its share of success. Rayns, Tony “Deep Seijun” Sight and Sound 16:7 (July 2006): pp. Nikkatsu sees the roman porno revival as an opportunity for emerging filmmakers and actors to make their mark. Over the last few years, Japan’s box office has been dominated by TV network-produced films, which are staffed by their own production crews — a trend that many in the industry believe is shutting out new directors. As the movie starts one can see the influence of American film noir. The film noir was alive and well in the narrative discourse of almost all of Nikkatsu films at this time. The Nikkatsu Corporation (日活株式会社, Nikkatsu Kabushiki-gaisha) is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. Fortunately he made another recovery and joined Nikkatsu Corporation which had resumed its film making activities. Bed Partner (1988) was the last release in the venerable 17-year Roman Porno series. Avant-garde films were films of the twenties and thirties in which Europeans were playfully interrupting and problematizing the everyday aspects of urban life. Experimental avant-garde cinema would hit one of its hey-days in the sixties with the emergence of modern art (something film and filmmaking would play an intricate part in). Without a style, cinema could never really soar (Ibid). These are the characteristics one sees in the films of the Nikkatsu studio during the late Fifties and in to the Sixties. In September 2012, Nikkatsu celebrated its 100th anniversary. Wind Velocity 75 Meters(1963) 6. Since 2005, he has headed NIKKATSU Corporation as President & CEO, and continues producing many films. However, the culture was changing. distributor. Under Hori, Nikkatsu is considered to have had its "Golden Age". It was during this boom that nearly one billion tickets were sold a year to Japanese audiences ( Schwarzacher, B2). And neither of those could have been possible without the European and more specifically, German expressionistic influence that came in during the early thirties (Silver and Ursini, 10). 1. [11], In 2011, the French director Yves Montmayeur produced a documentary about the Pink Film period at Nikkatsu called Pinku Eiga: Inside the Pleasure Dome Of Japanese Erotic Cinema. Nikkatsu declared bankruptcy in 1993. 1956: Nikkatsu releases “Season of the Sun,” the film that launches the career of superstar Yujiro Ishihara. ... Suzuki made dozens of films for Nikkatsu from 1956 onwards, developing an increasingly inventive visual style, but was controversially fired following the release of his 40th, Branded to Kill (1967), which Hori deemed "incomprehensible". AWARDS. A Hybrid of Influence: Through the company’s outstanding history with a library of over 5000 films, Nikkatsu has unrivaled experience in film production, offering a diverse slate with a mix of genres, talent and budget – ranging from action, human drama, horror, family entertainment and art house masterpieces.