Ero shogun to 21-nin no aisho (Japan, 1972) – 3,5/5
Norifumi Suzuki knows how to make small budget pinku eiga look like an epic. Ero shogun to 21-nin no aisho stars a wide variety of genre starlets, including Yoko Mihara, Emi Shiro and Miki Sugimoto, as the women of the shogun’s inner palace. The most memorable is Reiko Ike as a sexy female ninja! Her sword-inside-an-umbrella fight scene in the rain was later re-used by Teruo Ishii in Female Yakuza Tale. Suzuki’s film however is not an action pic but a stylish and often over the top drama-comedy that only suffers from too much flesh.
- dvd / Toei
Assault! Jack the Ripper (Japan, 1976) – 3/5
Yasuhare Hasebe’s Assault! Jack the Ripper has a reputation as one of the best, and also most notorious violent pinku films ever produced by the Nikkatsu studios. Unfortunately the film doesn’t quite live up to the expectations. It’s a nastly film but not an especially graphic one. The story of a shy young man who after being provoked by his wild girlfriend slowly turns into a murderer is fascinating, but ultimately underdeveloped, partly because of the short running time and overload of sex scenes. Hasebe’s direction is quite original but not fit for all tastes.
- dvd / Geneon