Roman Porno DVD Double Feature #2: EROS SCHOOL: FEELS SO GOOD & ZOOM UP: THE BEAVER BOOK GIRL
There really is nothing like Japanese sex cinema.
I want to preface this review by saying that there is nothing funny about rape, and my comments in regards to these films should be taken solely as a reaction to the very particular circumstances put forth therein. Rape as entertainment is far from uniquely Japanese, however, they seem to have a singular point of view when it comes to violation and the way it relates to sexual and social power dynamics. Far beyond the sleaziest corners of sexploitation, Japanese films and filmmakers have employed non-consensual sex as an integral part of character development and plot for decades, especially in the first few decades following the US occupation after World War II. Hyper-sexual men with sadistic libidinous urges populate sex films, yakuza films, and comedies from the '60s straight through to the '80s. However, I must say, there can't have been too many as strange as those in Eros School: Feels So Good.
The simplest way of describing the film is as a sex comedy about a school aged serial rapist with a pet pig. Welcome to Eros School, just your average '70s Japanese high school full of sexually frustrated teenaged boys being cockteased into oblivion by overly mature teenaged girls. When young Tadao falls in lust with Misa, the most popular girl in school, he is chastised and beaten up by the other girls in class. Misa holds such sway over the school that the faculty propose bringing in a sexual ringer to knock her down a peg, enter Ryu. He is a straw hat wearing bad boy straight out of juvenile detention for a rape at his previous high school. Ryu has made it his goal to rape his way through Eros School, with Misa as his coup de grace. Can Misa fight him off? Will Tadao be able to protect her from Ryu's superior raping skills? Who is going to protect the pig? All these questions and more will blow through your imploded mind in the most fucked up sixty-seven minutes of cinema you're likely to experience for a long time.
When I called this a sex comedy, I wasn't kidding. Eros School: Feels So Good has far more in common with something like Revenge of the Nerds or Screwballs than it does with more harrowing views of sexual violation like Irreversible. There are wacky sound effects, goofball songs, and of course, the pig. Ryu plows through the female population of the school with abandon, and they are all unable (or unwilling) to stop him. As is customary with these films, all of his sexual assaults begin violently, but end with apparent submission. This isn't the kind of physiological reaction that you read about among rape survivors whose bodies betray them in order to survive their ordeals, this is enjoyment, or so it seems. In fact, in order to protect Misa one of Ryu's past victims offers herself up in Misa's stead, and the girls joke about his sexual prowess, even after they've all been "conquered". The fact that it's all mixed together with slide whistles and bouncy pop tunes only manages to make the whole thing weirder, add to that the truly incredible mindfuck of an ending, and you've got something truly incredible on your hands.
It may have become a silly joke in the Internet age, but there really is some truth to the meme that every fucked up idea in the world finds a home in Japan, and Eros School: Feels So Good is evidence of that. The film is competently made, well shot, has some genuine laughs, and was produced by a reputable studio for public consumption, and that is unbelievable. The fact that I found myself engaged in this film rather than being enraged by it either says something about the good quality of the filmmaking, or something really bad about the quality of my character. I choose not to delve further into that question, as I may not like the answer.
The second film in this batch of releases is Zoom Up: The Beaver Book Girl, which, while it certainly has the more colorful title, pales in comparison to the craziness that is Eros School. Zoom Up is the story of a men's magazine photographer who has a particular skill for upskirt photography, a la Love Exposure. When his usual model gets too tired, a mysterious older woman appears with the skills to pay the bills and a flair for the waterworks. Who is this mystery woman and what does she want? She accepts no pay, gives no name, and appears and disappears of her own free will. Does it have something to do with one of their dark pasts? Of course it does! But you'll have to watch the film to learn the truth about The Beaver Book Girl!
Again we are treated to violation as entertainment, though on a significantly smaller scale than in Eros School. One character is described as an "artist of rape" in mixed company with no hint of irony. The major difference between this and the previous film is in tone, as they both feature some pretty wild sexual antics. Zoom Up is an erotic thriller of sorts, the mystery woman doesn't murder anyone, but there are clearly ulterior motives involved, and the whole thing is predestined to end badly. The shenanigans in Zoom Up are mostly in the form of upskirt photography sessions turning into bizarre tableaux of sexual humiliation and sado-masochism. Natch.
Zoom Up: The Beaver Book Girl is not slouch in the sleaze department, but I think it suffered when watched immediately after Eros School. There was an incredibly high bar for depravity set by the first film, and Zoom Up, in spite of its best efforts, staggers across the finish line when it comes to truly out-there fucked-upness. It is difficult to judge it on its own merits in this case, simply because I'd just had my mind turned inside out, however, if you're a fan of sleazy cinema, either one of these will do the trick, as long as you don't mind getting a little wet.
The Discs:
You know, there are times when I find it difficult to concentrate on the A/V quality of a disc, and this is one of those times, though I did manage to pull it together frequently enough to be able to say with some authority that these are very good discs. The scope photography in both, but especially Zoom Up, is very clean and sharp, and the colors are still fairly bold. It is apparent that Nikkatsu has taken good care of these films. Zoom Up is probably the more artistically ambitious of the two, but I'll be damned if Eros School wasn't the craziest shit I've seen in a long time.
There isn't much in the way of extras here, but I think that retaining a bit of the mystery here isn't necessarily a bad thing. Both film feature liner notes from Jasper Sharp, noted expert on Japanese sex cinema. In fact, last night I tweeted about watching these films and I got this response regarding Eros School: "@jaspersharp: Yeah, my jaw was on the floor for much of it!" That about says it all. Sharp's liner notes may be brief, but he manages to put the films in context with related titles and gives the sleaze fan a lot to chew on in a very small space. Other than that the discs are barebones with the exception of a theatrical trailer for Zoom Up: The Beaver Book Girl.
Golly gee, I don't even know how to end this. If anything I've said interests you in the slightest, let me only warn you that I've only just scratched the surface. If it interests you any further, Synapse Film's Don May, who distributes Impulse Pictures, was informed that these titles were deemed inappropriate for Amazon and had them taken down due to complaints. He was told in no uncertain terms that these two discs in particular were not getting on Amazon, no way, no how. That's gotta score some street cred, right? As a result, our usual Amazon links have been replaced by links to DiabolikDVD, a very reliable and trustworthy purveyor of the world finest exploitation and horror films for several years now. Please, check these films out, but don't blame me when your brain melts out through your nose.
I want to preface this review by saying that there is nothing funny about rape, and my comments in regards to these films should be taken solely as a reaction to the very particular circumstances put forth therein. Rape as entertainment is far from uniquely Japanese, however, they seem to have a singular point of view when it comes to violation and the way it relates to sexual and social power dynamics. Far beyond the sleaziest corners of sexploitation, Japanese films and filmmakers have employed non-consensual sex as an integral part of character development and plot for decades, especially in the first few decades following the US occupation after World War II. Hyper-sexual men with sadistic libidinous urges populate sex films, yakuza films, and comedies from the '60s straight through to the '80s. However, I must say, there can't have been too many as strange as those in Eros School: Feels So Good.
The simplest way of describing the film is as a sex comedy about a school aged serial rapist with a pet pig. Welcome to Eros School, just your average '70s Japanese high school full of sexually frustrated teenaged boys being cockteased into oblivion by overly mature teenaged girls. When young Tadao falls in lust with Misa, the most popular girl in school, he is chastised and beaten up by the other girls in class. Misa holds such sway over the school that the faculty propose bringing in a sexual ringer to knock her down a peg, enter Ryu. He is a straw hat wearing bad boy straight out of juvenile detention for a rape at his previous high school. Ryu has made it his goal to rape his way through Eros School, with Misa as his coup de grace. Can Misa fight him off? Will Tadao be able to protect her from Ryu's superior raping skills? Who is going to protect the pig? All these questions and more will blow through your imploded mind in the most fucked up sixty-seven minutes of cinema you're likely to experience for a long time.
When I called this a sex comedy, I wasn't kidding. Eros School: Feels So Good has far more in common with something like Revenge of the Nerds or Screwballs than it does with more harrowing views of sexual violation like Irreversible. There are wacky sound effects, goofball songs, and of course, the pig. Ryu plows through the female population of the school with abandon, and they are all unable (or unwilling) to stop him. As is customary with these films, all of his sexual assaults begin violently, but end with apparent submission. This isn't the kind of physiological reaction that you read about among rape survivors whose bodies betray them in order to survive their ordeals, this is enjoyment, or so it seems. In fact, in order to protect Misa one of Ryu's past victims offers herself up in Misa's stead, and the girls joke about his sexual prowess, even after they've all been "conquered". The fact that it's all mixed together with slide whistles and bouncy pop tunes only manages to make the whole thing weirder, add to that the truly incredible mindfuck of an ending, and you've got something truly incredible on your hands.
It may have become a silly joke in the Internet age, but there really is some truth to the meme that every fucked up idea in the world finds a home in Japan, and Eros School: Feels So Good is evidence of that. The film is competently made, well shot, has some genuine laughs, and was produced by a reputable studio for public consumption, and that is unbelievable. The fact that I found myself engaged in this film rather than being enraged by it either says something about the good quality of the filmmaking, or something really bad about the quality of my character. I choose not to delve further into that question, as I may not like the answer.
The second film in this batch of releases is Zoom Up: The Beaver Book Girl, which, while it certainly has the more colorful title, pales in comparison to the craziness that is Eros School. Zoom Up is the story of a men's magazine photographer who has a particular skill for upskirt photography, a la Love Exposure. When his usual model gets too tired, a mysterious older woman appears with the skills to pay the bills and a flair for the waterworks. Who is this mystery woman and what does she want? She accepts no pay, gives no name, and appears and disappears of her own free will. Does it have something to do with one of their dark pasts? Of course it does! But you'll have to watch the film to learn the truth about The Beaver Book Girl!Again we are treated to violation as entertainment, though on a significantly smaller scale than in Eros School. One character is described as an "artist of rape" in mixed company with no hint of irony. The major difference between this and the previous film is in tone, as they both feature some pretty wild sexual antics. Zoom Up is an erotic thriller of sorts, the mystery woman doesn't murder anyone, but there are clearly ulterior motives involved, and the whole thing is predestined to end badly. The shenanigans in Zoom Up are mostly in the form of upskirt photography sessions turning into bizarre tableaux of sexual humiliation and sado-masochism. Natch.
Zoom Up: The Beaver Book Girl is not slouch in the sleaze department, but I think it suffered when watched immediately after Eros School. There was an incredibly high bar for depravity set by the first film, and Zoom Up, in spite of its best efforts, staggers across the finish line when it comes to truly out-there fucked-upness. It is difficult to judge it on its own merits in this case, simply because I'd just had my mind turned inside out, however, if you're a fan of sleazy cinema, either one of these will do the trick, as long as you don't mind getting a little wet.
The Discs:
You know, there are times when I find it difficult to concentrate on the A/V quality of a disc, and this is one of those times, though I did manage to pull it together frequently enough to be able to say with some authority that these are very good discs. The scope photography in both, but especially Zoom Up, is very clean and sharp, and the colors are still fairly bold. It is apparent that Nikkatsu has taken good care of these films. Zoom Up is probably the more artistically ambitious of the two, but I'll be damned if Eros School wasn't the craziest shit I've seen in a long time.
There isn't much in the way of extras here, but I think that retaining a bit of the mystery here isn't necessarily a bad thing. Both film feature liner notes from Jasper Sharp, noted expert on Japanese sex cinema. In fact, last night I tweeted about watching these films and I got this response regarding Eros School: "@jaspersharp: Yeah, my jaw was on the floor for much of it!" That about says it all. Sharp's liner notes may be brief, but he manages to put the films in context with related titles and gives the sleaze fan a lot to chew on in a very small space. Other than that the discs are barebones with the exception of a theatrical trailer for Zoom Up: The Beaver Book Girl.
Golly gee, I don't even know how to end this. If anything I've said interests you in the slightest, let me only warn you that I've only just scratched the surface. If it interests you any further, Synapse Film's Don May, who distributes Impulse Pictures, was informed that these titles were deemed inappropriate for Amazon and had them taken down due to complaints. He was told in no uncertain terms that these two discs in particular were not getting on Amazon, no way, no how. That's gotta score some street cred, right? As a result, our usual Amazon links have been replaced by links to DiabolikDVD, a very reliable and trustworthy purveyor of the world finest exploitation and horror films for several years now. Please, check these films out, but don't blame me when your brain melts out through your nose.
Special Features:
- Both discs feature liner notes from Jasper Sharp, author of Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema
- Theatrical trailer for Zoom Up: The Beaver Book Girl
- Newly translated subtitles
- Both discs feature liner notes from Jasper Sharp, author of Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema
- Theatrical trailer for Zoom Up: The Beaver Book Girl
- Newly translated subtitles
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