meta: Erotic

2019

Akio Jissōji's 'The Buddhist Trilogy' September 9, 2019
Almost totally unseen outside Japan, these three art projects by a director best known for his 'Ultraman' work are anything but easy viewing, but also seething with vision and ambition
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2018

Patreon 'Animerama: Cleopatra': God Of Manga Meets Queen Of Nile July 20, 2018
The second of Tezuka's 'Animerama' productions for adults works best as a showcase for Tezuka's imaginative visuals, less so as a story or even as a spoof of Hollywood excess
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Patreon 'Animerama: A Thousand And One Nights': Tezuka's Erotic Follies July 13, 2018
The first of Osamu Tezuka's experimental trilogy of animated films for adults is a fascinating time capsule that swerves between visionary and puerile
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Patreon 'Perfect Blue': Even Better Than The Real Thing February 16, 2018
Satoshi Kon's hallucinatory, jolting feature film debut still electrifies -- all the more so in light of how its recently translated source novel was a sub-'Silence Of The Lambs' stalk-and-slash thriller
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'Devilman Crybaby': Sympathy From The Devil January 17, 2018
Maverick director Masaaki Yuasa retells one of Gō Nagai's infamous operas of ultraviolence, with Yuasa adding both his trademark psychedelic visuals and a story that ultimately aims to break your heart, not just turn your stomach
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2017

'Funeral Parade Of Roses': Party Like It's 1969 November 24, 2017
More than forty years later, Toshio Matsumoto's psychedelic whirlpool of counterculture sexuality and continuity-shattering New Wave filmmaking remains a one-of-a-kind blast of cinematic fresh air
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Patreon 'Mind Game': You Can Live ... Or You Can Live It Up November 14, 2017
Masaaki Yuasa's psychedelic masterwork is the 'Joe Vs. The Volcano' of animated films, about daring to snatch life from the jaws of the world
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Patreon Seijun Suzuki's 'Taishō Trilogy': Erotic, Grotesque, Romantic September 18, 2017
Japan's Roaring Twenties are both backdrop and stage for these three excursions into the delirious, the decadent, and the surreal
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'Wolf Guy': Bark At The Moon May 30, 2017
A truly strange specimen from Sonny Chiba's filmography, and an illuminating early example of how manga adaptations were a perfect fit for 1970s exploitation cinema from Japan
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2016

'Neji-shiki'/'Screwed': A Peek Into The Pit December 27, 2016
How to film Yoshiharu Tsuge's landmark work of surrealist comics? Leave it to master of weirdness Teruo Ishii, albeit with mixed results
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Patreon 'Belladonna of Sadness': Satan Met A Lady July 19, 2016
Restored to its original psychedelic glory, this mad masterwork from Osamu Tezuka's studio goes from chic porn to feminist parable and everything in between
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2015

The First Rule Of 'Lychee Light Club' Is You Don't Talk About 'Lychee Light Club' March 16, 2015
Usamaru Furuya's Grand Guignol horrorshow weeds out all but the sternest stomachs with its transgressive story and gory art -- but is the true test of a piece of work how quickly it empties the room?
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'Utsubora': The Book Thief January 22, 2015
Somewhere between thriller, noir, mystery, erotica, and tragedy lies this absorbing, if convoluted, story of the thefts of both ideas and lives
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