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Giichi Nishihara

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Giichi Nishihara
Occupation(s)Film director, producer and screenwriter
Years active1965 – 1986

Giichi Nishihara (西原 儀一, Nishihara Giichi, born in 1929) is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, producer and actor[1] best known known for his low-budget and sensationalistic pink films made for Aoi Eiga studios in the 1960s and 1970s. He has been called both "Japan's sleaziest movie-maker,"[2] and "a cult favorite among devotees of extreme cinema."[3]

Life and career

Early career

Born in 1929,[4] Nishihara worked as a professional boxer during the early post-World War II years.[5] He first entered the film industry as an actor, playing the role of a fighter in the 1947 Daiei film, Town Of The Iron Fist (Tekken No Machi).[6] In the early years of his career he worked for several studios besides Daiei, including Shochiku, Mainichi Television and NHK.[5]

Pink film and Aoi Eiga Studios

The first Japanese film to contain nudity, director Satoru Kobayashi's controversial Flesh Market, was released in 1962. It was shut down by the police and censored before it could be re-released,[7] but the film became became a huge box-office success. Even with the limited distribution it received as an independent production, Flesh Market, which was made for 8 million yen, took in over 100 million yen.[8] With the success of this movie, the pink film genre-- known as eroductions at the time-- had been born.[9] Director Tetsuji Takechi's legal battles with the government over the censorship of his 1965 pink film, Black Snow brought this low-budget, independent genre of softcore pornography to the attention of the general public, and helped inspire the mass-production of pink films for the next two decades.[10]

In this pink-boom atmosphere of the mid-1960s, many small studios were set up to produce these cheap and profitable softcore pornographic theatrical films. One such studio was Aoi Eiga, which some have claimed was set up by the Osaka yakuza as a "front." Nishihara was hired to establish the company in 1966.[5]

1960s

In 1966, Tamaki Katori, star of Flesh Market, joined Aoi Eiga and quickly appeared in many films scripted and directed by Nishihara. To Aim at... (January, 1967) was a crime drama, in which Katori is the only survivor after she battles with the three men with whom she has committed a major robbery.[11] Weeping Affair (March, 1967) was a melodrama about Katori's relationship with a middle-aged man and his daughter.[12]

Indecent Relationship (May, 1967) had Katori as a girl who is financially supporting her boyfriend by working at a hostess bar. When she finds out that the woman who owns the bar and her boyfriend are having an affair, she seeks revenge on them both.[13][14] The Weissers judge this early work, "More back-alley junk from sleaze-meister Giichi Nishihara."[15]

According to the Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, the main difference between Seduction of the Flesh (July, 1967) and Nishihara's other "cinematic excesses"[16] is that Katori is raped not once, but twice within the film's 72-minute duration.[17] The story had Katori suffering these indignities while her husband is away, and then committing suicide in shame.[18]

Pink Telephone (August, 1967) was an atypical venture into comedy for Nishihara and Tamaki. The story concerns a man whose goal is to become Japan's number-one drunk.[19] Abnormal Reaction: Ecstasy (November, 1967), was an erotic thriller in which Katori co-starred as the mistress of a man who has faked his death. When the "widow" discovers that her husband is not actually dead, she gets her revenge by arranging to have both her husband and Katori impaled on stakes while in bed.[20][21] Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films calls this a "somewhat restrained early project" for the director, adding, "[t]he violence is fleeting. Even the sex scenes are stilted when compared to Nishihara's later efforts."[22]

Ripped Virgin (1968)[23] had Katori as a high school girl who discovers that the man who raped her is actually her boyfriend. The Weissers judge this film "surprisingly refined" considering that Nishihara is the director.[24]

1970s

Nishihara's main actress, Tamaki Katori, left Aoi Eiga studios in the later 1960s, and then retired in 1972.[8] With her, Nishihara had produced countless films for the studio which were profitable, but were not notably successful. It was not until he teamed up with actress Yuri Izumi in the early 1970s, that he began directing box-office hits.[5] According to some Japanese sources, Nishihara and Izumi are married.[25]

In the later half of the decade Nishihara and Izumi began making films for the major studio Shintoho. Nishihara's films for this studio include such titles as Please Rape Me Once More (starring Izumi) and Grotesque Perverted Slaughter[26] (both 1976). About the latter film, the Weissers, in their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films report, "This is probably director Nishihara's best film, but that's like choosing from rat-bite fever, jungle rot, or tick-borne typhus. They're all pretty bad."[27] Robert Firsching of Allmovie agrees with the Weisser's assessment, calling the film "Nishihara's most skillful film, as he concentrates on characterization and suspense far more here than in his usual sick rapefests."[28]

His films of this period are noted for their "twisted plots delivered in an unnerving matter-of-fact style."[29] A typical plot of one of Nishihara's "staggering sleaze-fests"[5] of the 1970s can be found in Abnormal Passion Case: Razor (1977). The heroine of this film, Reiko, is worried about her father because he recently had a near-fatal heart attack while the two of them were making love. Out of concerns that he may have a stroke if their sexual relations continue, she goes to a lawyer for advice. The lawyer suggests that she get married so that her father will have to stop having sex with her. The lawyer then proceeds to rape Reiko. The rape is interrupted by a call from the lawyer's girlfriend. The lawyer then tells Reiko she can leave, as he doesn't need to rape her anymore-- his girlfriend is coming over. Reiko persuades the lawyer to pretend to be her fiancee so that she can convince her father she's really going to be married. The ruse works only too well. The father believes her, and, in shock and grief, dies of a heart attack on the spot. Reiko then kills the lawyer with a butcher knife.[30]

Nishihara retired from the film industry in 1985.[31] Summarizing Nishihara's career, Firsching says, "No one ever accused Nishihara of being the most subtle filmmaker in the world, but at least he manages to keep the tawdry proceedings lively."[30]

Partial filmography

Title[32] Release date Studio
Mad Passion Highway
激情のハイウェー 		August 1965 Aoi Eiga
To Aim At...
狙う
Nerau 		January 21, 1967 Aoi Eiga
Weeping Affair
泣き濡れた情事
Nakinureta Joji 		March 28, 1967 Aoi Eiga
Indecent Relationship
乱れた関係
Midareta Kankei 		May 9, 1967 Aoi Eiga
Seduction of Flesh
肉体の誘惑
Nikutai No Yuwaku 		July 11, 1967 Aoi Eiga
Pink Telephone
桃色電話
Momoiro Denwa 		August 26, 1967 Aoi Eiga
Abnormal Reaction: Ecstasy
異常な反応　悶絶
Ijo Na Hanno: Monzetsu 		November 21, 1967 Aoi Eiga
Female Trap
牝罠
Mesuwana 		December 1967 Aoi Eiga
Ripped Virgin
引裂かれた処女
Hikisakareta Shojo 		August, 1968 Aoi Eiga
Betrayal of Affairs
裏切の色事
Uragiri no Irogoto 		December, 1968 Aoi Eiga
Ghost Story of Sex
性の怪談
Sei No Kaidan 		1972
Grotesque Perverted Slaughter
aka Present-Day Bizarre Sex Crime
現代猟奇性犯罪
Gendai Ryoki Sei Hanzai 		August, 1976 Shintoho
Abnormal Passion Case: Razor
異常情痴事件:剃刀
Ijojochi Jiken: Kamisori 		1977
Please Rape Me Once More
もう一度襲る！
Mou Ichido Yaru 		January, 1979 Shintoho

Notes

  1. ^ "西原儀一 (Nishihara Giichi)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-07-03.
  2. ^ Weisser, Thomas (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications. pp. p.351. ISBN 1-889288-52-7. {{cite book}}: |pages= has extra text (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ Firsching, Robert. "Midareta Kankei". www.allmovie.com. Retrieved 2007-03-09.
  4. ^ "「やくざ監督　東京進出」 (Yakuza Director: Advance on Tokyo)". Webcat Plus (in Japanese). Retrieved 2007-07-03.
  5. ^ a b c d e Weisser, p.36.
  6. ^ "鉄拳の街" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  7. ^ Domenig, Roland (2002). "Vital flesh: the mysterious world of Pink Eiga". Archived from the original on 2004-11-18. Retrieved 2007-02-19.
  8. ^ a b Connell, Ryann (March 2, 2006). "Japan's former Pink Princess trades raunchy scenes for rural canteen". Mainichi Shimbun. Retrieved 2007-03-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Domenig, Roland (2002). "Vital flesh: the mysterious world of Pink Eiga". Archived from the original on 2004-11-18. Retrieved 2007-02-19. The term pink eiga was first coined in 1963 by journalist Murai Minoru. But it did not come into general use until the late 1960s. In the early years the films were known as 'eroduction films' (erodakushon eiga) or 'three-million-yen-films' (sanbyakuman eiga).
  10. ^ Domenig, Roland (2002). "Vital flesh: the mysterious world of Pink Eiga". Archived from the original on 2004-11-18. Retrieved 2007-02-19. The controversy surrounding... Black Snow's court case (eventually won by Takechi) brought pink eiga to the attention of the general public, and triggered a boom in production.
  11. ^ Cowie. World Filmography 1967, p.387-388.
  12. ^ Cowie. World Filmography 1967, p.385.
  13. ^ Fentone, Steve (1998). "Immoral Relationship; A Rip of the Flesh: The Japanese 'Pink Film' Cycle". She. 2 (11): p.28. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  14. ^ Cowie. World Filmography 1967, p.383.
  15. ^ Weisser, p.209.
  16. ^ Weisser, p.203
  17. ^ Weisser, p.372.
  18. ^ Cowie. World Filmography 1967, p.391.
  19. ^ Cowie. World Filmography 1967, p.384.
  20. ^ Firsching, Robert. "Ijo Na Hanno: Monzetsu". Allmovie. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  21. ^ Cowie, Peter (editor) (1977). "Japan". World Filmography 1967. London: Tantivy Press. pp. p.361–362. ISBN 0-498015-65-3. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help); |pages= has extra text (help)
  22. ^ Weisser, p.36-37.
  23. ^ Cowie, Peter (editor) (1977). "Japan". World Filmography, 1968. London: Oak Tree Publications. pp. p.376. ISBN 0-498015-69-6. {{cite book}}: |first= has generic name (help); |pages= has extra text (help)
  24. ^ Weisser, p.351.
  25. ^ Weisser, p.139.
  26. ^ "GENDAI RYOKI SEI HANZAI". at The Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2007-07-02. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help)
  27. ^ Weisser, p.188.
  28. ^ Firsching, Robert. "Gendai Ryoki Sei Hanzai". Allmovie. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  29. ^ Weisser, p.181.
  30. ^ a b Firsching, Robert. "Ijojochi Jiken: Kamisori". Allmovie. Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  31. ^ Matsumura, Kiyoshi. "「やくざ監督　東京進出」 (Book review: Yakuza Director: Advance on Tokyo". nifty.com (in Japanese). Retrieved 2007-07-02.
  32. ^ Filmography from "Giichi Nishihara". Allmovie. Retrieved 2007-07-01., "Giichi Nishihara". at The Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2007-07-01. {{cite web}}: External link in |work= (help), Giichi Nishihara at IMDb, and "西原儀一 (Nishihara Giichi)" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2007-07-01.

Sources

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