Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films

Rating:
Summary: STUNNING ACHIEVMENT!
Review: This book, by Thomas and Yuko Mihara Weisser of Asian Cult Cinema fame, takes on the "Pink Film" era with an unprecedented scope. The era of the "Pink Films," one of cultural and artistic daring and experimentation in Japan, has hardly been chronicled in the English language, but this book solves that problem! The book is a giant volume, filled with reviews and articles. The Weissers made it their intent to catalog every "Pink Film" that had a theatrical release, and they come as close to doing that as possible! Add to that the intelligent, thought-provoking articles on the history of the medium and an introduction by "Pink Film" star of stars, Naomi Tani, and the result is an absolutely stunning achievement in film history and criticism! A must-have work for any Japanese film completist.

Rating:
Summary: Almost Perfect
Review: This is absolutly one of the bibles for anyone into strange cinema. Whilst the book has its faults (hence not a full 5 star rating) it does provide a major survey of a little regarded (even in Japan)aspect of world cinema. It contains details of so many mouthwatering films, that one feels compelled to foregive the numerous mistakes in the film synopsise. However the main difficulty with this book is that films are listed under the literal translation of their Japanese titles, so be prepared to examine your video cases to try and work out what title the film is listed under (a cross index of titles in English/ International release titles would be v. welcome). Having said that it is an utterly invaluable volume, which sets a benchmark for the rest of the Weissers' series. Recommended for anyone into World Cinema not just exploitation anoraks!