Pink Film Retro: A LONELY COW & S&M HUNTER

Rated NR; 124min; Director:Daisuke Goto (2003) & Shuji Kataoka (1986)

Location: Alamo South Lamar

This show is a part of the Fantastic Fest Signature Series, Click to See More

18 and Up Only! Part of the Fantastic Fest "Behind The Pink Curtain" Retrospective showcasing the art of the Pink Film - Japanese softcore erotic cinema, a breeding ground for unfettered innovation and of course, total weirdness. Click here for other screenings in this series.

A LONELY COW WEEPS AT DAWN

After the death of his son, aging dairy farmer Shukichi is left to run his farmstead with only his young daughter-in-law Noriko to help. Struggling under the onset of senility, when his prize heifer Hanako also passes away, it is left to Noriko to cushion him from the emotional shock. Every morning as the sun begins to rise, she creeps off to the cowshed, disrobes and gets down on all fours in anticipation of her father-in-law's arrival with the milking pail.

So addled by old age is Shukichi that he is unable to tell the difference. This natural state of affairs soon falls under threat, however, when his scheming daughter turns up from the big city plotting to grab the land all for herself, claiming that her father is in no fit mental state to look after a farm. Given the strange events she witnesses in the milking shed, there's few who will argue...

An erotic film for those rough and ready types who don't mind getting their hands dirty, it relocates us far from the standard anonymous suburban environs of most modern-day pink movies to give us a glimpse at life in Japan's rural hinterlands. What director Goto has done here, to quote Spinal Tap, is to "take a sophisticated view of sex by putting it on a farm". Well, one might laugh, but cast and crew alike all strive to keep matters as straight-faced as the far-fetched premise allows, and even more surprisingly, they just about get away with it. The rural sex movie is not a particularly well-ploughed furrow, but though Goto's film occasionally teat-ers on the ridiculous, it is nonetheless outstanding in its field, and quite unlike any udder. (Jasper Sharp)

Followed by:

S&M HUNTER

An exercise in manga-style outrageousness that is guaranteed to offend everybody. The black clad S&M Roper is a kind of bondage super hero who has a supernatural genius for tying women up in configurations that leave them helplessly aroused. When the all girl gang, The Bombers, kidnap a man for their personal sex toy S&M Hunter accepts a mission to infiltrate The Bombers' hideout and show them the ropes.

It should be noted that S&M HUNTER is a hugely politically incorrect film, loaded with swastikas, delirious patriarchal anxiety, Catholica used for sexual purposes and worse, but few will be able to resist its spiraling craziness for long. The climax, in which the rope-mad antihero employs a 200 foot tall construction crane to execute his bondage masterpiece has to be seen to be believed. Not for the weak! (Lars Nilsen)



This screening courtesy of www.pinkeiga.com.

Jasper Sharp, pink film scholar and author of the new Fab Press book "Behind The Pink Curtain - The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema" will be in attendance to introduce the film. Expect to learn a lot about this shadow world of Japanese film culture.

Very special thanks to Marc Walkow of Outcast Cinema for crucial programming and logistical assistance.

Kid Policy: 18 and up; Children 6 and up will be allowed only with a parent or guardian. No children under the age of 6 will be allowed.

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