Pink film is the genre of independent adult cinema that developed in Japan from the 1960s onward, a form of production and distribution occupying a distinctive position in the history of the postwar Japanese film industry.

Pink film (Japanese: ピンク映画, pinku eiga; English pink film) refers to the genre of low-budget, short-length adult films produced and distributed by independent productions in Japan from 1962 onward. While produced on a low budget and in a short period, it occupies an independent position in film history as the field of production that brought forth important auteurs of postwar Japanese cinema such as Koji Wakamatsu, Teruo Ishii, Tatsumi Kumashiro, and Kaneto Shindo. This article treats its formation, its heyday, and its changes up to the present.

Overview

Pink film was produced on 35mm film by independent production companies different from the works of the major film companies (Shochiku, Toho, Daiei, Toei, Nikkatsu) and was screened at specialist adult cinemas. The running time per film was about 60–70 minutes, a triple-bill programme was standard, and the production budget was held to a level far lower than that of contemporary general works.

The feature of pink film lies in the point that, while taking sexual expression as its theme, a body of works that combined political, social, and existential themes was continuously produced. In particular, the works of auteurs of the Koji Wakamatsu, Masao Adachi, and ATG (Art Theatre Guild) lines pursued avant-garde and experimental visual expression that went beyond the bounds of adult film, gaining recognition at overseas film festivals as well.

The name

The word “pink film” is said to have begun to be used around 1963 in newspaper articles, as a name indicating adult films by independent productions citation needed. It was a usage in which “pink” spread as a word meaning adult-oriented expression, and it settled as vocabulary distinctive to Japan.

Before that, adult films had been called by words such as “adult film” and “titillation film.” The establishment of the word “pink film” is described as a phenomenon parallel to the social visibility of the genre.

History

The dawn: 1962–1965

What is regarded as the starting point of pink film is Nikutai no Ichiba (Flesh Market), directed by Satoru Kobayashi and produced by Okura Eiga, in 1962. The work is positioned as the earliest example of full-scale commercial screening of an adult film by an independent production. Subsequently, from 1963 to 1964, several independent productions such as Shintoho and Hokusei Eiga entered into pink-film production, and specialist screening cinemas were also rolled out nationwide.

The development period: late 1960s to 1970s

In the late 1960s, pink films with a distinctive auteur quality by Koji Wakamatsu appeared, greatly expanding the expressive possibilities of the genre. After the founding of Wakamatsu Production (1965), Wakamatsu developed political and social themes within the bounds of pink film in works such as Taiji ga Mitsuryo Suru Toki (The Embryo Hunts in Secret, 1966), Kabe no Naka no Himegoto (Secrets Behind the Wall, 1965, shown at the Berlin International Film Festival), and Okasareta Byakui (Violated Angels, 1967).

Masao Adachi, Nagisa Oshima, Tatsumi Kumashiro, Noboru Tanaka, and Tetsuji Takechi were also active in pink film or its adjacent fields in this period, forming an important line of the auteurs of postwar Japanese cinema.

Coexistence with Roman porno: 1970s

In 1971, the major film company Nikkatsu, to break out of its management difficulties, switched to an adult-film line (Nikkatsu Roman porno), and adult-film production by major capital began. With this, the pink-film market became a situation in which independent pink film and major-line Roman porno coexisted.

Roman porno, with its higher budget, larger distribution network, and the actors and staff of an existing film company as its background, developed an auteur quality different from pink film. The pink-film side maintained its lower budget and freer choice of subject matter, and the two kept a relationship of competing while mutually influencing each other.

The decline period: 1980s onward

From the 1980s onward, with the spread of the home video deck and the appearance of the adult video, the adult-film market changed rapidly. The shift from watching adult films at cinemas to viewing video at home became the decisive factor of market contraction for both pink film and Roman porno.

In 1988, Nikkatsu Roman porno formally ended, but pink film continued while shrinking in scale. The “Four Heavenly Kings of Pink” Hisayasu Sato, Takahisa Zeze, Kazuhiro Sano, and Toshiki Sato continuously released pink films with a distinctive auteur quality in the 1990s.

The present

From the 2000s onward, despite the continuous decline in the number of screening cinemas, pink film survives while shrinking in scale. Its function as a gateway for new directors (a place where young directors can display an auteur quality on a low budget), its recognition at overseas film festivals, and the continuous holding of documentary and retrospective screenings support the cultural positioning of pink film in the present.

Film-historical significance

Pink film occupies an independent position in film history as one of the principal schools of postwar Japanese cinema. Within the constraints of low budget, short period, and adult film, it functioned as the starting point of a group of directors who turned to the major film world and left important works, such as Koji Wakamatsu, Tatsumi Kumashiro, Masayuki Suo, Yoichi Sai, Yojiro Takita, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

The existence of a group of auteurs who, while taking sexual expression as their theme, treated political, social, existential, and artistic themes placed pink film in a phase distinct from mere commercial adult film. The body of works by Wakamatsu, Adachi, and others from the late 1960s into the 1970s occupies a distinctive position in the history of world independent cinema as well.

See also

• History of AV
• Strip show
• History of erotic books
• Sexuality in ancient Rome