Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

Guro Taku wrote:For those unable to attend theater screenings in Japan or at festivals, DMM has just added Wet Woman in the Wind and Aroused by Gymnopedies for streaming and download.
Note that these are the R15 versions (also available on a dozen other Japanese streaming sites).
- http://www.nikkatsu-romanporno.com/topics/?p=1053

I don't know how they differ from the theatrical R18 versions. The running times look more or less the same, so maybe some optical censorship (these films don't have any full frontal, but I remember Hiroki said he had to add mosaic to the Korean actress' sex scene in Kabukicho Love Hotel to avoid R18 because her movements were "too convincing". Don't ask me what's the logic in that...)
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

Aroused by Gymnopedies JP BD coming 2017/05/02. By Happinet, but not on their site yet.
- http://www.allcinema.net/prog/show_dvd. ... id=1000041
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by Guro Taku »

Will the BD have the R-18 version, the R-15 version or both?
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

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Guro Taku wrote:Will the BD have the R-18 version, the R-15 version or both?
Nothing mentioned yet, but I'd be willing to bet it's the R18 version.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

I saw Dawn of the Felines yesterday. I liked it, but it's my least favourite so far.

The film depicts a few days in the lives of three Tokyo prostitutes. It's a bit of a slow burner and it takes time to get to know the characters. I quite liked that. It paints a pretty bleak image of everyone and the film is both de-eroticised and de-romanticized. Pretty Woman this certainly ain't.

In terms of realism, the film gets halfway there. Two of the three main characters feel quite real while the third one comes across a once-in-a-lifetime encounter with an elderly man that feels out of place in the film. Similarly, some of the supporting characters are refreshingly un-archetypical but we also get a stereotypical noisy and comical punk running a delivery health business. Acting is uneven.

Visually the film look not only excessively digital, but very dark. It's very weakly lit, with next to no shadow detail. An artistic choice perhaps, but combined with shaky handheld camera it works against the film.

That being said, the longer the film gets, the more interesting its initially unsympathetic characters become, and more existential tones begin to shine through the images. The film certainly captures something of its era. Oh, and gotta love the scene where the girls visit an SM club where the rope disciplined piece of meat is a fat male rather than a hot girl. Kazuko Shirakawa plays the SM club madam, btw.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

And I saw Antiporno yesterday. Whoa, need a bit of time to digest this. Sono's big middle finger to Roman Porno, society, men, filmmakers. Art, abuse, rape, vomit, schoolgirls. Lots of full frontal. Three hours of dialogue packed into 76 min, delivered almost always shouting. Non-stop classical music. Tokyo Ga-Ga-Ga. Shot mostly in one room. Amazing visuals. Multiple layers of fiction and reality. Metafilm. Feminist statement. Poignant, pretentious, excessive. Likely to anger, frustrate most audiences regardless of sex. Ami Tomite totally hot. Cool.

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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by WahDee »

Loved ANTI-PORNO. One of the best films I saw in 2016. I knew it was going to be a condemnation to female oppression and objectification, but I had absolutely no clue how meta and how it would be a middle finger to the ROMAN PORNO label itself. It really is a jam-packed 76 minutes. And of course, it has a dinner scene that almost rivals the one in GUILTY OF ROMANCE. :lol:
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

Just saw White Lily. This was bad. Like, embarrassingly bad.

Imagine a horny, heterosexual male director trying to do serious lesbian drama. With "artistic" love scenes with flowers. And ridiculously LOUD moaning, from the slightest of touch.

Oh and won't somebody please tell Nakata that combining eros and pottery wheel has been a bad idea since 1991.

Nakata said he was inspired by the way Masaru Konuma did lesbian sex scenes. I'm not sure anyone should be inspired by Konuma. But the reference is spot on. This feels like a modern arthouse drama directed with the finesse of a 70s porno director.

Now, it's not all bad. The last 20 minutes is actually good. Like The Family Game goes Roman Porno. Twisted, biting, darkly humoristic. But it's too late.

Summary:
Aroused by Gymnopedies - 4/5
Wet Woman in the Wind - 3.5/5
Dawn of Felines - 3/5
Antiporno - 4/5
White Lily - 1.5/5

Overall I must say the Roman Porno Reboot project was just about the coolest thing to hit the theatres in years. Nikkatsu did terrific job hyping and branding the hell out of this. The release strategy was perfect as well. Where I live they only gave each film only a one week run, releasing them back to back on 5 consecutive weeks. So for I was going to cinema for 5 weeks in a row to see a new Roman Porno film every week. Something to remember!

Speaking of remembering, although my favourites of the films were Antiporno and Aroused by Gymnopedies, it's Wet Woman in the Wind that I will be remembering best. Nikkatsu totally nailed their attempt at trendy new cinema with that one. I took my girlfriend to see that on my second viewing, just so that 40 years from now we can remember how we went to see Roman Porno in cinema when we were young. She enjoyed it quite a bit as well, and it's totally a film that you can take an open minded girl to see as it's lots of fun for both sexes.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by logboy »

... i think all of these (bar perhaps 'dawn of the felines') has been certified for HK release. now, considering physical media feels up in the air at the moment, i am not sure how likely they'll be to appear on DVD in subbed editions there.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

Speaking of which, the JP DVD / BD release for Gymnopedies has vanished in the air.

I'm 100% sure it (and the others) is coming, but seems like we have to wait a little longer.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by Guro Taku »

The way Nikkatsu has been pushing these, I'm certain we will see these films released in all major markets eventually. The only question that remains is which version will be made available to international buyers. There's a lot of precedent for licenses only bing offered for the shorter versions, with the "extended cut"/"director's long version" being exclusive to Japan.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by logboy »

Guro Taku wrote:The way Nikkatsu has been pushing these, I'm certain we will see these films released in all major markets eventually. The only question that remains is which version will be made available to international buyers. There's a lot of precedent for licenses only bing offered for the shorter versions, with the "extended cut"/"director's long version" being exclusive to Japan.
http://www.ofnaa.gov.hk/eng/service/film_search.htm

the HK site for checking certificates will let you see the runtimes for their versions.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

As far as I know, we're not talking about extended versions or director's cuts here. The theatrical R18 versions are the main versions, the R15 versions were created for simultaneous Japanese TV and online distribution. The running times appear to be the same, unless there are such minor edits that they don't show up in running times (by minute). I'd expect the R15 versions to feature mosaic.

I don't think Nikkatsu would offer the R15 versions to foreign distributors unless the country in question has censorship laws that prevent the uncensored versions from being released.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

Finally:

Image
2017/09/02
Extras:
Making of
Stage greeting
Trailer
Commentary (Isao Yukisada and Itsuji Itao)

Image
2017/09/02
Extras:
Making of
Stage greeting
Trailer
Commentary (Akihiko Shiota, Yuki Mamiya and Tasuku Nagaoka)

Image
2017/09/02
Extras:
Making of
Stage greeting
Trailer
Commentary (Kazuya Shiraishi, Juri Ihata, Satsuki Maue, Michié)

Image
2017/09/02
Extras:
Making of
Stage greeting
Trailer
Commentary (Sion Sono, Ami Tomite and Mariko Tsutsui)

Image
2017/09/02
Extras:
Making of
Stage greeting
Trailer
Commentary (Hideo Nakata, Rin Asuka, Kaori Yamaguchi)

Image
2017/09/02
- All 5 films
- Bonus disc: "That's Roman Porno Reboot"
- Booklet
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

Wet Woman In The Wind came out on HK DVD with Eng subs a month ago.
- http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_deta ... ctID=16238

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I assume we can expect the rest to follow.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by Guro Taku »

Do you have any idea if it's the R18 theatrical or the R15 VOD version?
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

Guro Taku wrote:Do you have any idea if it's the R18 theatrical or the R15 VOD version?
No idea. I still haven't even managed to figure out what the differences between the two versions might be. Antiporno is the only one with full frontal, which is something I guess they'd censor for R15 (but then again, I've seen R15 films with full frontal (hair) recently) so I don't know what exactly would they censor from the rest...

Same with those R15 versions of the old Roman Porno films that are screening on Toei Channel... I have no idea what's the deal with those. Many of the tamer Roman Pornos should actually pass with R15 without censorship these days but on Toei Channel it says "R15+ Version" as opposed to "R15+" which is also used on their site for many other films.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

HungFist wrote:Wet Woman In The Wind came out on HK DVD with Eng subs a month ago.
- http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_deta ... ctID=16238

I assume we can expect the rest to follow.
Antiporno:
http://www.dddhouse.com/v3/product_deta ... ctID=16280
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by HungFist »

Third Window Films announced Antiporno BD
- http://screenanarchy.com/2017/11/exclus ... llery.html
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by Guro Taku »

It looks to me as if ANTIPORNO and WET WOMAN IN THE WIND have been somehow disentangled from the entire 4 film reboot effort. Not only have only these two films received subtiled DVD releases in Hong Kong, they are also the only two films of the reboot to have received limited theatrical release in the USA from MUBI:

http://www.indiewire.com/2017/11/antipo ... 201895222/

I've seen both now myself. WET WOMAN IN THE WIND is very good and ANTIPORNO is pretty much a masterpiece. All of Sono's films would probably be (even) better if they ran 70 minutes each instead of 2, 3 or 4 hours.
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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by Guro Taku »

AROUSED BY GYMNOPEDIES came out in Hong Kong today, March 9th, via Edko Video. English subs included, obviously. WHITE LILY already came out on February 15th.

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Re: Roman Porno Reboot (Sono, Nakata, Shiota, Yukisada, Shiraishi) (2016)

Post by Guro Taku »

Edko Video released DAWN OF THE FELINES on March 29th. All 5 filmes of the reboot have now gotten English subtitled DVDs in Hong Kong.

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