Short introduction to Teruo Ishii
Born in 1924, Teruo Ishii first joined Toho in 1942. He soon moved to Shintoho, where he spent a decade as an assistant director before being allowed to helm his first own picture 1957. He spent most of his Shintoho years helming gangster movies, including the
Line series and the Woman's Body series, both of which often examined the sleazier side of Japanese night life and gangster circles.
In an interview Ishii said he begun making gangster movies at Shintoho because it was a genre the company president didn't know much about, and Ishii figured that way the boss would leave him alone. This perfectly summarized Ishii as a director. He was always a bit of a rebel, though not a political one. Later at Toei too, he often went against the producers' advice, but he was forgiven because his films were so successful.
After Shintoho's bankruptcy Ishii moved to Toei where he continued helming gangster movies. The importance of these films cannot be emphasized too much. While the Western world knows Ishii for his exploitation films, in Japan he is known first and foremost as a gangster film director, in which profession he was astonishingly successful.
Ishii first initiated the
Gang series (1962-1967) at Toei, which helped Ken Takakura to gain popularity before he became the most popular Japanese actor of all time. A few years later Ishii initiated the
Abashiri Prison series (1965-1967) which cemented Takakura's position as the most popular actor in Japan. Ishii directed and wrote all 10 films within a time period of 2.5 years. In 1965 three of the year's TOP 10 domestic box office performers were Abashiri Prison films. In 1966 it was the same.
Ishii left the series in 1967 after having a burn out with it. He was sick and tired of it and refused to make any more. Other directors would helm 6 more New Abashiri Prison films. Toei producer Shigeru Okada then suggested Ishii something very different. Okada had been planning a series of erotic and violent films to lure audiences back into theatres (profits had been decreasing, TV was stealing viewers, people were starting to get tired with yakuza films, and all the studios struggled). Ishii took the offer.
Short introduction to the Abnormal Love series
The new film series producer Okada initiated with Ishii was called the Abnormal Love series (異常性愛路線). The first movie in the series was
History of the Shogun's Harem (1968) which was still quite tame by later standards. However, it was one of the first sexploitation films by a major studio with lots of publicity, as opposed to the small profile pink films produced by tiny companies that only played in adult theatres, or major films where sexuality played a limited role. The film was a hit. It cost 30 million to make, and it earned more than 100 million at the box office despite opposition by critics and women's organizations.
The second film in the series,
Hot Springs Geisha (1968), was just as tame. Okada and Ishii then decided to take the series to a more violent direction, resulting in
The Joy of Torture (1968), which made a huge splash. Not only was it amazingly popular (the
9th most popular film at the box office in a year that saw nearly 500 Japanese movies released) but also very controversial. Critics said Japanese cinema has hit the rock bottom, Asahi Newspaper had a "bashing campaign" against the movie, and Toei actors Koji Tsurura and Tomisaburo Wakayma publicly criticized the film.
The series continued with
Orgies of Edo in 1969, which was billed as the
"4th film in the Abnormal Love series" in its trailer. It was a little less violent than The Joy of Torture and more true to the series title.
Shameless: Abnormal and Abusive Love (1969) came out next, followed by
Inferno of Torture (1969), seeminly parts 5 and 6 in the series. Inferno of Torture was again surrounded by a lot of controversy as Toei's own assistant directors held a large protest against the film at Toei Kyoto studios. The film also had lost its original star Teruko Yumi who had left the shoot without saying a word.
After Inferno of Torture the series labelling gets confusing.
Yakuza's Law (1969) came out next and it was billed as the
"the 1st film in the Stimulating Violence series" in its trailer.
Love and Crime (1969) was called
"the 1st film in Teruo Ishii's True Account series". No follow-ups were produced, however (*). Later at least Love and Crime has been considered a part of the Abnormal Love series by Toei who released it in a box set with some other Abnormal Love films.
Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) is a bit of a question mark. Ishii was given free hands to do what he wanted, and he chose to adapt several Edogawa Rampo stories into a single narrative. The film was pulled from distribution soon after its release due to its political incorrectness regarding its theme (malformed men) and Toei has never released it on video or dvd, or screened it on TV in Japan. Nowadays it is frequently screened in 35mm by independent theatres, though. Whether this is a part of the series or not is unclear to me.
The Abnormal Love series ended here, if not already before, and Ishii returned to mainstream gangster films. Ishii did helm some similar titles in the 70s, however.
The Red Silk Gambler (1972) had elements of ero-guro but is considered a mainstream yakuza film.
Female Yakuza Tale (1973) was a modern pinky violence / yakuza film.
Bohachi Bushido: Code of the Forgotten Eight (1973) however was included in Toei's Teruo Ishii DVD box set with 4 other Abnormal Love films. I believe it was suggested in the box set (which I don't own, yet) materials that it was part of the series, although I doubt it was marketed as such / considered one back in 1973.
* Seven years later, in 1976 Yuji Makiguchi directed two films, Shogun's Sadism and Bizarre Crimes of Post-War Japan, which could be considered follow-ups of sorts to Ishii's movies. Ishii was not involved in them.
Shogun / Tokugawa / Joys of Torture / Cinema of Cruelty series?
Western distributors were quick to discover Ishii. Several of Ishii's films were released theatrically in Germany, Italy and some other countries in the early 70s. The Joy of Torture was the first one, which is probably why the films have sometimes been billed as "The Joys of Torture Series". In Germany many of the films were released as Tokugawa films, even Orgies of Edo ("Tokugawa III) which is not even set it the Tokugawa period. Sometimes the movies have also been referred to as the Shogun films despite the shogun only appearing in a few of them (and none of them being Shogun's Joy of Torture aka The Joy of Torture).
One of the fun things about the European distribution was how the films were often marketed with Western models who did not even appear in the film, and were given fake credits filled with Western names. The Italian poster for The Joy of Torture for example claims the film stars Lory Steel, Barbara Adams and Mary Laurent, and Inferno of Torture stars Jenny Steel, Lory Rose, Barbara Laurent and Dania Adams (see what they did?).
Regarding the Criticism by Toei Staff for the Abnormal Love Series
To understand where the criticism was coming from you need to understand a few things. First of all, Toei Kyoto was famed for their traditional, respectable samurai films. With the Abnormal Love series initiated, suddenly the studio sets were covered in blood and guts and there were naked women running around everywhere. Many employees didn't like that.
Secondly, since filmmakers were "company employees" back then they often couldn't refuse when they were ordered to work on these movies. The assistant directors (a better term would be "director's assistant" or "director's slave") were especially bitter.
Thirdly, movies were released as double bills back them. This is purely my own speculation, but I wonder if one reason why Tomisaburo Wakayma hated Ishii films so much was the fact that no less than three times his films in 1968-1969 were paired with an Ishii exploitation flick, and probably every time he was overshadowed by some Ishii actress' boobs.
Fourthly, Ishii and his regulars were considered outsiders. It was an era when filmmakers often spend their entire career working for one studio. Ishii had joined Toei only 6 years before and had been a bit of a rebel from the beginning. Most of his female stars came from outside the studio or were new recruits as Toei actresses refused to appear in Ishii films. The Ishii crew were called Ishii gumi (Ishii gang) and they were treated disrespectfully by many Toei employees.
Finally, pay attention to the exact release year and even release month. In the late 60s and early 70s Japanese cinema underwent a couple of decades worth of development in terms of censorship and moral standards loosening. You might feel like calling Wakayama a hypocrite for criticizing Ishii considering how exploitative his own Lone Wolf and Cub films were, but you really can't compare 1968 films with 1972 films. So much changed in just a few years.
[Bloody hell, I was only supposed to write like 3 or 4 paragraps... and even this is just a brief introduction. I may edit it later to add information or correct possible mistakes]