The Roman Porno + Pink thread

[Guro Taku]

Soap Kôshinkyoku Yume no Shiro / ソープ行進曲 夢の城 (1984, dir. Masaharu Segawa)

This is odd... Did Japan ban to the word "turkish bath" as well now? I ask because the poster for the film above clearly has トルコ行進曲　夢の城 as its title but the forthcoming Happinet DVD retitled it to ソープ行進曲 夢の城. What gives?

[HungFist]

Soap Kôshinkyoku Yume no Shiro / ソープ行進曲 夢の城 (1984, dir. Masaharu Segawa)

This is odd... Did Japan ban to the word "turkish bath" as well now?

They did, in fact. I think that was in the late 80s. I guess the Turks weren't too happy about Japan using their country's name as a synonym for brothels (especially when it was just "Toruko / Turkey" in common speech with the "furo / bath" commonly omitted).

Just imagine this self-introduction:

ユセフと申します。トルコからきました。



Anyway, the Turkish Baths were all renamed into Soap Lands back in the 80s. Young adults in Japan don't even know the word Turkish Bath anymore. I've had to tell them that it means Soap Land.

[Guro Taku]

Quite understandable, yes. There is actually a precedent for Happinet renaming a トルコ film that escaped me during the original announcement and release:



What's interesting, though, is that this seems to apply to physical BD/DVD releases only! There's quite a few films with トルコ still in the title on amazon prime video, for example, including Toei's Haunted Turkish Bathhouse (怪猫トルコ風呂) and indeed even トルコ１１０番　悶絶くらげ, which had its title changed for the BD! A weird double standard, isn't it? Maybe they think Turkish people have no internet?

[HungFist]

Maybe they think Turkish people have no internet?

There's been some strange inconsistency before, too, e.g. Lusty Discipline in Uniform (1982):

Theatrical: Sailor fuku shikijô shiiku (セーラー服色情飼育)
Theatrical re-release: Seifuku shikijô shiiku (制服色情飼育)
VHS, DVD and BD: Sailor fuku shikijô shiiku (セーラー服色情飼育)

It seems like they decided sailor suits were fair game after all when the film came out on VHS. Yet some other films, like Young Girls' Holding Cell (セーラー服鑑別所) lost their sailor suit on VHS (制服鑑別所).

[Guro Taku]

Cover artworks for the January 8th releases:

Blu-ray:

Afternoon Affair: Kyoto Holy Tapestry / 昼下がりの情事 古都曼荼羅 (1973, dir. Masaru Konuma)



Hoteru hime / 火照る姫 (1983, dir. Shogoro Nishimura)



DVD:

Suite / スウィートルーム (1993, dir. Sadaaki Haginiwa)



Tsuma San-nin: Hada Kurabe / 妻三人 肌くらべ (1973, dir. Isao Hayashi)



Kaoru Kiri: The Best Lesbian in Japan, a Docu-Drama / 実録 桐かおる にっぽん一のレスビアン (1974, dir. Katsuhiko Fujii)



Soap Kôshinkyoku Yume no Shiro / ソープ行進曲 夢の城 (1984, dir. Masaharu Segawa)



Attacked Female Teacher / 襲われる女教師 (1983, dir. Nobuyuki Saito)



Sexual Abuse Compilation / ザ・折檻　番外篇 (1986, dir. Go Ijuin)

[Guro Taku]

Killing Angel Muhan is a solid and nicely violent V-cinema action flick. I'm not happy that Happinet is now including 90ies flicks in their lineups since they're eating into the amount of actual roman porno that can be released, but this is a nice addition and I will gladly upgrade from my non-anamorphic DVD from 2002.

Happinet spectacularily dropped the ball on their so-called "remastered" release of Killing Angel Muhan! It is, in fact, the exact same non-anamorphic transfer that was previously on the Pioneer DVD from 18 years ago.

Pioneer (2002):



Happinet (2020):



Pioneer (2002):



Happinet (2020):



I think the old Pioneer DVD actually has the better encode of this ancient transfer. And I don't care if everyone at Happinet had Corona, there's no excuse for releasing this and calling it a remaster.