The Virgin Psychics

Original title: Eiga: minna! Esupâ da yo!
Japan, 2016
Director: Sion Sono
Starring: Shota Sometani, Erina Mano, Elaiza Ikeda, Anna Konno, Mizuki Hoshina, Megumi Kagurazaka, Airi Shimizu, Ken Yasuda, Motoki Fukami, Ai Shinozaki
Genre: Sci-fi, Comedy, Ecchi, Manga Adaptation
IMDB: 5.1

From Wikipedia ...

Fan service (ファンサービス fan sābisu), is material in a work of fiction which is intentionally added to please the audience. The term originated in anime and manga fandom but has been used in other mediums. It is about "servicing" the fan - giving the fans "exactly what they want." Fan service usually refers to "gratuitous titillation" ...

The Virgin Psychics is based on the original manga All Esper Dayo! by Kiminori Wakasugi (also known for Detroit Metal City). But is more closely related to the 2013 TV Tokyo adaptation directed by Sion Sono and featuring much of the same cast. (Check it out here, it's a lot of fun)

Sion Sono has often pushed the envelope beyond the bounds of good taste, whether it's the incest of Strange Circus, the upskirt voyeurism of Love Exposure, the teen suicide of Suicide Club, or the Eroguro of films such as Cold Fish and Guilty of Romance .

Here Sono has taken the concept of "fan-service", and pushed it way over the top.

Mitsuko (gravure idol Anna Konno) leans over the desk for no discernible reason

Set in a high school in the small but vibrant city of Toyohashi, Yoshiro (Shota Sometani) has one thing on his mind - saving the world so that he is worthy of his one true love, who he hopes is his classmate Sae (Erina Mano).

At the same time, there has been a mysterious outbreak of superpowers, currently being investigated by two ESP researchers from Tokyo, Professor Asami (Ken Yasuda) and his assistant Ms. Akiyama (Megumi Kagurazaka).

Ms. Akiyama is a precog, she can see the future of anyone who stares at her breasts. I guess that's why the professor can't take his eyes off them ...

The Professor activates Ms. Akiyama's superpowers, for "research" purposes

Yoshiro has the ability to hear people's thoughts, but he's not the only one. Classmate Miyuki (fashion model, Elaiza Ikeda) also has this ability, which means she constantly hears men's dirty thoughts about her. Which is quite disturbing, considering the whole town seemingly has only one thing on its mind.

This is another mystery for the researchers to uncover - why has the city suddenly become sex crazy? Girls are robbing banks dressed only in bikinis. Random stripteases occur on the top of buildings. A lesbian ferry driver is hypnotising local girls. And why does that teleporting dude want to show everyone his dick?

Makita Sports mimes his appreciation for Ice Coffee

The cast is packed with sexy actresses and models - and generally in very short skirts or bikinis. In Love Exposure, Sono had at least *some* justification for pointing the camera up those skirts - it was part of the story - but here it's done purely in the service of the fans - blatantly, repeatedly, and pretty much non-stop from start to finish.

The Virgin Psychics is a mish-mash of crazy ideas - a preposterous sci-fi/supernatural premise exploited to its fully perverted potential with an abundance of dick jokes, outrageously sexy women, and insane situations. As a comedy it works well, especially in the first half where Sono's pitch-perfect pacing keeps things moving with a high density of ideas.

The acting is about what you'd expect from this kind of movie - not particularly demanding. Shota Sometani overdoes the "geek schoolboy" role a little, and along with Motoki Fukami ensure the tone is often silly schoolboy humour. Erina Mano is cute as the aloof school hottie, and the bevy of models and idols excel at looking good, without being required for much more. Elaiza Ikeda impresses, as her character has a bit more to work with, as does Makita Sports (unusual name?) who is hilarious as the perverted cafe owner. Sono's wife and frequent collaborator Megumi Kagurazaka is always great (see Guilty of Romance and Cold Fish), and the interplay between her and Ken Yasuda is another highlight.

But ultimately the movie drags due to the hokey underlying story arcs which are basically a twisted version of the fight between good and evil, along with that eternal staple, the search for true love. But if you watch this expecting a masterpiece you're in the wrong cinema!

This is Sono lite - a sex comedy that is worth your time, if only for the exuberantly flagrant fan service. Despite the multitude of sexy women in revealing outfits, this is much more a comedy than a sexy movie. For that, I'd recommend Sono's more (relatively) sophisticated films such as Guilty of Romance or Cold Fish.

Rating: 6.5/10
An exuberant and completely over-the-top sex comedy. By no means a masterpiece, but a whole heap of fun. If you like this, check out the TV series which explains more of the back story and is even funnier.

Miyuki (Elaiza Ikeda)

Madame de Sade

Original title: Madamu Sado: Mesu jigoku 
Japan, 1986
Director: Yoshihiro Kawasaki
Stars: Machiko Wachi, Kazuyo Ezaki, Isshiki Hikaru
IMDB: 6.8

In the 1980s, Nikkatsu produced a bunch of S&M themed Roman Pornos with distinctive airbrush-style promotional posters such as the one shown at right. Naturally one wonders what kinky delights await the intrepid viewer of such material, so I set out to track one down.

Turned out to be no easy task. Madame de Sade, also known as Madame Sado: She Beast in Hell, has not as far as I can tell ever been released outside of Japan. Yeah I know, probably with good reason right? Well, thanks to dedicated amateur aficianados, this masterpiece of cinematic perversion has been resurrected - and subtitles produced - to allow the film to live on and find a new audience worldwide (if you know where to look, that is).

OK, so my liberal employment of the word 'masterpiece' is admittedly playing fast and loose with the Queen's English, and you'd be completely justified in raising an inquisitive eyebrow. I take it back.

So what's it all about? Well hey, it's porno - usually the story would be little more than a flimsy scaffold to support the sexual vignettes, and of no significance whatsoever. Luckily, we're in Roman Porno territory here, a cut above, so actually there IS a story. There's even characterisation, machinations, revelations, and all that other filmic stuff. (In addition to the domination, flagellation, strangulation, fornication, urination, masturbation, etc).

* Note: While Roman Porno is erotic, and contains the word porno, it is definitely not PORN as we would define it in the West. For a start there are absolutely no genitals shown - and along with a reasonable cinematic quality, ensures it belongs more in the genre of Erotica.

The film starts by introducing us to Reiko (Machiko Wachi) as she is jilted at the altar - her fiancee Ryoichi not only failing to appear, but going completely missing. Although she doesn't know it yet, his ex Yumi (Kazuyo Ezaki), in a fit of jealousy has him chained up in her attic, refusing to let him go. Even dressing as a bride to complete her fantasy.

Not only that, as the title implies, she's a bit of a sadistic bitch - dispensing humiliations and degradations on Ryoichi with the aim of forcing him to completely forget his fiancee and become her obedient dog. Hell hath no fury... and all that.

Anyway, months later it seems Reiko has given up on Ryoichi ever returning, and has developed something of a carnal itch. Coincidentally, and rather incestuously, a convenient substitute is on hand in the form of Ryoichi's younger brother Shinji, who works with her in her jewellery business and seems more than a little interested.

Inviting him to a home-cooked dinner after work, soon enough they crack a bottle of wine together and flirt, only to be interrupted by Shinji's girlfriend Midori (Isshiki Hikaru) who has no intention of leaving him alone with Reiko. After all, he's a bit of a dweeb - and Reiko's a certified sex bomb.

After Shinji leaves, Reiko is not only drunk, but moist too. Left with nothing but a half eaten dinner, the dinner table, and an empty wine bottle - what's a poor girl to do?

Get creative! In a completely gratuitous, undeniably redundant, but neverthless astonishing turn of events, she scoops up an unidentified white substance from her plate and lathers it lasciviously over her bright red lips, spilling it all over her chin in what I can only assume is some kind of Freudian metaphor. But that's not all ! After whipping her top off, she spreads the food messily over the rest of her body, before discovering that the table leg is seductively hard, and proceeds to grind up against it.

It's a pretty sexy scene - but that's still not all! Remember the wine bottle? Well in the interest of good taste, I'll leave that to your imagination!

What am I saying? We're no purveyors of good taste here at Twisted Flicks, especially concerning the good bits. Yes, I can confirm that she proceeds to enjoy a rather intimate, extended, and gratifying sexual liaison with the wine bottle - sometimes in close-up, and almost certainly without the benefit of CGI.

I say "almost certainly", because this of course could never be decisively ascertained due to the standard optical censorship that Japan requires by law to cover all genital areas in their films. Consequently this scene, and many others, are blurred by a large foggy patch over the relevant areas which is of no small detriment to the film. Don't get me wrong though, the scene is still hot as hell.

Anyway, Shinji is not going to be denied some of that action, and promptly breaks up with Midori in order to fuck and fall in love with Reiko. Bizarrely, it turns out that Midori works for Yumi (you know, the bitch that has imprisoned Ryoichi?), and has told her about the situation. So Yumi suggests that Reiko and Shinji visit her and Midori to try to find an amicable solution.

But Yumi has an ulterior motive.

Without going into detail - all our main characters (who are all convolutedly related to each other in various ways) end up in Yumi's house together, including Ryoichi of course in the attic. Yumi and Reiko battle it out in a tale of revenge, passion, treachery, and outright debauchery.

By the end of the night, pretty much everyone has fucked everyone else, and in a wide variety of configurations. The imagination involved in cramming so many perversions into one movie is breath-taking, and actually pretty impressive, even if it doesn't always make perfect sense

Interestingly, it is the MEN who are the unwitting pawns of these two powerful women, which makes for an interesting reversal.

For a film containing such highly sexual ideas and situations (of which I've described only a small portion, trust me!) - the story, acting and cinematography is of a remarkably high order. For those who enjoy some titillation in their movies, but cannot put up with the cinematic dross so often exemplified by most adult entertainment, I can most certainly recommend.

Also, and importantly for this type of film, Machiko Wachi is a stone-cold knockout. She not only looks fabulous, but is given plenty of opportunity to show her acting chops as well.

Rating: 7/10

More Screenshots

Erotic Diary of an Office Lady

Japan, 1977
Original title: OL kanno nikki: Ah! Watashi no naka de
Director: Masaru Konuma
Starring: Asami Ogawa, Michio Hino, Tatsuya Hamaguchi

Director Masaru Konuma is widely regarded as one of the foremost exponents of Japanese softcore flicks, or as they're called in Japan, Pinku Eiga. While best known for films such as 1974's Flower & Snake and Wife to be Sacrificed - my first introduction to his work was his 1994 Girls-with-Guns genre flick, XX: Beautiful Hunter (reviewed here).

I figured it was time to check out some of his earlier work. At just over an hour in length, and considering the title, I assumed this would be an easy watch.

Just a quick backgrounder if you're new to Pinku Eiga - the rough approximation with Western 'softcore' is more than a little unfair, as it brings to mind C-grade acting, scripts resembling a daytime soap, and poor technical quality. This is certainly not the case here, nor with most Pinku Eiga.

This film, from acclaimed studio Nikkatsu, is part of their Roman Porno line - and generally speaking this represents a significantly higher quality than the word softcore might suggest. While it's true that Roman Pornos required a sex scene every 10 mins and contain their fair share of nudity and erotic situations, aside from that directors were free to do what they wanted. The films were generally shot on quality widescreen film with highly skilled crews, and represent a veritable golden period for the softcore genre. Which explains its growing popularity today.

What's interesting about Erotic Diary of an Office Lady is that, as the name suggests, it is told from a woman's perspective. We are given insights into how women were perceived in the Japanese workplace in the 1970s ... albeit through the lens of a male director.

So we meet Asami (Asami Ogawa) and Komako (Aoi Nakajima) - both typical Japanese Office Ladies (OL for short) who work together in Tokyo, and are both in their own misguided way looking for love. And this is where Konuma slyly gets his message across, the age old dichotomy of relations between the sexes - with men looking for sexual gratification and women equating sex with love.

To begin with, what we see is sex, sex, sex. The women are attractive, sexually voracious and available ... the male perspective/fantasy.

Asami is banging the boss after work, who treats her as little more than an on-demand sperm bank. Her friend Komako meanwhile has gained a reputation of being willing to screw anyone, and we find her servicing male co-workers in the toilet stall, the stationery closet, the elevator ... you name it. Her availability has earned her the nickname 'public convenience'.

But as the movie continues, we get to know more about these two women and the female perspective is revealed. Asami needs her boss to tell her he loves her before fully unleashing her passion. And, sadly, believes him when he does. While acceding to his requirements as the perfect fucktoy, she has not realised that his words are merely lip-service.

Komako meanwhile is fast approaching 30, and is desperately hoping to find a suitable partner to settle down with - one who will treat her with respect. She has taken to drinking on the job, and screwing anyone who shows interest in the hope of finding Mr Right.

So while at first we thought these women were your typical sexual fantasies (and in a film named Erotic Diary of an Office Lady who can be blamed!) - Konuma masterfully exposes the viewer to the flipside of the coin.

While the sex scenes start off kinky and erotic, they increasingly turn to loveless, and violent affairs, defining an arc from the women's hopes and dreams to a far less romantic reality.

Aethetically speaking, while there are a few stand-out scenes that show what Konuma would be capable of given more time and budget - most of the movie is shot in a utilitarian, realistic mode. Therefore, I wouldn't say that it stands as one of the higher quality Nikkatsu productions in terms of visuals, but the style serves the story well.

What really blew me away though was the final scene - a dialogue-free montage set to some incredible Japanese prog-rock. Neither IMDB nor any other reviews I could find mention the name of this song - a hard-driving rock anthem featuring some fantastic blues/rock guitar, Joplin-esque vocals, and Deep Purple style keyboards. I can now tell you, for anyone that's interested, the song is Watashi wa Kaze (I am the Wind) by Carmen Maki and Oz - an 11-minute opus now on high-rotation on my playlist.

While this film is no masterpiece, it delivered a lot more than I was expecting. Along with the frequent sex scenes, it is also an intelligent and poignant drama.

Rating: 6.5/10