Chapter 21: Eirin and the Review

Tokyo, Chuo Ward, Motion Picture Code of Ethics Committee.

“You can even see Japanese filmmakers at the Japan Motion Picture Code of Ethics Committee!”
If you said this at Eirin, it would be hard for others to think you were joking.

Although Eirin was indeed initially a self-censorship body established and led by figures from the Japanese film industry, things began to change after 1956.

In 1956, a film called “Season of the Sun” was publicly released in Japan.
This film depicted the wealthy youth of post-war Japan indulging in alcoholism, violence, and promiscuity, defying authority and doing as they pleased.
It blatantly showed the male and female leads having s*x on a beach, the protagonist beating the heroine after growing tired of her affection, and then selling her to his own brother for five thousand yen…

Although the Japanese film world considered it a New Wave masterpiece, and it even sparked a trend known as “Sun Tribe films,” with a host of directors following suit to shoot films on similar themes.
But the Japanese government and the general public, who didn’t quite understand art, came to realize a problem—letting filmmakers censor themselves was no different from having no censorship at all!

Thus, after 1956, Eirin was forced to reorganize.
It introduced individuals from outside the film industry to participate in the review process to ensure objectivity, while the “concentration” of filmmakers within the organization dwindled.
By the 1980s, Eirin’s review staff was almost entirely composed of legal experts, educators, sociologists, psychologists, and even officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

The group of people sitting in the small screening room reviewing a film today was, once again, such a crowd.

“Another tedious movie.”

“Yeah, Japanese filmmakers are really getting worse with each generation.”

“I wonder when we’ll get another kick-ass film like ‘Battles Without Honor and Humanity’.”

“…”

Ishihara Naoya and his colleague beside him, Toritani Masayuki, were idly complaining about the movie.
Ishihara was a law lecturer at the University of Tokyo, while Toritani was a columnist for the Yomiuri Shimbun.
Being of similar age, the two often sat together during screenings.

The job of reviewing films was, most of the time, not as interesting as the outside world imagined.
This was because ninety percent of the films in the review stage were terrible.
Most of these bad films would never find a distributor and would likely never have the chance to be seen by a general audience, but this didn’t stop their confident creators from submitting their crude works for review.

In particular, Japan had a large number of film enthusiasts and students who loved to shoot independent films on cheap 8mm film.
While this trend certainly produced a batch of classic 8mm films, it also produced an even more staggering amount of garbage.

Over time, Ishihara and Toritani had become numb to it.
Sometimes they really wanted to grab those creators by the collar and ask them: How dare you serve up this kind of garbage for people to see?

“Next…”

The projectionist made an announcement and then began playing the film.

Ishihara and Toritani weren’t paying much attention.
By the time they turned their eyes back to the screen, they were met with a scene of a male and female actor in a heated exchange in a bathroom.
The completely nude actress was pressed against the glass wall of the shower, her ample assets fully on display…

Whoa! This movie is so… well-endowed!
Ah, no, so fair-skinned!
Ah, that’s not right either…

In any case, this film was far too unsuitable for minors.

Ishihara couldn’t help but glance down at the film information sheet in his hand—Title: “Guilty of Romance,” Director: Ōmori Ryō, Production Company: Bubble Witch.

A director he’d never heard of, a film company he’d never heard of.

‘Is this a legitimate director? Is this a legitimate film company?’

The further he watched, the more Ishihara doubted the answers to these two questions, because this film was just… too skilled!

Ishihara would bet his thirty years of single life and film-watching experience that this director had definitely shot his fair share of AVs!

The camerawork, the composition, the perspective, the dialogue…

Ishihara felt a constant sense of déjà vu, a feeling that undoubtedly came from the countless films a connoisseur might watch in the dead of night.

Especially when the female police officer was having an affair with her lover and was forced by him to call her own husband…

Ishihara turned to look at Toritani, just as Toritani turned to look at him.
The two shared a knowing smile; everything was understood without a word.

When the film finished, a strange silence fell over the small screening room.

“Ahem…” After a long moment, a male committee member cleared his throat and said, “This won’t pass, right?”

“Right, right!”

“Isn’t this just an AV?”

“Yes, it’s too unwholesome.”

“Isn’t this just an AV?”

“It will be harmful to minors…”

“Isn’t this just an AV?”

“…”

More committee members gradually chimed in, most of them men.

Bang!

Suddenly, a female committee member slammed her hand on the table and shot to her feet.
“What do you mean, ‘unwholesome’! This is exactly the kind of movie we need!”

Everyone turned to look, surprised to find that the female committee member’s eyes were already welling with tears.

“Look at the women’s films that have been released in the past two years! What are they? Either they’re shameless old-fashioned stories like ‘The Geisha,’ or they’re vacuous comedies like ‘A Taxing Woman.’ Besides those, there’s nothing else worth mentioning,” the female committee member said emotionally.
“I am thrilled that a director has finally seen the plight of Japanese women. This is a groundbreaking women’s film, and you’re calling it unwholesome! Then what is wholesome? ‘Angel Guts’?”

The “Angel Guts” the female committee member mentioned was a series of films directed by veteran Japanese director Sone Chusei.
The series was widely criticized by the public for being filled with erotica, violence, and sadomasochism.
But Sone Chusei, relying on his own influence, not only got it successfully released but also won honors such as Best Director at the Yokohama Film Festival.

At the time, the reason “Angel Guts” passed the review was: the violence and sadomasochism in this film were perpetrated by women against men, and was therefore rich in feminist spirit.

Since the “feminist” “Angel Guts” could be released, why couldn’t the “even more feminist” “Guilty of Romance” be released?

For a moment, the committee members were at a loss for words.

“But isn’t the level of explicitness illegal?” a committee member finally raised a weak objection.

“No,” the law lecturer, Ishihara, said with great certainty.
“There are no penetration shots.”

Although “Guilty of Romance” was very explicit, and some scenes were quite shocking, Ishihara had watched the entire thing and hadn’t found a single shot that actually crossed the legal red line.
This was also one of the reasons Ishihara felt the director was a veteran—the director’s shooting style was just too “slippery.”
It was obvious he had a very clear understanding of the laws concerning AVs.

“Then I have no problem with it,” that committee member could only nod and say.

With the strong support of the female committee members, “Guilty of Romance” successfully passed the committee’s vote.

In the 1980s, Japan did not have a movie rating system.
Passing the review meant that “Guilty of Romance” could be shown in any theater.