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October 28, 2016

Nurse Diary: Beast Afternoon

Kangofu nikki: Kemonojimita gogo
Naosuke Kurosawa - 1982
Impulse Pictures Region 1 DVD

It's been over a year since the last Nikkatsu pink film was released by Impulse Pictures. I hope the series continues, although my own preference is with the older films should they be available. I have no idea if the English title is actually a translation from the Japanese title. In any event, what goes on takes place over more than one afternoon.

Nurse Diary: Beast Afternoon often made me think of Jesus Franco with the basic story of a ring inserted into vaginas in order to see video replays of women's dreams (because as a female doctor explains, women dream with their wombs), with Kurosawa even including a shot that is suppose to look like that said ring being removed, with a point of view shot from the inside looking out. The inventor of the ring is a truly mad doctor who is locked up in a jail in his own laboratory, following a failed attempt to murder him by hanging. Of course, if Franco had made this film, the simulated sex would look more convincing and less awkward, and there would be a plethora of graphic shots of the ring inserted or removed.

Young lovers Reiko and her goofy boyfriend, Jun, get stuck together having sex at a graveyard. The two are taken to a hospital, with Reiko kept as a patient to investigate her sexual hangups. The magic ring is inserted, and Reiko also gets hypnotized. What follows are videos of Reiko's erotic dreams, and a plot involving the commercial prospects with the ring. Most of the plot, as such, is nonsense, though things pick up when Reiko is hypnotized to commit murder.

Naosuke Kurosawa does adds a bit of visual panache during the dream sequences, clouds of colored dye floating together, changes of color are the usual bits. When Reiko is walking, knife in hand, to the bedroom of her intended victims, she is momentarily seen in silhouette against a shoji screen. There are hints here that had Kurosawa not have been restricted to making erotic films, he may have done well doing mainstream thrillers. The audience for these films were there for the sex, and in addition to the expected couplings, there are lesbian lovers, group sex, and a guy quenching his thirst by less than conventional means.

As in the previous Impulse Pictures releases, included are liner notes by Jasper Sharp, and a copy of the original Japanese poster.

Posted by Peter Nellhaus at October 28, 2016 07:16 AM