ryuganji: film news from japan

I know this isn’t Japanese film news per se, but bare with me for a second. Surely by now you’ve heard of John Cameron Mitchell’s “Shortbus“? The saucy one with all the verite bonking and anal anthems? After everything I’d read, what intrigued me the most about it was whether a Japanese distributor was going to take a risk on the film, especially considering how it’d look (or rather what you’d still be able to see of it) after after a good rogering from Eirin, the domestic film censorship body.

If you’re not familiar with film censorship standards in Japan, here they are in a nutsackshell: you can show as much graphic and/or psychological violence as you like, but the moment that trouser snakes and afro clams make an entrance (both figuratively and literally), the public’s fragile sensibilities must be protected by masking the offending naughty bits with fuzzy blobs (bokashi) or digital mozaics. The context of said genital exposure is usually not taken into consideration. It all seems a bit redundant in a country where porn shops set up over the road from public schools and parents take their little girls to festivals so they can straddle giant wooden todgers.

Well, those filthy pervs Asmik Ace are having a whack after all, putting the pic out in roadshow release this August beginning with Shibuya’s trendy Cinema Rise. And naturally Eirin have come to the party, slapping on an R-18 restriction and obscuring around 100 assorted meats throughout Shortbus’ 101-minute duration. Mitchell himself was brought in to oversee the modifications in New York and was duly diplomatic at a Tokyo press conference where he insisted that the film’s message hadn’t been lost, because you can still figure out what’s going on behind the blurry bits. This is obviously a man familiar with Japanese porn.

In fact, Eirin’s sticky fingerprints all over the screen are turning out to be a blessing in disguise for “Shortbus”’s publicity campaign: it’s already gained more media coverage than expected for such a limited release, with the excessive bokashi actually being suggested as a reason to see the film. As well as the sex, of course. That you won’t be able to see. (source: Sponichi)

P.S. A word of advice: stay away from Shuttle’s SS31T barebone kit. I bought one in a hurry to get back online after my old PC crapped itself last week, and then the damn thing ate my weekend. A pox on SIS motherboards.