Love - Zero = Infinity. by Hisayasu Sato (1994). R1 USA DVD July 25th 2006.

haven't seen that much from Hisayasu Sato myself (yet) but I know a few people who would love to see more and more of his films released with english subs! So I guess they are getting their way now :-) Who would have thought that these films would ever be released in the US! what's next? Lolita Vibrator Torture? How are they going to promote something like that? :-)

Once again you fail to mention that Sato is also famous for his numerous gay-themed movies, such as MUSCLE (out on English subtitled VHS) or KAMEN NO YUUWAKU among many others.

I've been working on the commentaries for these titles, and I can candidly reveal you are going to get a few more Sato films. Alongside the two already mentioned on twitch, there's his 1995 film RAFURESHIA, and also the first ever Eng-lang release of a film by the seldom mentioned forth devil, Kazuhiro Sano, which is also pretty wild. Going to love to see how these titles all go down...

well i would love to see them go down well, if not for what they then for what they represent - something different.

personally, i would pick up a whole heap if not every kind of release like this if all those lovely pink-sleeved or gold/black-sleeved VHS tapes i see on japanese sites were released on DVD with subtitles. from the few examples ive seen, and due to my disinterest in old VHS tapes (if only for the weight and size issues), theres a whole heap of top film makers going ignored, a load of original and artistic/solid movies that could be licensed cheaply and could find a home. thing is, as more and more time passes, through various cliched reasons, i feel the interest and adverturous nature of film fans a bit lacking in the asian cinema area : i cant see many people progressing, from forum activity and so on, and people seem to misread what these kind of films (in particular) represent. or am i wrong?

Hey Jasper, I hope you can inspire the 'powers that be' to release Shojo Geba Geba, Wakamatsu Koji's classic, also! :-) (then I can finally destroy my grainy and un-subtitled bootleg!) Keep up the good work.

If by "misread what these kind of films (in particular) represent" you mean that people in the West are generally not interested in watching softcore, artsy Japanese erotica with pixels and other kinds of funny censorship (my favorite is ONNA JIGOKU: MORI WA NURETA in which they put giant black squares and triangles over what sometimes amounts to half the screen when there wasn't anything to see in the first place) when they can also watch uncensored AV porn or Western porn instead, then yes, you are indeed, sadly correct. Personally, I have spent about $4000 on unsed Nikkatsu/Toei/Shin Toho pinku eiga tapes this year so far and while I get the occasional absolute piece of crap (the whole ZA series - ZA GOUMON, ZA IKENIE, ZA S&M, ZA MANIA - is the worst of the worst of trashy 80ies hobo porn) most of it is really quite excellent and never fails to entertain. And by "entertain I don't mean "masturbate furiously". At least not exclusively. That there still isn't a subtitled release of at least Norifumi Suzuki's edo pink masterpieces (TOKUGAWA SEX BAN, ERO SHOGUN'S 21 CONCUBINES and DOLLS OF THE SHOGUN'S HAREM) is, I hope, due to insanely pricey licensing costs and not just, as I fear, due to ignorance by the various distributors. But at least there are labels like Artsmagic, Panic House and Discotek Media who are branching out into this area. And successfully so, if the Pinky Violence Collection is any indication. Not so sure how the ANGEL GUTS box set sold for Artsmagic but it would have deserved the same international bestseller status!

i wondered too how artsmagics 'angel guts' set sold, but to be honest i think the more easily accessible stuff like 'female yakuza tale' opened peoples interest slightly more and any company could easily sell similar - the 'angel guts' films though are quite different, not without their mix of sex and violence, but theyre clearly more sober morality tales than action movies... i still say both sets are stunning, both companies do a good job (and price their discs reasonably) : but, artsmagic have decided its more important to release material than promote it, so no trailers or official website updates from them (not so you would notice). companies still think literally rather than laterally, and they dont look to carve their own ground as frequently as they want to follow others ground, but hey the ground is actually already open cos theres lots of people that know about these films from the decades previous to DVD, theyre just not capitalising upon it.

Hey Beavis, Shojo Geba Geba (a.k.a) VIOLENT VIRGIN is one title that I think might be coming up for release from some source soon, as well as a whole load more Wakamatsu stuff - not from Artsmagic though. I've been so much trying to enthuse various parties to release older pink titles from the late 60s and 70s, but for some reason no ones going for it.
I guess the main problem with this sort of stuff is its a very small niche market of cult films, making it especially hard with companies like Toei and Nikkatsu pricing their stuff at unrealistic leveles.
THat said, there's a lot out there that could easily crossover to a wider audience, especially the low budget pink stuff, in bringing back narrative, acting, and stories to erotic cinema. But I fear Logboy you may be right, and the main stumbling block here is a marketing one.
We'll see how these do anyway.

you should keep pushing labels. i dont think theyre as perceptive as they can sometimes seem to be, and i mean there's only the slightest evidence of confidence and knowledge at work in choices made by labels. ive mentioned many times, infact almost coined phrases for certain issues, that labels arent up to much in terms of promotion.

many come here to twitch to read up on stuff, but still pick out the cliches from amongst the odder stuff thats dug-up. and theres simply zero promotion : not even the basics are covered. i mean, its really very very painful that theres not even a damn trailer for DVD releases.

insanity, at the very least.