[yuke, yuke, nidome no shojo]
(1969, koji wakamatsu) b&w

japan's koji wakamatsu is arguably the king of the most stylized (and ultra perverse) exploitation films of the 1960's, but don't take my word for it: that's what wikipedia's for. in my adolescent search for (really any) porn or sleaze with at least some minor semblance of a plot, i quickly stumbled onto the genre of pink film. it promised me harcore sex, brutal violence, and pseudo-political undertones; and although most of the films produced during this time by the few major pink studios around embodied all of those characteristics, wakamatsu's films are the most transgressive and distinctly memorable. i mean with over-the-top titles like "violated angels" and "the embryo hunts in secret," how can a girl resist? go, go second time virgin was my first introduction to the genre and i couldn't help but find it appealing. i was a female westerner whose only background during this time happened to be a few serious but well-known erotic films, late night showtime softcore, and, admittedly, some scrambled porn. i was pretty far from jaded, and since the reviews i'd been reading seemed to dare me not to be shocked, i felt like i could stand to be challenged, and possibly even broaden my horizons a bit.
unlike most exploitation films with misleading titles and sufficiently campy but otherwise disappointing plots, this one really does deliver. within the first minute, a young girl (poppo) is screaming in agony. she's carried against her will up to the rooftop of an apartment building by four teenagers and to her inevitably sad fate: a brutal gang rape. once on the roof the four begin to take turns on top of her while another boy (tsukio) looks on from a short distance, seemingly empathetic but is either unable or unwilling to help. she lays there lifelessly and aside from a necessary choked sob or two, seems to have lost the ability to feel anything. poppo quietly recalls an earlier instance in her life in which she was raped: in a striking color scene set to patty waters' haunting "black is the color of my true love's hair", she runs down a beach from two men who eventually wrestle her into the wet sand as the ocean waves crash and mute her cries. during both scenes we mostly see close-ups of her tortured face rather than lingering for too long on any of the obscene carnality taking place just above her. these severely de-eroticized rapes set the film apart from other pink films by presenting things from her perspective, and despite its unapologetic style,(everything i've described so far has happened within the first ten minutes of the film), it hardly glorifies rape. obviously more concerned with style over substance, even wakamatsu's choice of music - sobering, avant-garde american jazz - is sometimes fitting but more often than not just distracts from the unsettling mood it's meant to lend to, and is far removed from providing anything but a claustrophobic sense of surrealism. which is more than likely the aim, anyway.
poppo announces it's morning, august 8th and she's still alive, lying on the rooftop as a woman obliviously hangs her white linens out to dry. poppo approaches tsukio, who had stayed with her on the roof during the night and bids him a rather cheery good morning. the drastic shift in tone here between bleak drama and dark comedy makes it hard to take anything seriously anymore. it's an oppressively sunny day and as they lean together on the railings and sullenly look down at the cityscape it's actually hard to keep in mind that poppo has just been raped. the setting itself though, if inferred correctly, does lend a great deal to the feeling of isolation that constantly dominates the film. the wide pans and high angle shots make them seem small and insignificant and even sounds of heavy rain later in the afternoon quite literally drown them out. they aren't trapped on the roof, but aside from a rare excursion later on, the only way either of them truly plan to leave the roof is to jump off of it. after exchanging some words about the unromantic realities of suicide, poppo is soon discovered by the same men that raped her, who had been sleeping elsewhere on the roof all night. when they begin to approach she asks them to kill her, and she's willingly led off to what she thinks is her hasty execution. her pleas are ultimately ignored though and she just ends up getting raped again.
later, poppo meets tsukio outside, and it becomes obvious this isn't a typical rape story. she's fatalistic as she talks to him about her mother's gang rape and the "tears women shed," as the spiritual "sometimes i feel like a motherless child" plays (and really resonates here) - but she isn't sad, and she no longer cares since she is resigned to her fate and her ultimate will is to die or be killed. in fact, she spends much of the film begging tsukio to take mercy on her and kill her. i feel like most of the movies i've seen with similar subject matter favor horror or revenge scenarios. women either stand up for themselves, or they hope someone else will. poppo is probably the first character i know of that doesn't register as either; she doesn't even care if her rapists ever see any justice, not that wakamatsu allows us to mistake this for strength. poppo is still a hopelessly pathetic character, preyed upon by anyone with an urge to prey upon her. it could be said that wakamatsu isn't terribly sympathetic to his characters' conditions and while i'm aware that his personal objective lies more with breaking down barriers of censorship he doesn't create a work of shockingly hardcore pornography or even coherent political/social commentary, and he certainly isn't concerned with any realism, either. the pace of the film coupled with the sometimes comical...mostly confusing outbursts of poetry/lyrics from the characters leaves little room but to consider the film as a whole just an irreverent and thoroughly entertaining abandon of rationality and familiar narrative.
initially reluctant to leave the spot where she was assaulted (marked by her blood, what else) poppo leaves to clean herself up and drinks from a small liquor bottle with tsukio. they discuss suicide at great length until she asks him about her rapists; how many other girls were raped before her, and if they always rape together...and then mentions that she would like to try it too. she reveals more about herself: she confesses she's an orphan, and that both of her parents killed themselves when she was very young, which is why she can't bear the responsibility of offing herself. tsukio seems to humor poppo at this point, and after coming to understand why she's been so insistent that he kill her, finally agrees to do her the favor. he leads her down to the basement of the building and in what's either a moment of temporary insanity or raw emotional vulnerability, poppo undresses, and offers herself up to tsukio to be "raped". it's hard to say why he turns down a beautiful naked girl for an easy lay, but i assume it had something to do with her casually throwing around the term rape. he's lying on a bed of at least 200 copies of his unsold poetry (of which he was very close to putting to better use), and it finally gives us an opportunity to begin recognizing tsukio as a three dimensional character. aside from the companionship he shows poppo and his affected demeanor, we know very little about him until he rejects her advances and opts to take her on a trip to the fifth floor.
tsukio begins to reveal just how much he really can sympathize with poppo's plight, and as he opens the door to his fifth floor apartment, awe-struck poppo is in on his secret: he's already murdered four people (but is quick to explain that he isn't crazy and didn't enjoy it). four men and women lie nude on the ground, arranged in a sort of elegant way that another reviewer better than myself described as an art installation and i'm inclined to agree. the gorgeous color scene that punctuates this bit of memorable exploitation takes tsukio to a flashback of the night where he was assaulted in the very same room. while alive, this pair of greasy, orgy loving couples certainly deserved everything that was coming to them. they rented the room next door and engaged in countless bizarre sex acts daily. during one of these orgies they overwhelm tsukio and pull him down on the floor. they writhe around on top of him for a long time; tickling, poking, and torturing him while attempting to pull off his clothes. one crazy bitch even takes aim and pisses in his mouth while a man holds his mouth open.
it's unclear how much more abuse he withstood from the two couples, but he's eventually let go and left to plot his revenge. he grabs a kitchen knife and approaches them head on, but they're too busy fucking to actually notice him standing over them. they're all easily overtaken and killed one by one without much suspense in a matter of seconds. afterward, tsukio arranges their bodies to overlap each other, even tying a long rope around some of their necks...in some attempt at framing the murder scene as an immoral sex game turned ritualistic group suicide. poppo is too stunned to speak and tsukio asks her if she wants to leave but she makes no move to do so. he confides in her about his suicide attempt after the murders and shows her his bandaged wrists. he offers to kill her, if she wants, but it seems as though poppo has already changed her mind. he grabs a knife nearby one of the bodies and hands it to her, asking if she's able to kill her assailants. but she's not comfortable with that either so in a fairly tender moment, he clasps her hand, and together they stab his already dead neighbor. now that she's "killed someone" (and really, that shouldn't even count) they rush out to the roof.

her attackers already happen to be there, this time with some sleazy dates in tow. as soon as tsukio's father (the super) locks the doors they're all trapped up there together. the ladies and rapists run around the roof (accompanied by a pretty effective, chaotic instrumental that's sort of their siren song), looking for a place to fuck and huff some drugs in peace. the girls aren't really putting out and i guess they aren't even worth raping so it isn't long before the gang sets their sights on poppo again. poooorrr poppo. she doesn't even put up a fight, and some of the girls are even getting into it, groping her and delighting in her perceived masochism. they all gather around her like an audience as she spouts off more of the same ridiculous beatnik-y poetry that probably got her in this mess in the first place, which provides us with the titular line,

"go, go, second-time virgin,
your prick, it gets protracted
an empty flat without extension.
like thin soup rising, the incest kitchenette."
in trying to make sense of that i guess they're all pretty distracted and so tsukio saves the day, stabbing one of the guys on top of poppo and scaring off the others, hunting them all down slowly, since he knows there's no escape. covered in blood, he takes a break to sing a strange song to himself while poppo listens. she asks tsukio to make love to her if he's not impotent, or to kill her, but he says he's never made love before although he does entertain the thought of killing her again. he mentions that he needs a reason to kill, or he won't do it, so poppo professes her love to him and feels that should be reason enough. this subject makes him pretty temperamental so they argue about that for a bit, with things seeming to go alternately hot and cold between them (hey, just like a normal relationship) and as he ignores her to go chase down the others she actually nags at him about not making her death a priority! (and hey, isn't that just like a woman)

once the killing spree is over and everyone's dead, they joke about killing each other and happily chase each other around the roof until they're too exhausted to go on. they stop at the edge of the building and (sort of like birthday punching) poppo slaps tsukio for every person he killed. after she tells him she loves him again, they senselessly slap each other some more and fight until he admits he really couldn't ever kill her. they lie on top of each other, and although it seems like they might finally hook up, they decide to read a fucking comic book instead. it really doesn't get more surreal than seeing a bunch of violent comic book pages juxtaposed with photos of roman polanski and sharon tate, and drawings inspired by the manson family killings.
it's morning now, bodies are littering the roof and poppo says some final words before stripping down (including asking tsukio if he loves her, to which he never bothers to reply) and jumping from the roof. tsukio jumps too and we see them both lying dead in the street. memorable? yes! transgressive? you bet! japanese? well...obviously. i can't think of a single thing that made any sense in this whole fucking movie. i can't say i didn't take away something from this film though because as the camera cuts away to a little poster tacked up on a building, we're reminded about the dangers of paint thinner. "let's stop playing with thinner!"

and maybe we should.