Considered one of the best films in Nikkatsu‘s Roman Porno series and voted as one of the 100 Best Japanese films of the 20th century by Kinema Junpo, “Ichijo’s Wet Lust” focuses on the life of the famous real-life stripper Sayuri Ichijo, who appears in the movie under her own name. Sayuri became famous in 1970, when she pioneered the tokudashi or ‘open stage’ style of striptease, with her allowing the customers to inspect her private parts with a magnifying glass, a tactic however, who had her charged for breaking obscenity laws and jailed for a short period that year. (source: Jasper Sharp‘s Behind the Pink Curtain)
The film is based on Sayuri’s real life but follows a fictional narrative, although the protagonist is actually Hiroko Isayama, who plays Harumi, a girl who also works as a stripper in the same parlor as her more famous colleague, and is trying to reach the heights her idol has, despite the fact that the former treats her as a nuisance. The story focuses on Harumi’s relationship with two men, her boyfriend and the parlor’s owner, and the problems these kind of establishments faced with the law, who continuously arrested the girls working there. In this case, the antagonism Harumi felt towards Sayuri led her to more and more extremes on stage, a tactic that attracted the police’s attention even more.
Apart from the “politics” of the strippers and the trouble the people working in the industry faced with the law, Kumashiro focuses intently on the performances, as much as the erotic life of Harumi outside her work place. In that fashion, DP Shinsaku Hamada captures elaborately a number of rather memorable scenes. The one where Sayuri unravels her kimono using a katana, the live lesbian sex show between Harumi and a third stripper, Mari, the scene where Sayuri drips hot wax on her body, her press conference for her last live show and the presentation of the tokudashi, and Harumi’s ejaculation of milk-sodden tissues from her vagina to a customer are bound to stay on mind. The behind the scenes aspect also features some very realistic scenes, with the one where Sayuri is placing slices of lemon over the burns caused by the dripping wax, the arrests and particularly the last one that follows a series of events that end up with Harumi naked on the street are equally memorable.
Regarding the titillation part, Kumashiro succeeds completely, but also of note is the way he has implemented humor in the film, through a number of scenes that are both erotic and funny, as the one where Harumi is getting fondled on a roller coaster while the female operator is watching with a look that seems both bewildered and intrigued.
Evidently, the narrative follows an episodic approach, with Akira Suzuki editing the parts rather elaborately, and through a fast pace that allows for the plethora of them to be presented in all their glory in just 69 minutes. His cuts are quite abrupt on occasion, but, evidently, this comes with the territory of low budget productions.
Sayuri Ichiji plays herself convincingly, highlighting her diva manners towards the rest of the employees and the exact opposite, that of a servant almost, towards her customers, in a way that is reminisced of the ways geisha conducted themselves. The one who steals the show acting-wise though, is Hiroko Isayama as Harumi, in a rather demanding role, which, apart from the many striptease and sex sequences, has her exhibiting feelings of lust, awe, jealousy, frustration, and pure anger with equal eloquence. The chemistry of the two in the scenes they are together is also great, with Kumashiro leaving no doubt about who is the master and who the wannabe.
“Ichijo’s Wet Lust” is an impressive movie, definitely one of the best among the thousands of pinku productions, and succeeds at both titillation and as a biopic.
