Daydream (1981 film)

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Daydream

Poster of Daydream (1981)
Directed by Tetsuji Takechi
Starring Kyoko Aizome
Cinematography Akira Takeda
Release date(s) Flag of Japan 1981
Country Japan
Language Japanese
Official website
IMDb profile

Daydream (白日夢 Hakujitsumu?) (1981) is a Japanese film. A remake by director Tetsuji Takechi of his ground-breaking 1964 Pink film of the same title, this film is considered the first hardcore theatrical release in Japan.

Contents

[edit] Background

Maverick theater and film director Tetsuji Takechi had directed Japan's first big-budget Pink film in 1964 with Daydream. He directed more films in the 1960s, including Black Snow 1965, which resulted in a high-profile obscenity trial.[1] During the 1970s he concentrated on writing projects, and served as the host of a successful television series, The Tetsuji Takechi Hour for the previous decade.[2] In 1981, the then 68-year old Takechi decided to return to film with a hardcore remake of Daydream. Takechi again chose Akira Takeda, Nagisa Oshima's cinematographer between 1965 and 1968, to shoot his film,[3]

Noticing Kyoko Aizome in one of her nude photo magazine appearances, Takechi chose the then unknown actress to star in the film. After the film's release, Aizome added to the controversy by admitting to having performed actual sexual intercourse on camera. Though, as Japanese law required, sexual organs and pubic hair were fogged on screen, the Asahi Shimbun called it a breakthrough film as Japan's first hardcore pornographic movie,[4] Aizome received national notoriety from starring in the film, thereby becoming Japan's first hardcore pornographic star. Her name became a selling-point for future films such as Kyoko Aizome's Somber Reminiscence (1983)[5]

[edit] Synopsis

Loosely based on a 1926 short story by Jun'ichirō Tanizaki,[2], the film opens as an artist and a young woman are in a dentist's waiting room. Though he is attracted to the woman, he says nothing to her. They are later in the same examining room. When he is given an anaesthetic, he begins to imagine a series of scenes in which the woman undergoes various forms of sexual abuse, including rape and torture. When the artist recovers from the anaesthetic, he finds clues showing that he may not have been hallucinating.[6]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Weisser, Thomas; Yuko Mihara Weisser (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications, p.68. ISBN 1-889288-52-7. 
  2. ^ a b Sharp, Jasper. Tetsuji Takechi: Erotic Nightmares (English). www.midnighteye.com. Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  3. ^ Weisser, p.102.
  4. ^ Koizumi, Shinichi (2001-12-01). Porn-star label now a badge of honor for actress (English). Asahi Shimbun. Archived from the original on 2001-12-03. Retrieved on 2007-02-18.
  5. ^ Weisser, p.40.
  6. ^ Synopsis based on Weisser, p.102.

[edit] Sources

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