Lesbian Harem

Lesbian Harem

Theatrical poster for Lesbian Harem (1987)
Directed by Tomoaki Hosoyama[1][2]
Written by
  • Miku Akiyama
  • Tomoaki Hosoyama
Starring
  • Reika Kano
  • Yuriko Kyōtoku
Cinematography Yōichi Shiga
Edited by Naoki Kaneko
Production
company
Shintōhō
Distributed by Shintōhō
Release dates
April 18, 1987
Running time
63 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Lesbian Harem (レスビアンハーレム) is a 1987 Japanese pink film directed by Tomoaki Hosoyama.

Synopsis

Two lesbian lovers (Reika Kano and Kyōko Hashimoto) escape the city to commit a lovers-suicide deep in the forest. There they are captured by the queen (Chiemi Akimoto) of a lesbian colony who uses the two lovers for her own sex games. The couple organize a revolt against the queen.[3]

Cast

Background

Tomoaki Hosoyama filmed Lesbian Harem for Shintōhō and it was released theatrically in Japan by that studio on April 18, 1987.[1] U.S. low-budget exploitation films had become popular in Japan with the advent of home video. Director Hosoyama made Lesbian Harem on a similarly low budget, and designed the film as a tribute to these films, and particularly as an homage to John Waters' Desperate Living (1977).[3]

In their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, Thomas and Yuko Mihara Weisser give Lesbian Harem three out of four stars. Noting that Lesbian Harem is an important film on its own, they point out that in many ways this early Hosoyama film also anticipates his later hit, Weather Girl (1993). Hosoyama's attitude towards lesbianism, in particular, is shared between these films, and in direct opposition to the way it was depicted in most contemporary pink films dealing with the subject. Rather than showing lesbians as women who are bitter from bad experiences with heterosexual affairs, and who are victims of a disapproving society, Hosoyama shows lesbianism simply as a lifestyle which the storyline accepts without judgment.[3]

Bibliography

English

Japanese

Notes

  1. 1.0 1.1 レズビアンハーレム (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
  2. 2.0 2.1 レズビアンハーレム (in Japanese). Shintōhō homepage. Archived from the original on 2007-07-14. Retrieved 2010-04-15.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 Weisser, Thomas; Yuko Mihara Weisser (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications. p. 241. ISBN 1-889288-52-7.