The body is a canvas: transnational perspectives of desire in erotic cinema

Soft core erotic cinema was one of the most popular genres of Japanese film from the early 1960s to the 1980s when their spectators began to dwindle with the availability of censured hard core sex films on VHS and DVD. However, it has survived it and a good number of them are still produced now as Seijin Eiga (adult film) or V-Cinema (video film). This paper is reevaluating Japanese soft porn erotic cinema, better known as Pinku Eiga (Pink Cinema), against its transnational misunderstanding and bias through which it is considered to be a mere sexual titillation and to have no artistic value. Despite physical and material restrictions, film makers creating Pinku Eiga were given not a small amount of artistic and creative freedom and for a long term it has been a training grounds for young film makers. This paper also explores the more controversial issue of sexual violence against women and examines the ways in which the female body has been used by Japanese film makers as a canvas on which political and sexual repressions are exposed.