''a.k.a.'' ''Contraceptive Revolution'' is a

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 6 – Vietnam War: United States Marine Corps and Army of ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese ''

pink film refers in Japan to movies produced by independent studios that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. Many pink films would be a ...

'' directed by

Masao Adachi Masao Adachi (足立正生 ''Adachi Masao'', born May 13, 1939) is a Japanese screenwriter, director, actor and former Japanese Red Army member who was most active in the 1960s and 1970s. He was born in Fukuoka Prefecture. Career Best known for ...

for

Kōji Wakamatsu was a Japanese film director who directed such pink films as and . He also produced Nagisa Ōshima's controversial film '' In the Realm of the Senses'' (1976). He has been called "the most important director to emerge in the pink film genre," an ...

's production studio.

Synopsis

The insane gynaecologist, Dr. Marukido Sadao (

Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade ( ; ; 2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814) was a French writer, libertine, political activist and nobleman best known for his libertine novels and imprisonment for sex crimes, blasphemy and pornography ...

), theorizes that a woman is unable to become pregnant if she is writhing in intense pain during intercourse. He sets about testing this new method of birth control by torturing women during sex.

Cast

* Mikio Terajima () as Dr. Marquis de Sade (Marukido Sadao - ) * Kozue Kashima () as Mitsuko Marukido * Atsushi Yamatoya () as Nishimura * Kuniko Masuda () * Hachirō Tobita () * Hatsuo Yamaya () as Saburō Kyōtani *

as Weekly magazine photographer * Shigeomi Satō () as Blue film actor

Background and critical appraisal

filmed ''Birth Control Revolution'' for

's Wakamatsu Productions and it was released theatrically in Japan by Nihon Cinema on February 21, 1967. Adachi used the character of the crazy gynaecologist, Marukido Sadao—a Japanese pun on "Marquis de Sade"—in his first ''pink film'', ''Abortion'' (1966). He used the name in one or two of his film scripts directed by

. According to writer on Japanese cinema, Roland Domenig, these "mad gynaecologist" films, as well as Wakamatsu's "embryo" or "return to the womb" films such as ''

The Embryo Hunts in Secret , released in July 1966, is the first film made by Japanese director Kōji Wakamatsu independently of any movie studio. It was released just months after he had left Nikkatsu is a Japanese film studio located in Bunkyō. The name ''Nikkatsu'' ...

'' (1966), represent a re-imagining and parody of the "birth control" films which lured in audiences with titillating marketing strategies during the 1950s.

Allmovie AllMovie (previously All Movie Guide) is an online database with information about films, television programs, television series, and screen actors. , AllMovie.com and the AllMovie consumer brand are owned by RhythmOne. History AllMovie was ...

notes that despite the main character's "silly name", the film is actually a quite grim "twisted softcore S & M film". The review warns off viewers who are not comfortable with sadism as entertainment, in the style of many ''pink films''. In their ''Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films'', the Weissers also note that it is a dark film, and "one of those excursions into sado-erotic fare that makes Western audiences cringe".

Bibliography

English

* * * * * *

Japanese

* * *

Notes

{{reflist 1967 films 1960s Japanese-language films Pink films 1960s Japanese films