This listing is for the standard edition Blu-ray. The limited edition slipcover was limited to 1,000 units and is sold out. The two versions are identical, aside from the slipcover.
Named after Yasujiro Ozu’s custom-made, tatami-level, crab-like tripod, Kani is a new home video label dedicated to leveling the gaze and furthering the understanding of Asian cinema in North America. Focused on genre-defying films, Kani aims to expand the canon, bolster up-and-coming filmmakers and reintroduce repertory classics in context. Vinegar Syndrome’s sister company, OCN Distribution, is thrilled to be representing this diverse and unique home video line!
Before The Family Game redefined the Japanese cinema of the 1980s, Yoshimitsu Morita cut his teeth on two remarkable erotic films for Nikkatsu’s Roman Porno line: Top Stripper (1982) and Pink Cut: Love Me Hard, Love Me Deep (1983). Marked by an atypically sweet, sex-positive tone and an infectious pop sensibility that stands out amongst the more tortured classics of the genre, both films find the independent filmmaker working with studio resources for the first time and therefore experimenting with various new modes of filmmaking.
Top Stripper follows Yoichi (Kensuke Miyawaki), a bright-eyed delivery boy who misguidedly falls in love with the stripper next door, Gloria (Kaori Okamoto). Shot on-location in a near-documentary style that forefronts delightful bygone locations and the camaraderie inherent to the strip club’s troupe, the film hits a surprising note of coming-of-age, suffused with open-ended questions about spectatorship that prove critical of the medium itself. Its pop-inflected counterpart, Pink Cut: Love Me Hard, Love Me Deep, sees Morita working on a set for the first time, basking in the artificiality of it all. Morita goes as far as staging musical numbers, in a fantasmatic tale of entrepreneurship that finds Mami (Mayumi Terashima) and Yuka (Mai Inoue) open a barbershop best known for its… special services. A pure candy-colored concoction emblematic of the 1980s, it reveals Morita as a thoroughly versatile filmmaker that here takes his first steps towards the striking, playful postmodernism that would define his entire oeuvre.
directed by: Yoshimitsu Morita
starring: Kaori Okamoto, Ken Miyawaki, Nami Misaki, Ayako Ota, Jun Ueno, Yudo Yoshikawa, Akio Kaneda
1982, 1983 / 130 min (combined) / 1.85:1 / Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0
Additional info:
Overall rating: 4.6944447 / 5 from 108 reviews.
This Blu-ray release offers a double feature of Yoshimitsu Morita's erotic films, 'Top Stripper' and 'Pink Cut: Love Me Hard, Love Me Deep', both known for their sweet, sex-positive tone and infectious pop sensibility. The films are presented in high definition with Japanese DTS-HD MA 2.0 audio and English, English SDH subtitles. Additional features include interviews, introductions, a booklet, and new art.
Review topics: [quality, looks, packaging, set, work, buy, release, features, film, movie, cut, slipcover, transfer, strip, artwork, story, collection, ending, bill, pacing, slip, porno, restoration, extras, art, none, change, title, addition, see].
"Two stylish, offbeat entries from Nikkatsu's Roman Porno line that balance eroticism with striking visuals and playful storytelling. The extras provide excellent context, and the artwork and presentation make this a standout release for collectors."
"The restoration is fine. Too bad I didn't pre-order this during its release to score the slipcover. The cover art is a bit mediocre."
"Top Stripper was excellent. Pink cut was just so-so. It was fine, but never really hit the heights of the first film in the set. The packaging was great though and so were the introductions at the beginning!"
"Great double feature!"
"This two-film collection is colourful, quirky, and stylistically interesting early works from Morita, though the stories are fairly light and sometimes feel more like experiments or genre exercises than fully developed narratives. Top Stripper works as a slice-of-life coming-of-age story, while Pink Cut is more stylized and playful with pastel sets and musical elements. The slipcover is a thing of beautiful art, the Blu-ray comes with some well-appointed extras, and the booklet offers a necessary context for both titles, so this comes a strong package from Kani."
"More Roman Porno available in the West is always a good news. Both of these are worth your time, as a beginner or not."
"Highly recommended as both films are very enjoyable and the extras are top notch"
"Top Stripper, directed by Yoshimitsu Morita, takes what could be a purely sensational premise and reframes it as a character-driven study of ambition, performance, and emotional detachment. Morita brings his signature offbeat sensibility to the material, balancing moments of irony and restraint with a quietly critical взгляд at the structures surrounding the adult entertainment world. Rather than emphasizing spectacle, the film lingers on the spaces behind the stage—the routines, negotiations, and small personal compromises that define the protagonist’s life—giving it a more introspective tone than its title suggests. While its pacing can feel deliberately uneven, that looseness allows the film to settle into a reflective mood, making it less about titillation and more about identity and the cost of self-presentation."
"Mainly like Pink Cut. good one"
"My first Kani purchase!. . . . Great film!"
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