Hard focus: Nusumi-giki

More like an investigative crime story with an avant-garde feel. It's a pink film so has it's several sex scenes that here some include light bondage and are very erotic. But it's the story that kept me engaged. Still, it seemed like there were small chunks of story either left out or maybe dropped to keep the time to pink film standards.

The acting was generally very good but not outstanding. Director Hisayasu Satõ applied some but not all of his style.

In one scene a character talks about a singer, Yukiko Okada jumping off a building. That was a real incident. She was a singer that made the top of the charts in the mid 1980's. Of course the rest of what is said in the scene is fiction.

It's worth watching tho Satõ has even better films. I still recommend this one. It's not a story or ending that's been repeated many times. It stands on its own.

Reporter Nukada's next big assignment is the secret world of Japanese phone sex clubs.He gets in touch with Midori,a part-time employee at the Banana Club,but is startled to hear she's been implicated in the bloody death of a client with perverted tastes Kihara.Sensing a bigger story,Nukada uncovers a link between Midori and the late Kihara's wife and realizes that the situation is much more complex than he imagined. And in this world of blood-play and electro-sex,the biggest shock has yet to be announced..."Survey Map of a Paradise Lost" approaches many themes characteristic for Sato's work like man's relationship with technology,alienation,emptiness and sexual disorder.The film offers some steamy and violent sex scenes and is not for the easily offended.Give it a look.

A suicide hotline worker is tapping the office phone lines for some reason and starts stalking and then initiates a sadomasochistic relationship with a suicidal teenage female client (all of which he records on videotape). After he is brutally murdered, a male co-worker views the tapes and starts investigating. He discovers that young mistress and the man's abused, drug addict wife apparently knew each other, and that the murdered man KNEW they knew each other. The plot here is certainly interesting for a sex film, if perhaps a little too much so for its own good (I defy anyone to explain the bizarro ending to me).

It continues to astound me how the Japanese have no problem showing a "17-year-old" character being tied up, "tortured with electric shocks" and even "having her nipple sliced open" (I'm using quotes because these things were obviously all fake--this IS just a movie.), but then they have such a problem with pubic hair(?!)that the actresses all have to wear panties during the (softcore)sex! As sleazy as this movie sounds on paper though, it's also very well made like most Japanese "pink" films (I have to admit that the reason I detest their hardcore American equivalents is not so much because I object to most of the unsimulated content, but because the story, the cinematography, and acting are always so damn awful).

I still obviously wouldn't recommend this to people who aren't already fans of the "pink" genre (but then who else would be on this particular site?). You really need leave your moral outrage at the door and be able to appreciate the difference between fantasy and reality to really enjoy this, or any other, "pink" film. But if you can do that, this is interesting and worth seeing.

I have been on a bit of a Japanese Pinku film bender of late, and this is one of the more interesting of my recent purchases...

Notorious director, Hisayasu Sato directed this little gem in 1989. The fact that a Westerner can acquire obscure films such as this on DVD nearly 20 years after the fact is wonderful. We have Arts Magic to thank for a fine batch of classic Pinku films unleashed recently on the unsuspecting, always-hungry exploitation loving populous. Arts Magic is best known for lovingly bringing the delicious 'Angel Guts' series to us last year...

Anyways, 'Survey Map Of Paradise Lost' (or 'Hard Focus') is a very trippy and steamy, highly sexualized little slice of film. One of the things I like best about these films, is the swift and expeditious flow of the proceedings. Most of Sato's film clock in at around 65 minutes, which is the perfect length for materials of this nature. 'Hard Focus' can be a confusing experience for those that feel they need to understand the reasoning behind every little thing that occurs, as the story arc occasionally gets a bit twisted. But for me, that is part of the charm...

Me and my lovely girlfriend found this film to be VERY erotic. If you are into fetishized sexuality, you will very likely feel the same way. This was also an artfully shot film, very stylized...

I think that is one of the main reasons that Sato's films work so well. Many of the shots are framed up very artfully and composed perfectly. This film is full of original and exciting P.O.V. shots (the bath-tub stabbing, the camera under-the-grate shot, the video-within-a-video sequences). I also rather enjoyed the quasi-disturbing, evil late eighties Japanese Industrial soundtrack that would periodically surface during disorientating sequences...

If you are a lover of exotic and under-the-radar fare, Pinku films, or exploitation, you will probably enjoy this film. I realize movies of this nature aren't for everyone, but if you are reading this review, that most likely means that you are interested in this sort of cinematic fare. If that's the case, give it a shot. Just don't go in with expectations. Pornography this is not (but damn, is it ever hot!)