Rope and Skin

"Rope and Skin" is the last film of Japanese S&M queen Naomi Tani.It was directed by Shogoro Nishimura,once again based on an Oniroku Dan novel and had a part for fellow 'Pink queen' Junko Miyashita.Tani stars as the tough yakuza card dealer named Okoma,who is subjected to sexual torture and S&M abuse by the rival clan leader and his people.There is plenty of sleaze and some pretty harsh scenes of sexual violence,but the film offers much more.The storyline is actually interesting and filled with several bloody fight scenes.I have only seen "All Women Are Whores" by Nishimura so far,but now I'm dying to see more.So if you are in the mood for some rough pinku eiga from Nikkatsu you can't go wrong with "Rope and Skin".

Naomi Tani plays Okoma, a card dealer and member of the Sakura yakuza clan, who is intending to leave her gangster lifestyle behind in order to marry a chef. Her plans go awry, however, when she exposes the leader of the rival Yuki clan as a cheat during her last card game: the humiliated gangster sends a team of assassins to attack Okama's home which results in the death of her intended.

The ambitious Yuki clan then proceed to take control of the area, dispatching the Sakura boss, and hassling his daughter, who is eventually tricked out of the deeds to her business and forced to work as a whore. Okama attempts to free the poor girl, but is captured and tortured herself. After much humiliation, an old yakuza pal comes to Okama's rescue and the pair exact their revenge.

Combining the tits and torture content of pinku cinema with the bloody, revenge-themed violence typically found in such Manga based movies as Lady Snowblood and the Lone Wolf series, Rope and Skin is a jaw-dropping addition to Nikkatsu's oeuvre: seventy minutes of nudity, violence, degradation, topless fighting, and bondage, with a bit of bright red arterial spray thrown in for good measure.

With all of this depravity, and a pretty decent story to boot, how could any fan of extreme cinema resist watching?