Dan Oniroku: Onna kyôshi nawa jigoku

While I don't really want to defend this sub-par Japanese "pink" film, it is unfortunate when one of these films finds an audience that neither understands nor appreciates this genre. First off, people need to understand that films like this were SIMULATED. The sex is not real (and is highly stylized due to the Japanese aversion to pubic hair and genitalia), and the "rape" is certainly not real even if the Japanese actresses involved are far more talented your usual adult starlets. The elaborate rope-play was, by necessity, real, but the scene where the villain drips copious amounts of hot candle wax on the torsos of two women obviously was not.

These films are also FICTIONAL. There is, in Japan and other countries today, a small niche market within the AV (adult video) market of CONSENSUAL BDSM films where women (and sometimes men) are genuinely, but CONSENSUALLY, abused. Even these films though wouldn't hold much appeal for a genuine rapist or sexual sadist because they ARE consensual. But such a deviant would be even MORE disappointed in "pink" films which are fictional and simulated as well. Moreover, the "pink" films have much higher production values than even consensual BDSM videos today and were even backed by major Japanese studios like Nikkatsu and Toei. Clearly, they did not only appeal to sex deviants and perverts. Just like how not everyone (or really, anyone) who likes Hannibal Lector is into serial killing cannibalism, not everyone who likes films like this into real-life rape and non-consensual BDSM. There is a difference between fiction and and reality, between sex fantasy and reality, and even between fiction and sex fantasy.

A genuine problem with this particular "pink" film is it has a very anemic plot compared to a lot of the more artistic and accomplished "pink" films . A young teacher rescues a female student from a rapist and gets raped herself. A male colleague seems sympathetic in the aftermath of the rape, but soon becomes unhinged and kidnaps her and the student (when she comes looking for her). After that, the movie degenerates into a series of bondage and rape scenes and (literal) torture porn. The ending is both mean-spirited and perfunctory. It doesn't surprise me this leaves a bad taste in some people's mouths, even if frankly it doesn't hold hot candle wax to some of the truly disturbing "pink" films like "Lolita Vibrator Torture". This is not good and it's obviously not for everyone, but some reviews of it frankly read like me trying to review a Hollywood rom-com.

A teacher already engaged to another teacher gets raped at her school by a homeless man. The next day she is kidnapped and locked into a cage by the music teacher (not her fiancee) to become his wife and slave.

This film has multiple issues. The largest is a lack of story or script. There's probably five pages of dialogue. The story could be summed up in 4 or 5 sentences tho I don't want to give away what little it is. The story doesn't go far. More time is spent on sex, bondage and torture. That leads to the other issues. The sex is not erotic or interesting. The bondage is just putting on & taking off bondage clothing. The torture is usually just way too fake looking that you can't take the characters seriously. The whipping is always just thrown in the air obviously away from the body. It's like they wanted it to look fake. Some of the other torture either looked fake or just slow moving that you lose interest but I give 2 of my rating stars for what wasn't.

The lead actress Junko Mabuki was very good. The other two main actors were mediocre. Just lacked a good script and some competent direction. Skip this turkey.

Perspective. Today Japan's footprint in the porn sector is on par with its footprint in the auto sector. Duckduckgo says that the anual gross revenue in the sector is around $70.0 billion. (Google refused to answer any questions on the topic, which is itself very revealing). In 1981, when this "lost classic" was made, that industry had barely even started. The main reason for the success of the sector today is that Japanese culture includes a very dispassionate and politically incorrect view of female sexuality, a view that makes feminists cringe. That view includes the notion that men should literally "own" the bodies of their consorts, and sexplay includes the ability to manipulate female partners to experience pleasure doing things they absolutely might not otherwise do voluntarily. In this context, FEMALE TEACHER in 1981 was the harbinger of what was to come, containing all the core themes that "brand" the sector today, more raw, less glossy, but by no means lacking punch. Even the premise, the first few minutes -- where a male teacher has an opportunity to rescue a female colleague from an attack by a homeless man, and instead is completely absorbed by the pleasure of watching the act as voyeur, ultimately transforming from savior to predator himself -- is completely off the wall by western standards. But not by Japanese standards.

Right, well I didn't really know that I was getting myself into a Japanese softcore S/M movie here, when I sat down to watch "Female Teacher In Rope Hell" (aka "Dan Oniroku: Onna kyôshi nawa jigoku"). Sure, I had expected that this would be an exploitation movie, but not that it would be mere inches away from being actual pornography.

Sure, director Shôgorô Nishimura managed to keep the movie tactful enough so it didn't cross over and became pornography, but it was bordering. And actually it was a tad too much for my liking, and I must admit that I just gave up a little more than halfway through the movie. It was so repetitive and pointless that there simply was no sense in watching the movie to the end.

The storyline was so simplistic that it was painful. Actually, the storyline was almost non-existing. A man kidnaps a woman and keeps her as a slave in his basement. And that was essentially the entire movie.

I can't really say much about the acting in the movie, because there was nothing extraordinary to be had here. This movie made very little requirements in terms of proper acting skills from the people on the cast list. Junko Mabuki, playing Sayuri, the kidnapped teacher - just had to put on physical performances, and that was basically it.

I am sure that there is and was an audience for a movie such as "Female Teacher In Rope Hell", but personally I didn't care much for what the movie had to offer. My rating for this ordeal of a movie is a mere three out of ten stars, solely given the production value of the movie.