Pinku ribon

Informative pink film doco that is concerned mostly with the state of pink films today. Many companies have folded, but there are still a small handful filling the hundred screens remaining.

Some greats from yesterday such as Koji Wakamatsu and Banmei Takahashi are interviewed about their working methods and unique approaches to the craft.

Successful contemporary director Kiyoshi Kurosawa discusses his pink film roots with honesty and an enduring respect for the genre.

There are diary-like visits to the set of a pink film production and numerous visual anecdotes. Today's directors are paid far less than the veterans of the industry and have shooting schedules that verge on impossible.

But this tightly focused doco celebrates the passion and ingenuity of filmmakers working in a shrinking, sometimes marginalized genre.

Unfortunately, talented practitioners of the superior Violent Pink genre (a pink film sub-strata) such as Yasaharu Hasebe and Koyu Ohara are ignored.

Interviews with key players in contemporary pink film distribution are fascinating.