Jason goes to Holehead--Day 5

First, an update on my BART rules rant from last Sunday. As I expected, the rules for photography on BART are as such (from their web page on photography/video permits):

BART is a Bay Area icon. As such, it attracts more than a few amateur photographers. If you are a paying passenger making your way from point A to point B, then there is no specific prohibition to taking photographs in areas that are accessible to the public [emphasis added] provided you do not appear to be a security threat, involved in a commercial activity or harassing other riders. If, however, you appear to be taking photographs of potentially sensitive areas or obviously involved in some commercial enterprise like an advertising agency, BART employees, especially BART Police Officers, may approach you and ask you to identify yourself and possibly take further action against you.

So again, flash photography on the platform is actually allowed (although I suppose overuse of bright flashes could be construed as "harassing other riders," so I would encourage basic courtesy). And as such, the "No babies as doorstops" rule is also suspect (I couldn't find anything on their website).

Anyway, on to the films, starting with porn!

For the past couple of years, Indiefest and Holehead have had a healthy relationship with Pink Eiga, a company distributing (on DVD) classic Japanese "Pink" films--soft core porn made for the most part by young directors just starting their career. Most famously, Yôjirô Takita started out in Pink films and went on to direct the 2008 best foreign picture Oscar winner DEPARTURES. He also happened to direct the movie I saw. Basically, the industry rule is basically that as long as you through a sex scene in every 10-15 minutes, you can make whatever movie you want.

First up, to add a bit of context, they showed RIDING THE GROPER TRAIN, a quick interview with a pink film director preparing for his 109th film. He explains how crowded Japanese subways are during rush hour, and how "accidental" groping sort of automatically happens, and how the GROPER TRAIN series of films is a response to male fantasies about groping women on the train.

And, believe it or not, the feature SEXY TIME TRIP NINJAS was a groper train movie. As the title would suggest, warring ninjas (one male, one female) from the past travel through a time vortex and land on the train, where she immediately gets groped and he goes nuts groping. Then they have wacky, sexy adventures in modern (okay, 1984) Japan, visiting brothels and "love hotels." Then eventually they go back through a different time slip, and there's something about a historical event but who cares about that. Oh yeah, and it's really pretty funny.

And then I followed that up with SAMURAI PRINCESS. More crazy Japanese splatstick fun from TOKYO GORE POLICE screenwriter Kengo Kaji (this time taking the director's chair). Psychotic cyborgs ("mecha") are terrorizing the countryside for some reason. A mad doctor resurrects a victim, gives her some mecha powers of her own (e.g., detachable boob missiles) and imbues her with the souls of 11 victims--all girls who were brutally raped and murdered. And so the fun begins. Bloody, funny, insane...all the things I've come to expect from these movies.

Total Running Time: 152 minutes

My Total Minutes: 188,793