—P. Macias
 

For the sake of remedial Japanese cult movie students, “pink movies” were independently produced smutty movies that proliferated in the sixties before being co-opted by the major studios (Nikkatsu’s “roman porno” line) and eventually resurrected by a new generation of exploitation filmmakers in the video age. 

After decades of English-language obscurity on the subject, a bilingual book on vintage pink films has finally arrived via the Shinjuku-based Aspect corp. Generation Sex is number 6 in Aspect’s “Street Design File” series, created to deliver a “‘powerful outsider punch’ to show up the dead-ended design community,” in the words of series editor Kyoichi Tsuzuki. And indeed, the heady collection of hand-tinted bare skin, gasping mouths, and bedroom eyes contained within is inspirational. But in the end, Aspect’s noble agenda is not unlike that of the dirty raincoat brigade that pink films originally preyed on. The image is all. Insight is an afterthought.

Nudie beauties from the posters are singled out and arbitrarily isolated, cut-and-paste style. Sometimes, you’ll luck out and get the full poster for The Amorous Samurai Hat as God intended, but often you’ll simply wonder why you are asked to accept a tiny image of a naked chick on a huge white background as content. 
Right now, Generation Sex makes for a pretty good coffee table book of colorful celluloid kitsch. But for a few more essays and a couple of filmmaker and studio profiles to provide context, it could have been damn near essential. All the same, if form truly follows function, then PULP looks forward to Generation Sex revolutionizing print ads for frozen yogurt and potato chip ad campaigns. 
 
 
 

 
 

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