Pinku Eiga: Why Are They Considered Unique To Japanese Culture

You might have heard of Pinku Eiga, which are Japanese erotic films with English subtitles (or without them if they are made for the internal market only).

Japanese Grindhouse films with English subtitles are considered unique to Japanese culture only and there is no direct analogy to them in Western society. Yet, Westerners and many other societies on the globe consume these video products on a daily basis, being addicted to them to some extent since the 1990s.

Let’s explore what is so unique about them.

History Of Japanese Erotic Films And Pictures

As you might probably know, Japanese culture is so bizarrely unique because of the traditional attitude to intercourse and “adult pictures”.

Prior to World War II, it was nothing criminal and even widely encouraged in Japan to publically depict nudity and explicit scenes. In their history, there was (and still is, also somewhat changed) such a drawing genre of ‘adult pics’ as Shunga. It allowed complete depiction of private parts of adult people and even minors. They showed copulation and other erotic interaction in all imaginable manners. Such pictures existed in large plentitude, there were millions of them created and viewed all over the country.

The thing is that Japanese religion is based on animism, which presupposes that gods and spirits live in our world. These deities are a part of nature and indivisible from it. Yet, they are far from chastity and purity because making love is one of the most natural things on our planet (for species’ procreation and for pleasure). Thus, religion saw no problem in depicting acts of intercourse and did not perceive them as something obscene.

Things dramatically changed after World War II, when Japan fell under prolonged occupation by the allied forces, led by the Americans. The occupation lasted from 1945 to 1952 and during that time, the Westerners have been showing their severe disgust at too open scenes and especially at children’s involvement in them. These feelings and views were seriously instilled in Japanese people over 7 years, so the authorities have introduced the ban on such — that would also include restrictions imposed on regular movies, TV shows, and Japanese Pink films with English subtitles. Even when the occupation ended, the legislation bans were not lifted.

Legislation About Japanese Erotic Films

Since the time of the introduction of restrictions on the public display of nudity and obscenity, the rules for nudity in Japanese erotic movies with English subtitles were changing and constantly moving. But they mainly disapproved of showing the uncovered most private parts of people (in motion or not) and pubic hair.

When the era of cinemas started to come to an end in Japan in the 1960s because every family had at least one TV and could watch movies at home (including Japanese Grindhouse films), the movie-producing companies were actively seeking a way to stay afloat and not file for bankruptcy.

The solution came in Japanese Pink films. The first of them was shot in the early 1960s, as an attempt to jump into the niche of very popular erotic printed magazines and bring them to the screens. That idea was popular and quickly spread. The period between the early 1960s and the 1980s is considered the golden era of Japanese erotic movies.

At that time, they were primarily done for internal consumers. In order not to show nudity, which might be considered obscene, the film directors had to hide the intimate parts of actors under objects, blurring, or pixelization.

Blossoming Of Japanese Grindhouse Movies With English Subtitles

In the 1980s, around half of the entire country’s film production was composed of Japanese Pink movies with English subtitles (as well as without subtitles if they were shot for internal consumption). It was not before the advent of the Internet when Pinku Eiga films with English subtitles started to come to other countries on Earth, so their popularity outside Japan started to grow in the 1990s and ever since.

Surely, all Pinku Eiga movies with English subtitles are X-rated (for adult audiences only) so they are distributed across the Japanese border only following strict regulations on the movement of “adult” content, which vary from country to country. In many modern countries, they are still banned because of severe anti-adult content laws, for instance, in the Philippines.

As for the UK, US, and other parts of the “Western World”, they are distributed widely over the Internet today (at the dawn of their foreign popularity, they were sold to other countries on VHS tapes and CDs/DVDs).

Today, Japanese Grindhouse movies are shot by hundreds of directors but there are only the 7 most popular and biggest filmmakers in Japan that make a lot of high-quality and relatively high-budget Japanese Pink movies.

We offer you to view Pinku Eiga films in our online catalog, where you’ll find many pieces from very famous and little famous directors. We try to keep up a high tempo of replenishment of our catalog with Pinku Eiga movies that were made in all years, from the early 1960s until today.