Matt Cooper Television

The Naked Director Series 2 (2021)

Toru Muranishi (Takayuki Yamada) is on top of the world, with Sapphire Productions making money hand over fist, his staff and stars, including Rugby (Takenori Goto), Junko (Sairi Ito), Naoko (Ami Tomite), and manager Kawada (Tetsuji Tamayama), are all happy with how things are going. But Muranishi is dreaming bigger; after finding out about the new technology of satellite television he dreams of having his videos distributed to every home, seeing a vision of porn ‘raining down from the sky’. Meanwhile, Detective Takei (Lily Franky) is still playing both sides of the yakuza while unfortunate Toshi (Shinnosuke Mitsushima) acts as a lackey under boss Furuya (Jun Kunimura). Kaoru Kuroki (Misato Morita) is coming to terms with her fame as Japan’s premier adult actress and the company is taking on a slew of new talent.

“The Naked Director Series 2” has the same energy and outrageous comedy moments as the first series, but also delves more into the darker side of the industry. We see Muranishi’s arrogant, overbearing persona both in a positive and negative light as it wins him contracts, but alienates those around him. Most poignant are the stories of Kaoru Kuroki, and to a lesser extent Naoko, who are figuring out what it means to be a porn actress and whether they can ever leave the industry. New characters include Yuri Tsunematsu’s Miyuki, whose wide-eyed innocence hides a determination to succeed, but also finds that being a porn actress may not be as glamourous as it seems. The large and impressive ensemble cast, most returning from the first series, fully embody their characters, their quirks and personalities shining through even when they are only briefly on screen. While the series again mostly sticks with Muranishi’s story, there are plenty of moments for the rest of the cast to shine.

Series 2 is directed by Masaharu Take, lead director on the first series, and Kotaro Goto.  The show is stylish from start to finish with the camera becoming a part of the action and constant creativity on display. The series also features a couple of fantasy sequences which add a little comedy to things, with Muranishi floating in space to the strains of The Carpenter’s “Calling Occupants of Interplanetary Craft”. The soundtrack throughout the series features some great tracks, often used ironically. The score is not always limited to songs of the 1990’s, but the songs are generally well-selected and give the series a youthful energy. The recreation of the time period through costumes and set-design is impressive, recreating the 1990’s with as much gusto as series one did the 1980’s, a nostalgic look back at a lost era of fashion.

Much of the series is about regret and making mistakes. Gone is the naivety of their early careers; the characters now fully enmeshed in the ‘business’ side of the porn industry. This sense of being jaded is highlighted perfectly by having the pornography often playing as background noise. Things which are there to excite the general public are mere wallpaper to the protagonists. As money worries, relationship issues, business deals, and more consume Muranishi and the other characters, the shimmer of the glamourous image of their business is peeled away to reveal a world as soul-crushing and difficult as any other. An incredible second act to the first series, this time around revealing many of the failings of the characters and the difficulties they go through to maintain their sense of self.

Matt Cooper Television

The Naked Director (2019)

Toru Muranishi is a famous name in the world of Japanese porn, prominent from the heyday of the industry in the 1980’s as one of the most prolific directors of adult videos. Based on real events, this television drama takes us back to the formative years of his directorial career and the numerous revolutions that typified the era. The first episode begins with Muranishi (Takayuki Yamada) standing in nothing but his white underwear with a large camera on one shoulder as he holds forth about the importance of his profession. We are then taken back to Muranishi working as a salesman for English encyclopaedias. He has a talent for sales, convincing his customers that they absolutely need these encyclopaedias to improve their personal and professional lives.

When he comes home to find his wife, and the mother of his two children, having an affair with his co-worker, his world is thrown into turmoil. While out drinking he meets Toshi (Shinnosuke Mitsushima), a young man who is flogging illicit audio recordings of couples from a nearby love hotel. The two strike up an unlikely partnership with Muranishi’s talents making a huge success of their business. Together they get into producing their own magazines together with a third partner Kawada (Tetsuji Tamayama). As times change, so do they, setting up adult stores and later getting into making pornographic videos. Along the way they are beset by the puritanical Japanese police and their strict censorship laws; the yakuza who have a hand in the largely underground industry; and their rival porn studio run by wealthy boss Ikezawa (Ryo Ishibashi).

In parallel with Muranishi’s story is that of Megumi (Misato Morita), later to become the porn actress Kaoru Kuroki, one of the industry’s biggest stars and a symbol of sexual liberation. Beginning as a student, Megumi lives at home with her austere mother, but slowly she experiences a sexual awakening and decides to break out of the traditional role ascribed to her and become a porn actress.

The series is hugely enjoyable. While Muranishi and Kuroki are real and this is based on a true story, it is unclear precisely how much of this is dramatized. Whatever the case may be, it is packed with action, with Muranishi on the run from the police or shooting pornographic films, and also a lot of drama, especially in Kuroki’s relationship with her mother that forms the heart of her story. There is a lot of sex and nudity in almost every episode and it doesn’t hold back from a graphic depiction of its subject matter. Some may complain that the series smooths off some of the edges of the porn industry, and of the characters. Later in the series things do take a dark turn as we see the introduction of drugs, in the form of meth, being used to trap young women into performing. However, the majority of the series takes the tone of a light-hearted romp with comical moments and the stakes are largely confined to financial troubles or the company struggling to survive in a competitive industry. The story is full of twists and turns with each episode either bringing a new triumph or disaster to Muranishi and his rag tag gang of employees. This gives the series a sense of forward momentum and you are never quite sure what is going to happen next.

The cast is exceptional. As well as the main cast, the series stars Lily Franky as the police officer who is constantly investigating their activities; Takenori Goto as “Rugby” and Sairi Ito as Junko, Muranishi’s hard-working assistants; Ami Tomite and Nanami Kawakami also feature, and Koyuki gives a great performance as Megumi’s mother Kayo.

The series is based on the book “Zenra Kantoku Muranishi Toru Den” (The Legend of Muranishi Toru, the Naked Director) by Nobuhiro Motohashi, and is directed by Masaharu Take, Eiji Uchida and Hayato Kawai. All three are experienced directors having worked in television or film for a number of years and it shows in the style of the series. Largely set in the eighties, they manage to capture the period feel with costumes and set-design. The soundtrack is an interesting selection of instantly recognizable and catchy western songs.

Despite being the central character, Muranishi remains something of a mystery throughout. We see only briefly the effect his wife’s affair had on him and it is hard to get a sense of what is really driving him to do what he does. In contrast, Kaoru Kuroki is much more of an open book as we see her actions as an expression of personal freedom. The pornographic industry provides an interesting focal point for discussions of personal liberty, exploitation, lust, sex, capitalism, and many other things. The series constantly shows that pornography is a business designed to make money, this is the driving motivation behind almost all of the characters. It also shows how the adult industry is often driven underground in what is a largely conservative society; the strict censorship laws and prohibitions are in stark contrast to the obvious popularity of these materials. The rights and wrongs of government interference are barely touched on. Kaoru Kuroki’s philosophy of sexual emancipation is given more time, but still more could have been done with the character.

“The Naked Director” is a fun show that smooths off most of the rough edges of its protagonist in favour of giving the audience and enjoyable comedy-drama. Excellent direction and design along with an amazing cast make for a hugely enjoyable watch.

Matt Cooper Films

Tag (2015) by Sion Sono

It is hard to give a synopsis of this film without spoiling what is the most fun part of watching it: the constant unexpected shocks, gross-out moments, and bursts of ultra-violence. The film follows three main characters, Miyuki (Reina Triendl), a high-school student, Keiko (Mariko Shinoda), a reluctant bride, and finally Izumi (Erina Mano), a marathon runner, whose sections blend into one another to give the impression that this is one personality represented as three individuals. The film has a dream-like sensibility to it, flowing from scene to scene, mixing nightmarish fantasy with reality.

The film begins with a unique scene of carnage, almost as ridiculous as it is terrifying, and doesn’t really let up from there. It could best be described as an absurdist horror, which will surprise, amuse and disgust you (sometimes in the same scene). It becomes apparent early on that what you are watching is not intended to be realistic, but read as a metaphor for something else. Writer and director Sion Sono is known for grotesque and sexualised imagery and here we have both. It makes a mockery of cheap exploitation almost while exemplifying the genre itself, think schoolgirl underwear peeked under short skirts and extreme carnage that seems to come out of nowhere. “Tag” does not scrimp on the horror with some genuinely disturbing moments. It keeps you on edge in a way that plays into the themes of the film. There is an ever present threat that is heightened by the surreal nature of what is unfolding. The acting from the three leads is fantastic and they do a great job of expressing the terror of what is happening. Supporting performances from Yuki Sakurai, Aki Hiraoka and Ami Tomite are enjoyable and the cast all have good chemistry together as friends. It is clear that the director intended this to be more than a simple horror-action film, and the direction does a good job of creating a sense that there are social themes under the surface. An early sequence of Miyuki by the river, with corpses and clothing strewn about, has a peculiar beauty to it, and throughout there are moments that are unforgettable for a variety of reasons.

“Tag” is grotesque, exploitative, and sensationalist, but also with a strong message against misogyny. The fears faced by Miyuki and Keiko, around school and marriage, are exaggerations of typical anxieties faced by girls and women. The use of the white feathers exemplify this notion of a perceived feminine purity that becomes tainted throughout life and the fear this engenders. This is twinned with the paranoia of the opening sequences which see Miyuki switch uniforms (moving up in school years). She is constantly buffeted by forces she cannot control, perhaps representative of puberty, and forced to keep moving forward. Later in the film the white feather comes to symbolise freedom. We see it at the end of the film when the characters seem to have finally broken free of their constraints. Miyuki’s friend tells her to remember that the world is surreal and there is no predetermined path. This idea, that you should not allow yourself to be defeated by the world, but keep your own sense of yourself alive is important. The final scenes drive home this message about a patriarchal society that treats women as playthings, becoming almost a critique of the film itself and the way it treats its main characters. The film is a cry for individualism in a world where women are forced into particular roles. We constantly see characters running from some unseen force, or pushed and pulled by other characters into situations they are not sure about, or don’t fully understand. The real conflict here is between the women and society itself. It is also a film about free will versus determinism, albeit told in its own bizarre, blood-spattered way. I would recommend this film to any fans of gory exploitation cinema with a twisted sense of humour and an unexpected message.

Matt Cooper Films

Antiporno (2016)

When our heroine Kyoko wakes up in a mysterious room, painted bright yellow with an adjoining red bathroom, it is not immediately apparent whether this is reality or a dream. This sense of unease continues throughout a plot that moves rapidly from sequence to sequence following its own ‘dream-logic’ that intertwines flashbacks, hallucinations, fourth-wall breaking, and heartfelt soliloquising from Kyoko. The film revolves around Kyoko (Ami Tomite), an author who paints out her characters on large canvasses before writing her novels. Kyoko spends the majority of the film in this unreal space, met by her assistant, journalist, camera woman, and the film is as much about what is going on in her head as in the real world. The plot is hard to explain without giving away the more enjoyable twists and turns of this psychological drama.

Writer and director Sion Sono creates an unsettling yet compelling world that is constantly surprising the audience. The stylish sets help create an intriguing theatre-like space along with the classical score giving the whole film the feeling of a performance. Antiporno is a reflection on soft-core pornography, and it takes its subject seriously, unpacking various issues associated with pornography in society. The characters are intended more as archetypes than with any real backstory. Ami Tomite gives a stunning performance as Kyoko, whose shifting character evokes sympathy and revulsion in equal measure. She is the only character who is given a backstory, that further adds to the impression that this whole film is taking place at least in part inside her head. Everything is beautifully shot and frames with Sono showing a mastery of his craft.

Circling the central subject of sex and pornography, the film presents a plethora of ideas. You can almost imagine that this is the result of a brainstorming exercise, and the film itself jumps from one idea to another. Some of the issues raised are the pressures put on women to fulfil two competing roles for men, that of the whore and the virgin, and how this relates to a woman’s idea of herself and her worth to society. We see the intersection of sex and violence, the emptiness at the heart of consuming pornography. Despite some difficult themes the film never feels like a morality tale. The film emphasizes the naturalness of sex and rails against the shame so often associated with it. It understands that intelligent debate on the subject, rather than moral panic, is the best way to tackle issues. I would highly recommend this film as an intelligent psycho-drama about sex, with a stunning central performance, excellent direction, and a story that forces you to consider any preconceptions you might have about sex, pornography and society.