is a

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese ''

pink film in its broadest sense includes almost any Japanese theatrical film that includes nudity (hence 'pink') or deals with sexual content. This encompasses everything from dramas to action thrillers and exploitation film features. The Western equiv ...

'' directed by Tomoaki Hosoyama.

Synopsis

Two lesbian lovers (Reika Kano and

Kyōko Hashimoto is a Japanese model, ''pink film'' actress and an early adult video (AV) star. Life and career AV debut Hashimoto was born in Saitama Prefecture, Japan on February 15, 1964. She entered the adult video (AV) industry as early as 1984 with the v ...

) escape the city to commit a lovers-suicide deep in the forest. There they are captured by the queen (Chiemi Akimoto) of a lesbian colony who uses the two lovers for her own sex games. The couple organize a revolt against the queen.

Cast

* Reika Kano () as Iori * Yuriko Kyōtoku () as Yui * Kumi Uesugi () as M.P. * Noriko Kikuchi () as Michiko *

() as An * Chiemi Akimoto () as Queen * Itsumi Shikata () as Shima * Mirai Akiyama () as Lady-in-Waiting * Tomomi Matsuda () as M.P.

Background

Tomoaki Hosoyama filmed ''Lesbian Harem'' for

Shintōhō Eiga is a Japanese pink film production company and film distributor located in Tokyo, Japan which has been among the most influential studios in the pink film genre since its beginnings. Foundation The first Shintōhō, or "New Toho", also known a ...

and it was released theatrically in Japan by that studio on April 18, 1987. U.S. low-budget

exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that tries to succeed financially by exploiting current trends, niche genres, or lurid content. Exploitation films are generally low-quality "B movies", though some set trends, attract critical attention, become hi ...

s had become popular in Japan with the advent of home video. Director Hosoyama made ''Lesbian Harem'' on a similarly low budget, and designed the film as a tribute to these films, and particularly as an ''homage'' to

John Waters John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946) is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his Cinema of Transgression, transgressive cult films, including ''Multiple Maniacs'' (1970), ''Pink Flamin ...

' ''

Desperate Living ''Desperate Living'' is a 1977 American comedy film directed, produced, and written by John Waters. The film stars Liz Renay, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, Susan Lowe, Mary Vivian Pearce, and Jean Hill. It is the third installment of what Waters h ...

'' (1977). In their ''Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films'', Thomas and Yuko Mihara Weisser give ''Lesbian Harem'' three out of four stars. Noting that ''Lesbian Harem'' is an important film on its own, they point out that in many ways this early Hosoyama film also anticipates his later hit, ''Weather Girl'' (1993). Hosoyama's attitude towards lesbianism, in particular, is shared between these films, and in direct opposition to the way it was depicted in most contemporary ''pink films'' dealing with the subject. Rather than showing lesbians as women who are bitter from bad experiences with heterosexual affairs, and who are victims of a disapproving society, Hosoyama shows lesbianism simply as a lifestyle which the storyline accepts without judgment.

Bibliography

English

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Japanese

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Notes

{{reflist 1987 films 1980s Japanese-language films Pink films Shintōhō Eiga films Japanese LGBT-related films 1987 LGBT-related films 1980s Japanese films