is a 1973 Japanese film in

Nikkatsu is a Japanese entertainment company known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio, founded in 1912 during the silent film era. The name ''Nikkatsu'' amalgamates the words Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally ...

's ''Roman porno'' series, directed by

Tatsumi Kumashiro was a Japanese film director known for his critically acclaimed, award-winning ''Roman Porno'' films, such as ''Ichijo's Wet Lust'' (1972) and ''The Woman with Red Hair'' (1979). He was the most highly acclaimed director of the early Nikkatsu Ro ...

and starring Rie Nakagawa. Alternate titles for the film include ''Twisted Path of Youth'', ''Twisted Path of Love'', and ''Lovers and Wet Sands''. In 1999 the mainstream Japanese film journal ''

Kinema Junpo , commonly called , is Japan's oldest film magazine and began publication in July 1919. It was first published three times a month, using the Japanese ''Jun'' (旬) system of dividing months into three parts, but the postwar ''Kinema Junpō'' ha ...

'' named it as one of the best Japanese films of the 20th century.

Synopsis

Katsu, a young man who has spent five years drifting around Japan, returns to his coastal village hometown hoping to restart his life. Though the villagers recognize him, he refuses to admit to his past identity. He sets about disrupting social conventions and engaging in sexual and violent affronts to decorum. A local girl befriends him.Sharp, p. 138.

Cast

* Rie Nakagawa: Yoko * Tetsu Ōe: Katsu * Koichi Hori: Mitsuo * Kunio Shimizu: Miura * Moeko Ezawa: Yoshie * Chiro Kei: Sachiko

Critical appraisal

In their ''Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films'', the Weissers point out that while Kumashiro's ''

The Woman with Red Hair The Nikkatsu ''Roman Porno'' films were a series of theatrical Japanese softcore pornographic films produced by the movie studio Nikkatsu from November, 1971, until May, 1988. The Japanese word 'roman' refers to novels, and derives from the Latin ...

'' (1979) is rightly praised as a masterpiece of softcore porn, ''Lovers Are Wet'' is not a lesser work, writing, "Both films are equally important in shaping Japan's lucrative pinku eiga market." In his ''Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema'', Jasper Sharp writes that, like '' Woods are Wet'' and ''

The World of Geisha a.k.a. ''A Man and a Woman Behind the Fusuma Screen'' is a 1973 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's ''Roman porno'' series, directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro and starring Junko Miyashita. The mainstream film journal ''Kinema Junpo'' included it in their ch ...

'' (both 1973), ''Lovers Are Wet'' is one of Kumashiro's indictments of the hypocrisy of censorship. As in these other films, Kumashiro uses the censors' tools purposely to ridicule the practice. In a scene in which a group of people play nude leapfrog on a beach, Kumashiro hides the actors' genitals by scratching the surface of the film, "creating a bizarre writhing spaghetti of lines." Film historian

Donald Richie Donald Richie (17 April 1924 – 19 February 2013) was an American-born author who wrote about the Japanese people, the culture of Japan, and especially Japanese cinema. Although he considered himself primarily a film historian, Richie also dir ...

pointed out that the Japanese censors had used this method on nude audience members in the film ''

Woodstock Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held during August 15–18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, United States, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. ...

'' (1970). While these non-erotic nudes passed unnoticed in countries without such censorship, Richie notes of the Japanese version, "When the film was projected the distant strolling couples consequently seemed girdled with fireworks. Though this called instant attention to what the censors were presumably attempting to hide, the letter of the law had been observed and this result satisfies all censors everywhere."

Availability

''Lovers Are Wet'' was released on DVD in Japan on March 24, 2006, as part of

Geneon (abbreviated as NBCUEJ) is a Japanese music, anime, and home entertainment production and distribution enterprise headquartered in Akasaka, Tokyo, Akasaka, Minato, Tokyo, Minato, Tokyo. It is primarily involved in the production and distributi ...

's third wave of Nikkatsu ''Roman porno'' series. On March 23, 2010,

Kino International The Kino International is a film theater in Berlin, built from 1961 to 1963. It is located on Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. It hosted premieres of the DEFA film studios until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Today it is a protected ...

released three

films on DVD in the U.S. Along with ''

Ichijo's Wet Lust ''aka'' ''Ichijo's Wet Desire'', ''Drenched Passion'', ''Sayuri Ichijo: Moist Desire'', ''Following Desire'' ''and'' ''Sayuri Ichijō: Wet Lust'' is a 1972 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's ''Roman porno'' series, directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro and sta ...

'' (1972) and '' Yakuza Goddess: Lust and Honor'' (1973), they released ''Lovers Are Wet'' under the title ''Twisted Path of Love''.

Bibliography

English

* * * * * * ''

UniJapan Film Quarterly ''UniJapan Film Quarterly'' was a free quarterly film trade magazine which was in circulation between 1958 and 1979 in Tokyo, Japan. It was published in English and covered films produced in Japan. History and profile ''UniJapan Film Quarterly'' ...

'' v.15 n.3, July 1972, p. 27.

Japanese

* * * * *

Notes

{{Tatsumi Kumashiro 1973 films Films directed by Tatsumi Kumashiro 1970s Japanese-language films Nikkatsu films Nikkatsu Roman Porno 1970s Japanese films