I don’t know how many conversations I’ve had since February in which someone trashed the Academy for giving last year’s Best Foreign Language Oscar to the milquetoast Japanese dramedy Departures over edgier festival favorites like The Class and Waltz with Bashir. Now, finally, someone is doing something to restore director Yojiro Takita’s reputation.
The New York Asian Film Festival has just announced that they plan to show two pink films (ie: short softcore features) by the Departures director during their program this summer. Both films are part of the “Molester Train” series, which, according to an IGN review, “explores the unfortunate practice of perverts taking advantage of crowded trains and subways in Japan to abuse female passengers … here fictionally played up for the cameras by AV starlets.” The two Yojiro Takita contributions include Molester Train: Search For the Black Pearl (which the NYAFF press release calls “ridiculous”), and Molester Train: Wedding Capricio. Dates for the screenings haven’t been set yet, but we’re marking our calendars to mark our calendars.
There apparently are other reasons to see Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona besides the infamous lesbian kiss between Scarlett Johansson and Penélope Cruz or the threesome between these actresses and Javier Bardem. But as the first things most of us heard about the movie, the sex scenes are certainly a big sell (the ménage à trois is even being used in a promotional contest to win a “threesome” with ScarJo). Even if they’re reportedly underwhelming.
Promise of tantalizing footage has been an appeal for moviegoers likely since the dawn of cinema, with film pioneer Eadweard Muybridge’s The Human Figure in Motion - Descending Stairs and Turning Around featuring nudity as far back as the 1880s. And if you’ve seen any of the titles included in today’s list, chances are their respective sex scenes were at least part of what made you buy a ticket (or rent the video).
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Check out this video: Roommates Ep1: Life After College
Some, um, idle observations on the first episode of Roommates, MySpace’s first scripted series produced in-house:
1. “We’re going to create a relationship with all of you, our friends on MySpace.” Wow, un-obfuscated marketing language right in the intro!
2. They peek out the window at the “cute” paperboy? Are they going to invite him in to fix their plumbing?
3. There’s no timecounter on the video player, but I’m guessing that first “accidental” bra-and-panties shot happens less than two minutes in.
4. “Living in a house with these girls is gonna be wild, and sexy.” Oh my god–it’s not even soft enough to be softcore. It’s Playboy Confessions for cybertweens!
5. Multiple fart jokes? Check.
6. If the comments garnered by the first episode are to be believed, then a substantial portion of the audience missed the memo that this is scripted.
7. When they get that memo and realize that MySpace plans to “take input from viewers from Seattle to Stuttgart who will have a say on where the show should go,” it’s hard to imagine any suggestion trumping “more catfights.” Except for maybe “less clothes.”
Watch it for yourself here.
