This is one side of a chirashi, or two-sided mini-poster, for Gerard Damiano’s 1977 porno flick Water Power, with Sharon Mitchell and Jamie Gillis. Like most chirashi, it features art produced especially for the Japanese market, which makes it highly collectible (assuming you actually dare to collect porn posters). The image doesn’t really read as erotic to us, but then neither does the movie—enemas, yuck. But hey, if you’re into that sort of thing, we don’t judge. Whatever floats your butt. We’ve taken a photo of the reverse side of the poster, below, and we also had a more conventional Japanese Water Power poster, and we threw that in just for the fun of it. The film had its Japanese premiere in Tokyo today in 1980. Side note: we snagged a pile of these chirashi with no idea what movies they were for, and once we found out they were for pornos decided not to post them. But now we’ve changed our minds because the images are interesting, after all. So look for more of these down the line. 

Above, two Japanese posters for Sonny Chiba’s crime thriller Yakuza deka, aka The Assassin, aka Gangster Cop, 1970. 

Above is the front cover of a Japanese sonosheet, which is basically a thin, flexible record, housed in a booklet of colorful art, and usually dealing with popular shows of the 1960s and 1970s. This one is for Batman, obviously, and like most sonosheets it features theme music. At least, we assume so. We're digital people, so we aren't sure what's on this, exactly, since our last turntable went to the Goodwill in 1998 along with some Teva sandals and a stinky old money belt. We don't miss latter two items, but we wouldn't mind having the turntable back. Anyway, the art on this is kind of interesting, so we thought we'd post it even if we can't listen to it. It was painted by I. Hiroyazu, whose name is new to us.

And speaking of vintage technology, our internet junta has just told us they never recieved our fax for a new line (can you believe they still do shit by fax here?). We've called every other day for two weeks to make sure they got it, and been told they wouldn't know for fifteen working days because it's not their department. Time was up yesterday, and quelle fucking surprise, they say they never got the fax, even though we have a fax reciept. So they lost or tossed the fax, reciepts are basically just scrap paper, and we're back to square one—we have to send a fax and wait fifteen working days.

Not to go on a rant, but streamlined telecommunications is a big help in stabilizing a struggling country's GDP. After all, even if people who actually live here have no choice about these matters, people who do business internationally cartainly have the option not to choose certain countries. We're not going to say outright where we are, or what company we're dealing with, because, well, you know how those things go. But for those who know where we're located, we'll just say that, yes, there is so much about this country that is wonderful and which we'd never give up (the people, the wine, the festivals, the food), but when it comes to efficiency and service in telecommunications—no contest. The Yanks beat this place like a maid beats a dusty rug. Sonosheet scans below.

More random Japanese goodness today. This is a poster for the 1962 Angie Dickinson romance Jessica. We’re showing you this just for the art, which is to say we haven’t seen the movie. Sorry about that, but we have a lot of Japanese posters, which means if we wait until we see each flick before uploading them we’ll never get them all online. This is an image we were particularly eager to share because, one, we’ve never seen it anywhere before, and two, it’s spectacular. It just smashes the American poster to pieces. But that’s normal when it comes to these Japanese promos. Both versions feature Angie on a scooter, but the colors and graphics on the photoillustrated Japanese version just scintillate. Of course, they have an advantage because their alphabet looks so cool. The text actually does read “Jessica” by the way. The four characters on the right are the Japanese for that name. The four on the left say “nice.” We couldn’t agree more. 

This colorful poster for Masaru Konuma’s sexual drama Nureta tsubo, aka Wet Vase, aka Wet Tattooed Vagina, depicts star Naomi Tani in a tableau taken directly from the movie. In the scene, Tani becomes sexually aroused by watching a man perform oral sex on a mannequin. Tani is ashamed and embarrassed at first, but the guy just keeps at it until she basically collapses in an overstimulated heap. It’s really a beautifully shot scene that by itself is worth the price of renting the flick, in our opinion. Nureta tsubo is part of Nikkatsu’s roman porno stable, but it’s an atypical example—at least, it seems so to us. There are fewer of the extravagances one might expect from a film starring Japan’s Queen of S&M. But that doesn’t mean it’s conservative—on the contrary, it’s plenty kinky. We mentioned that mannequin licking thing, right? See for yourself. We’ve posted some screen grabs from that amazing scene below. Nureta tsubo opened in Japan this month in 1976. 

Above, a 1964 Japanese promo image for Viva Las Vegas featuring Ann-Margret. We mentioned a while back that hers was the second movie with that title. See a cool promo for the first one here. 

Above, two mugshots from today 1946 of Iva Toguri D’Aquino, who was one of many women who broadcast English-language radio from Tokyo during World War II. These broadcasts were aimed at Allied personnel in the Pacific, and the soldiers referred to all the women collectively as Tokyo Rose, despite whatever they actually called themselves on air. D’Aquino called herself Orphan Ann, and her radio stints were limited to twenty-minute segments on Radio Tokyo. It wasn’t much time, but her low, raspy voice made an impression on listeners. What did she say? History.net answers that question by providing an example of a typical D’Aquino intro:

Hello there, Enemies! How's tricks? This is Ann of Radio Tokyo, and we're just going to begin our regular program of music, news and the Zero Hour for our friends—I mean, our enemies!—in Australia and the South Pacific. So be on your guard, and mind the children don't hear! All set? OK. Here's the first blow at your morale—the Boston Pops playing ‘Strike Up the Band!’

When the war ended D’Aquino, who was an American citizen, was taken into custody and shipped back to the U.S., where she was tried and convicted of treason. There was no actual proof that she had done anything traitorous—in fact her humor-tinged broadcasts had often undermined her Japanese employers’ intentions—but she neverthelesslanguished in prison for six years. D’Aquino’s legal troubles only ended in 1977, when U.S. president Gerald R. Ford pardoned her after evidence emerged that witnesses had lied at her trial. Cleared of wrongdoing, and the constant threat of deportation lifted, D’Aquino lived the rest of her days quietly and died in 2006 at age 90.

This cool image features American actress Pamela Tiffin, who appeared in films such as Harper with Paul Newman, Kill Me My Love with Farley Granger, and the Italian production I protagonisti with Pulp Intl. fave Sylva Koscina. This photo session, from 1968, also produced the image below, which you see on the cover of the Japanese cinema magazine Movie Information/Movie Pictorial. See another Tiffin shot at the bottom of this post. 

We couldn’t resist posting this. It’s part of a calendar originally published by the Japanese men’s magazine Heibon Punch. We’ve seen the image in several places, but we suspect it originated at the website bullesdejapon. Riding without any protective gear whatsoever is Ayako Uzimetai, aka Megi Ayako, et.al., who appeared in the Nikkatsu flicks Red Assault, and Tokyo Eros: Thousand and One Nights. This shot is from 1980. 

Above are nine vintage Japanese pinku posters from our large collection, for films featuring that scourge of evil men everywhere—Reiko Ike. These are circa 1971 to 1974, and they are, top to bottom, 1: Sukeban burûsu: Mesubachi no gyakushû, aka Girl Boss Blues: Queen Bee’s Counterattack; 2 & 3: Sukeban: Taiman shobu, aka, Girl Boss: Mano a Mano; 4: Black Leopard M (we don’t know the Japanese title for that one); 5 & 6: Kyôfu joshikôkô: bôkô rinchi kyôshitsu, aka Terrifying Girls’ High School: Lynch Law Classroom; 7: a rare and valuable round poster for Sukeban, aka Girl Boss Revenge; 8: Sukeban gerira, aka Girl Boss Guerilla; 9: Furyo bancho: Norainu kidotai, aka Wolves of the City: Alley Dog Commando.

A quick word about the last one: that is Reiko Ike on the poster, with a machine gun at lower right. We’ve seen this debated on a couple of websites, but there’s no debate—it’s her, beauty mark next to her mouth and all. Besides, her name is on the poster, left column, fifth line. We’ll have more Reiko Ike posters down the line (no, we haven’t run out yet), and we’ll upload promos from other pinku stars as well. To see our entire Reiko Ike collection, click here. Also, we still have some very provocative posters of pinku stars Miki Sugimoto, Naomi Tani, Meg Flower and others that have never appeared online before, as far as we know. We promise we will get those up soon-ish.