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ABSTRACT
The subject of this article, Tani Naomi, is one of the most famous stars of Roman Porno, appearing in 30 films in its heyday in the 1970s. Nicknamed the ‘Queen of SM’, she is still remembered for her performances in SM-mono, that is, SM-themed films. Academically, however, she has never received the attention she deserves. This article is arguably the first attempt to shed light on Tani as a unique star of Roman Porno. It first focuses on her early career development as she had been a prominent figure in pink films since the late 1960s with a strong connection to Japan’s underground SM circle. It then discusses her first two SM-mono in Roman Porno, namely, Flower and Snake and Wife to Be Sacrificed (both 1974), arguing that the screen persona she created through these two films constitute a substantial part of her star image. Close reading of both films and analysis of pink film/Roman Porno paratexts will give an account of how her star image as the ‘Queen of SM’ was constructed.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributor
Mio Hatokai is a Ph.D. candidate at the Graduate School of Arts, Letters and Sciences, at Waseda University and a Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (April 2017-March 2019). She completed a M.A. in film studies at Columbia University School of the Arts in 2014. In her dissertation, she will focus specifically on Roman Porno films of the 1970s.
Notes
1. All Japanese names are written in Japanese form, that is, family name first. For Japanese words, I use the Hepburn romanization system. For some proper nouns, I opt for familiar international spellings (e.g. kinbaku instead of kimbaku).
2. Roman Porno is a brand of theatrically-released soft-core pornographic films produced by one of Japan’s major studios, Nikkatsu, launched in 1971 and ceased production in 1988. For details, see Zahlten Citation2017, 63-95.
3. At the time, Dan was using another pseudonym Hanamaki Kyōtarō.
4. The term pinku eiga did not exist at the time of Market of Flesh’s release. It is said that Murai Minoru, a writer of the Naigai Times (Naigai taimusu) coined the term in 1963. There are, however, older examples of the word pinku associated with adult films (Domenig Citation2014, 27-28). For the history of pink films in general, see Zahlten Citation2017, 25-95.
5. All translations from Japanese texts are mine.
6. Tani also had a minor role in Tokugawa Genealogy of Women (Tokugawa onna keizu), an adult film produced by another major studio, Tōei in 1968. She remembers the experience as ‘miserable’, feeling ill-treated as an actress with no lines to speak and nothing but fundoshi (loincloth) to wear during her scenes (Kamiya Citation1999c, 22).
7. In a non-SM-mono comedy In the Realm of Sex (Sei to ai no korīda, 1977), Tani makes a cameo appearance as a whip-cracking dominatrix in a black leather catsuit, parodying her usual screen persona as a masochistic woman.
8. The films with Tani’s female yakuza heroines are: Oryu's Passion Bondage Skin, Rope Hell (Nawa jigoku, 1978) and Rope and Skin (Nawa to hada, 1979).
9. I owe very much to Ueno Chizuko’s argument about child sexual abuse and kinbaku-themed artwork in Japan (Citation[2010] 2018, 84-105, 131). However, I doubt that every so-called SM heterosexual relationship with a torturing man is defined by his misogynistic desire. I agree with Gilles Deleuze that masochism has nothing to do with sadism and that a masochist’s relationship is based on the contract, one in which a victim and his torturer make a deal that the former persuades and educates the latter to realize the masochistic scheme (Citation[1967] 1999, 20). Despite the gender reversal, the climactic threesome scene of Flower and Snake resembles the masochistic relationship Deleuze illustrates, as it looks like Shizuko is educating (or perhaps re-educating, considering the film’s narrative progress up to this point) Makoto and Tōyama to fit them into her masochistic scheme. I also pointed out elsewhere that Sada and Kichi’s relationship in the Roman Porno film A Woman Called Sada Abe (Jitsuroku Abe Sada, 1975) can be understood as that of a torturer and a masochist, but with Sada the torturer playing out the masochistic fantasy as an enterprising subject. See Hatokai Citation2016, 38-39.