Sex Crime

In 1972, Japan’s oldest film production company, Nikkatsu, tried to stave off bankruptcy by reinventing itself as a producer of sex movies; its patented ‘roman-porno’ (‘romantic-pornographic’) genre provided a training ground for an entire generation of new directors. Sai Yoichi’s only contribution to the genre came late in the cycle and had a rather different thrust from most of Nikkatsu’s other ‘roman-porno’ movies. Against a backdrop of financial chicanery and industrial unrest, Sex Crime shows the evolution and short-term survival of a happy ménage à trois – and does so without falling back on the genre staple of gratuitous lesbian scenes. To appreciate this fully you really need to know what other directors were churning out, but even first-timers to the genre will relish the story about a trio who try to retreat from the world of work, politics and obligations to live out their own erotic dream.