Pinky Horror
I can’t believe I nearly allowed this to pass me by. A few weeks ago cult DVD company Panik House announced that they were going to be releasing a special edition of Chained Heat. They also revealed that they had even bigger news on the horizon. This was big news in itself, since what could possibly be more exciting than Chained Heat? Well, last week they finally revealed their latest project.
Panik House is entering into a production partnership with Synapse Films to release seven more films from the Toei vaults. Five proto-Pinky Violence films and two films of a new genre: Pinky Horror!
Let’s start with the Pinky Horror titles first:
Edogawa Ranpo Zenshu: Kyofu Kikei Ningen; aka Horror Of The Malformed Men
This is the most notorious film in the history of Japanese cinema. It has been banned since it’s release in 1969, and is the film that really cemented Teruo Ishii’s reputation as a master in the art of transgressive filmmaking. All rhetoric aside, this is one of the true classics of the era.
Kaidan Hebi-onna; aka Snake Woman’s Curse This was the first of the Pinky Horror films released by Toei. It was helmed by master director Nobuo Nakagawa, who has been called the Japanese Hitchcock, and Akemi Negishi (Sex & Fury, Lady Snowblood) stars.
There’s been a bit of a Rampo resurgence recently. I admit that I had never heard about him until recently, but after reading a piece on his work in Rue Morgue I tracked down a few of his translated short stories and enjoyed them immensely. Also, I have Panik House’s release of Sex and Fury and it’s pure gold, so I have high hopes for these releases.