With a title like this, you can't expect a light-hearted book. Published in 1998, "Eros in Hell" explores the underground world of Japanese cinema, from the beginning of the 60's to the end of the 90's. Starting from the beginning with the rise of the Pink industry and the more S/M hardcore sex-rape films, followed by the popularity of extreme violence and finishing up with the garbage-punk-trash cinema, "Eros in Hell" covers probably almost everything you have ever wanted to know about these Japanese sub-culture categories.

Before reading the book, I already had some knowledge about these lesser known categories, but I had never been a big fans of Pink, hardcore or extreme violent films that this book fully explores. But I always have been fascinated by these genres. In many ways, I have a hard time understanding why someone would enjoy these types of films and would consider them an art form or classic when they are clearly exploitative. But don't get me wrong, because I am also totally aware that these genres are a big part of Japanese cinema and without some of these movie, some of my favorite classic Japanese films would have never existed. But even with that in mind, I decided to give the book a try, just to see if I could be surprised to find something interesting in this book.

The first few chapters explain how and why the Pink industry had so much popularity in Japan during the 70's and also how the directors could finally do and show whatever they want in their movies. You will also understand the implication of the government with the censorship in the movie industry and that the Pink film genre became so popular that they accounted for half of all film production during the end of the 60's. But even if there is a lot of historical info in the book, there's also a lot of info on the major movies of that time on how they have influenced other movies that followed; most of the time more controversial than the other one. The book also contains a lot of explicit pictures from the movies, all uncensored. Because of that, it might turn off some people; well, it is not the type of book that I would read in public places. But I found the historical aspect of this section very interesting and informative. Ok, I didn't care too much about the info or description of the more popular movies of that genre since I am not a big fan of it, but if you are, you will probably enjoy the information and find it enriching.

The following chapters are dedicated to the sex-violent type films such as "Violated Angels," the "Rapeman" series or "Ai no Corrida." Again, it explains everything from the start with a lot of interesting historical info and complete description of the most important movies and directors of this genre, accompanied by pictures. I found some of the description sometime a little too deep. If you never saw the movie, you won't have to because it tells everything you'll ever need to know, from the beginning to the end. It can be a good thing if you already saw the movie or don't want to see it later, but if you never saw it and are interested to catch that movie, you will know every spoiler or punch that the movie could offer you. The later chapter falls more in the extreme violent snuff type films, again with some useful info and a lot of explicit pictures. If you expect to read that book, I hope you have a strong stomach because some of these pictures are pretty nasty. To conclude, the final chapter examines the new wave experimental trash cinema, a genre which includes a lot of bizzare, strange and weird non commercial films. The concluding chapter approaches the work of famous director such as Sogo Ishii and Shinya Tsakamoto in their beginning in the movie industry. This chapter was the one that I found the most interesting and I think that the book should have gone deeper in that category.

The strongest point of this book is his historical aspect, with just enough details on the history of underground Japanese cinema and their director; you don't have to know Japanese culture a lot to follow the book. What I also liked was the index at the end of each chapter which explains some information relating to historical events or had specific detail on a particular subject. Some of the information was particularly surprising and funny. Did you know that in Japan, the "Faces of Death" video series grossed more money than "Star Wars," or that escorts embellished part of their body with bandages after the success of the movie ",Evangalion" (because of the heroine also had bandages). Another interesting aspect was the interview with directors like Takao Nakano or Shojin Fukui, they tell their point of view of the Japanese society, the movie industry and their personal realization.

This is a great book if you want to learn more about these very specific types of Japanese movies, just don't expect to get a lot of information on Kurosawa, Beat Takashi or Seijun Suzuki (except at the beginning), because even if the book make some reference to these directors and their movies, the book is really more about the underground hardcore genres than the more popular movies. In all, the whole book is more about the Sex and Violent films than the strange, psychedelic new wave cinema (which I found more interesting). So if these sex genres films are not your cup of tea, then you should look elsewhere. But if you are new to Japanese cinema and want to explore this lesser known type of films, "Eros in Hell" is definitely a good way start.

Rating: 3/5

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