
Pinku Eiga: Softcore Japanese Films
What is Pinku Eiga (Pink films)?
The history of Japanese erotic movies that are commonly known today as Pinku Eiga or Pink films started around 80 years ago, in the 1940s, during WWII. Their first edition was in printed pulp magazines made on gray-pink paper.
The term “Pinky” is a Japanese stylization of the English American street slang word that means the “vagina” or “pussy” (in the most essential meaning, “pink” is not just a female organ per se but the one that’s undesirably or threat-based penetrated by man’s penis and that is what many Japanese Grindhouse or Pinku Eiga films with English subtitles revolve around and explore). Before those films gained their modern name, they had many previous ones: kasutori, momoiro, eroduction (a combination of erotic and production), sexploitation, and others.
History of Japanese sex films (Grindhouse Films)
The theme of penetration — undesirable, threatening, oppressive, and rough — is, by the way, the core excitatory moment of such films, no matter what lengths they are, 1 hour (regular), or longer/shorter. But treating the Japanese sex films with English subtitles just as rough porn would be so wrong — they absolutely differ from the explicit adult films of the West in several essential characteristics.
First of all, Japan has always had rigid restrictions on Japanese Pinku Eiga movies and other pictured explicit content, where “working parts” and even pubic hair weren’t and still aren’t allowed to be shown directly. That’s why Japanese Grindhouse movies had to use various filming and editing approaches to avoid such a display directly yet try to remain interesting to audiences and correspond to their desires and wishes. During the 1940s-1970s, the genre of Pink films was shaped, being capable to blossom in the imposed limitations.
To make such films interesting and correspond to regulations (so their creators avoid jail or large fines), various techniques of not directly showing the female and male “working organs” appeared:
- usage of items between the camera and pussy or penis that show the process of intimacy and copulation but not show the most intimate details and the “conjunction” moments in their forthrightness
- shaving actors and actresses so not even one pubic hair was displayed; even some occasional occurrence of these in the frame of Pinku Eiga would need editing or re-filming the scene
- blurring and scrambling using fogging technologies in post-production, including fuzzy spots, white/black-colored rectangles, and mosaic
Second, exactly because of the ever-changing restrictions, filmmakers tend to find creative solutions to ideas of Pinku Eiga films with English subtitles. That made it possible not only to have beautiful shots, storylines, costumes, used sex toys & apparel that are distinct only to this genre of the industry but also spawned branches: Toei Pinky Violence (centered around violence, action, and torture in eroticism) and Nikkatsu Roman (high-profile higher-budget erotic-porn movies started in 1971 that exploit ancient Rome and Latin scenes and structures interweaved with Japanese culture and premises). The beauty of Japanese Grindhouse films also lies in the authenticity because the best pieces are being shot even today as they were fifty years ago: on 16 or 35 mm film.
TOP 10
Best Pinku Eiga Movies
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Belladonna of Sadness (1973)
哀しみのベラドンナis a 1973 Japanese adult animated art film produced by the animation studio Mushi Production and distributed by Nippon Herald Films. It is the third and final entry in Mushi Production's adult-oriented Animerama trilogy, following A Thousand and One Nights (1969) and Cleopatra (1970). A...
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In the Realm of the Senses (1976)
愛のコリーダis a 1976 French-Japanese art film written and directed by Nagisa Oshima. Based on a true story set in pre-war Japan, a man and one of his servants begin a torrid affair. Their desire becomes a sexual obsession so strong that to intensify their ardor,...
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The Hell-Fated Courtesan (1973)
㊙女郎責め地獄is a 1973 Japanese drama film directed by Noboru Tanaka. Prostitute Torture Hell is a 1973 Roman Porno film directed by Noboru Tanaka and starring Rie Nakagawa.
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Assault! Jack the Ripper (1976)
暴行切り裂きジャックis a 1976 Japanese film in the Nikkatsu's Roman porno series ("Violent Pink" genre). It was directed by Yasuharu Hasebe. Two restaurant employees begin a sexual killing spree after they accidentally kill a hitch hiker and find that murder and mutilation is their mutual aphrodisiac.
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Angel Guts: Nami (1979)
天使のはらわた 名美is a 1979 Japanese film based on a manga by Takashi Ishii and directed by Noboru Tanaka. It is the third film in the Angel Guts series. Whilst researching an article about rape for a magazine article, Nami starts having fantasies of rape as she...
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Angel Guts: Red Classroom (1979)
天使のはらわた 赤い教室is a 1979 Japanese film directed by Chūsei Sone and released by the Nikkatsu studio as part of their Roman porno line. It is the second in the Angel Guts film series, based on a manga by Takashi Ishii. When Muraki, a porn producer, watches...
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A Woman Called Sada Abe (1975)
実録阿部定is a 1975 Japanese drama film directed by Noboru Tanaka. The young and beautiful Sada Abe, the daughter of a rich merchant, is banished for losing her virginity after being raped by a college student. Sada wanders the city, becoming a geisha and eventually meeting...
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Wife to Be Sacrificed (1974)
生贄夫人is a Japanese soft-core pornographic S/M film starring Naomi Tani and directed by Masaru Konuma. The film was produced by Nikkatsu studios as part of their Roman Porno series. A wife charges her husband with sexual battery. He escapes from the police and goes into...
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Shogun’s Joy of Torture (1968)
徳川女刑罰史is a 1968 Japanese ero guro film directed by Teruo Ishii and distributed by Toei. The film, which can be classified as belonging to a subgenre of pink films, is considered a precursor to Toei's ventures into the "pinky violent" style of filmmaking seen in...
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Manji (1983)
まんじis a 1983 Japanese drama film directed by Hiroto Yokoyama. Kleptomaniac Sonoko and young, beautiful Mitsuko begin an unusual love affair which develops fast into a kinky sexual love triangle when Sonoko’s husband gets involved.
What's happening with Pinku Eiga movies now
Today, Japanese erotic movies with English subtitles have a large devoted audience not only in Japan but also around the world and, primarily, in Western society. The rise of popularity of Pinku Eiga in the West was especially vivid at the beginning of the 2000s (with the advent of the Internet).
In Japan and some other Asian countries, these Japanese films are shown in offline adult cinemas and venues, whilst they are distributed around the globe as DVDs, online files, and stream videos.
On our website, we offer characteristic & best Japanese adult films with English subtitles, which include a large variety of films with and without subtitles, shot by famous and new directors. Our viewers will find on our website everything they are looking for in the classic Pinku style of Pinku Eiga movies:
- many sex scenes in each piece that can be viewed by one, two, or company (depending on your preferences)
- various durations, striving for an average of one hour
- no boring interconnecting scenes that last too long and are eventually skipped: everything’s focused on eroticism and softcore, which has always been and stays the essence of these Japanese sex films with English subtitles
Although the adult films of the West have particularly lowered the interest in such films, Japanese adult movies are still being produced because of their unique style, vision, cultural peculiarities, and exactly the lack of explicitness, which softens the narration and caters to broader audiences. Such movies are packed with highly inducing scenes, which makes them a perfect fire-ignition sparkle for couples that are seeking something spicy at night.
We have hundreds of offers and the list gradually expands. We add items from all waves of pink films, which means that you can already now find in the catalog movies from the 1960s and younger, up to the 2020s.
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