Thursday, June 27, 2013

This Just In: Scene from the First Flower and Snake Film

Scene from the first ever Flower and Snake film
I have just received the above photo, a still from the first Flower and Snake film ever made. The photo is from the 10th issue of Seijin Eiga magazine, dated October 1965. The film came out in Japan, according to Japan Movie Database, in September of the same year.

The lady in the photo, and the star of the film, is Murasaki Chizuru. A check with JMDb (J) reveals only four movies to her credit. According to this source, she made her first film in 1954 and Flower and Snake was her last one. Whether or not this is a complete filmography, I don't know.

I can't tell if Yamabe Nobuo was the producer. The distributor is shown as Tokyo Planning (Tokyo Kikaku). Dan Oniroku, the author of Flower and Snake which first began running in installments in Kitan Club magazine in 1962, is listed as the bondage master.

The director was Kobayashi Satoru, famous for directing Japan's first pink film, and the assistant director was none other than Wakamatsu Koji. Also, Tako Hachiro, former Japan national boxing champion, comedian and Oni Pro member, appeared in the film. I wrote a bit about Tako Hachiro in my interview with Sugiura Norio on my old blog. It's still out there somewhere.

Kitan Club covered first Flower and Snake film in August 1965
While Seijin Eiga magazine is a wonderful resource (and fans keep bidding up the price of old issues -- I recently saw one going for over 500 bucks US), Kitan Club magazine, which was dedicated exclusively to SM topics, really has the goods when it comes to the first Flower and Snake film, as you can see here. There are four or five pages of coverage with additional photos.

Still no sign of a theatrical poster for the first of this amazing run of films.

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Tuesday, June 18, 2013

The Second Flower and Snake Poster

The second Flower and Snake film, Yamabe Pro, 1966
In June 1966, Yamabe Nobuo (Yamabe Pro) produced this film written by Dan Oniroku called 花と蛇より - 骨まで縛れ, or Hana to Hebi Yori - Hone Made Shibare, or From Flower and Snake - Bind Me to the Bone.

There are other slightly different translations but they sound weird to me. For one thing, the word shibare appears in the title. Some might think this is a misspelling and the word should be shibari. But the hiragana doesn't lie. Shibare is correct. It is the imperative form of the verb shibaru (to tie).