Flower and Snake Timeline and Seijin Eiga

There was a magazine published in Japan a long time ago called Seijin Eiga (Adult Movies). A colleague has a few issues but says they are quite hard to come by. The magazine came out monthly from 1965 to 1973 and was edited by one Kawashima Nobuko.

Most of the information here concerning this magazine has been gleaned from Eigapedia and SMpedia (Japanese). Here is a quote from Eigapedia:

"During its existence Seijin Eiga was the major publication covering the genre, and it is now a significant source of information on early Pink films, most of which have been lost."

Here is another cover for the magazine which I found on SMpedia. It is issue number 15 and appeared in 1967. The cover girl is Yabuki Yukari. Just look at this sweet thing! She looks great even in black and white. Forty-five years ago! Oh my.

Apparently, Ms. Yabuki was both an actress and on the staff of Yamabe Pro, an independent pink film production company in the 1960s.

You can find a detailed filmography for Ms. Yabuki on SMpedia in Japanese. Two titles that stand out are Rope and Breasts and Whip and Flesh, both from 1967. Both of these films credit Dan Oniroku for the screenplay.

There is a reference to Flower and Snake in the Whip and Flesh film but I'm not sure if I should include this one on the list of early Flower and Snake independently-produced SM pink films. (Update: I have included it in the list).

One thing is for sure, Ms. Yabuki either appeared in or worked as a staff member on several pink films produced by Yamabe Pro, Okura Eiga, Kanto Eiga, etc. right in the thick of the earliest Flower and Snake productions.

The earliest film I can find for her was End of the Bizarre which came out in February 1966. I have very few details concerning this film, but guess what? The screenplay was written by none other than Dan Oniroku.

I have compiled a list of films that have Flower and Snake in the title. I'm putting them here as graphics because this new blogging platform I'm using does stupid things to the text when I attempt to copy and paste, especially kanji characters.

PART I -- THE 1960s

PART II -- 1970s to 1980s

(Note: I have a big monitor but these graphics files still don't come out full-size when I click on them. If you right click and save the files to your computer, you will get the large versions.)

Perhaps not a Flower and Snake film but here's a movie put out by Shin-Toho just a few years ago which might be translated either as M's Curse or Spell of M. It does have a big snake right there on the cover, though. This would seem to be a deal Dan did with Shin-Toho completely unrelated to the most recent films put out by Toei starring Sugimoto Aya and Komukai Minako.

This playied in a theaters in Japan when it first came out. I saw the poster for it in Asakusa at the time but did not go in to watch. A screening on DVD is obviously in order.

There is a very interesting connection with this film when it comes to the lengthy series of Flower and Snake movies. One of the actresses, Ran Kouju, also appeared in the 1968 Flower and Snake, Rearing the Flesh. Her name appears right after Tani's. Astonishing.

I'm not including here the 21st century versions by Toei. Most people are pretty familiar with these. The ones I've listed here are those that are easiest to lose track of and so I thought having them all in order and in one place would be a good idea.

You will notice in Part I that there is quite a rare photograph from one of the earliest Flower and Snake films. This was originally published in Seijin Eiga magazine.

And so we come full circle.