The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai

Although the Japanese softcore sexploitation Pink films (aka: pinku eiga) first appeared in the 1960's and were mainly popular in the 1970's and 1980's, they are still being produced and even finding themselves with some theatrical exhibition outlets here in North America. The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai (Hatsujô kateikyôshi: sensei no aijiru, 2003), directed by Mitsuru Meike, is one such example. Having played in a handful of festivals in 2006 it then got a limited release in April, 2007 before Palm Pictures released it to dvd. Interestingly, it has already had its TV premiere in France on January 19, 2007. Given the raunchy nature of the material I imagine it wasn't meant for prime time, but I'll never forget how, many years ago, when traveling through Spain I was shocked to see The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974) playing out on a "normal" television feed during the lunch-hour. So you never know. Ah, Europe! Those with delicate sensibilities will do well to avoid sexploitation films in general, and The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai is certainly no exception. The Philadelphia Film Festival plugs the film as being like "a skinflick directed by Godard and the South Park boys!"... but aside for mixing some Chomsky quotes with bodily fluids this is definitely not Two Or Three Things I Know About Team America. I will not, however, deny that that there are some scenes that stick out with a particular brand of vivid and delirious insanity (and inanity) to add to the expected titillations. The premise finds Kuroda, a call girl, stumbling into the deadly meeting between a South and North Korean agent, getting shot and then walking around with a hole in her head that somehow gives her new abilities that include fits of ecstasy along with intellectual seizures and telepathic powers that are later connected with the cloned (and flying, and intrusive, and singular - but very powerful) finger of George W. Bush. Kuroda also shacks up with the family of a philosophy professor, but all the political and intellectual posturing never coheres into much more than interesting background noise to the main attraction, which can be summed up by the scene where the audiences' pov is smothered by Kuroda's breasts as they are flattened against the cinematographer's lens. (In cruder circles, this is known as being "mamwiched.") Extras on the dvd include a brief description of Pink films by Jasper Sharp of Midnight Eye, the original cut of the film (titled: Horny Home Tutor: Teacher's Love Juice) which adheres to the Nippon pink market by being shorter in length and trimming the surreal bits in favor of more sexual content, a short film called The Adventure of Sachiko Hanai, and both Japanese and US trailers. The Japanese trailer is actually quite amusing and features the director talking on the phone in an effort to woo a politician to see his film. The US trailer is totally different and has a flashy vibe with plenty of interesting pull quotes. "Imagine a porn producer who hires David Cronenberg to remake Michael Moore's Fahrenhiet 9/11, and you get the idea." –Tirdad Derakhshani, Philadelphia Inquirer. "Genius" as attributed to Variety.com, which sounds better than the full Variety quote which reads: "If outrageous concepts were all, this latest fillip in the oft-eccentric history of Japanese "pink" (softcore exploitation) cinema would be genius." The US trailer also kicks off with some images that were put on the film after the end-credits, including their version of a ratings certification ("This Motion Picture Has Been Rated SFU: Seriousty F----d Up. Strong hot teacher content, intense depiction of presidential finger-ganging, abusive use of Noam Chomsky, and some adult fluids.") No argument there. For more information about The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai, visit Palm Pictures. To order The Glamorous Life of Sachiko Hanai, go to TCM Shopping. by Pablo Kjolseth