is a 1976

1976 in film

The year 1976 in film involved some significant events.-Events:*March 22 - Filming begins on George Lucas' Star Wars science fiction film...

 Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese film in the "Violent Pink" genre of Nikkatsu

Nikkatsu

is a Japanese entertainment company well known for its film and television productions. It is Japan's oldest major movie studio. The name Nikkatsu is an abbreviation of Nippon Katsudō Shashin, literally "Japan Cinematograph Company".-History:...

's Roman porno series. It was directed by Yasuharu Hasebe

Yasuharu Hasebe

was a Japanese film director best known known for his movies in the "Violent pink" subgenre of the Pink film, such as Assault! Jack the Ripper , Rape! , Rape! 13th Hour and Raping!...

 and stars Tamaki Katsura and Yutaka Hayashi.

Synopsis

A young couple engage in a rampage of murder, rape and mayhem in order to stimulate their sexual appetites.

Cast

• Tamaki Katsura
• Yutaka Hayashi
• Yuri Yamashina
• Natsuko Yashiro
• Rei Okamoto
• Naomi Oka
• Runa Takamura
  Runa Takamura
  was a J-pop singer, actress, and dancer of Japanese and German descent.Takamura was a member of , a musical group promoted by Watanabe Productions, composed of young women of mixed Japanese and foreign ancestry who sang and go-go danced on the Fuji TV show BEAT POP...
  
  

Critical reception

Assault! Jack The Ripper! was the second of three "Violent Pink" films Yasuharu Hasebe directed in 1976, between Rape! and Rape! 13th Hour

Rape! 13th Hour

is a 1977 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's Roman porno series, directed by Yasuharu Hasebe and starring Yuri Yamashina.-Synopsis:A man sporting a red jacket seeks shelter at the gas station where he works. He is an anonymous serial rapist known as "Crimson" and is fleeing a vigilante group which has...

. Of the three, Hasebe, named Rape! as his favorite. Screenwriter Chiho Katsura, however, thought that Assault! Jack The Ripper! was the best, and this is the one that had the best critical reception. Some critics interpreted the film as an allegorical comment on the state of Japanese cinema in the mid-1970s. Hasebe recalled, "...it wasn't my intention. I don't like to play those games within cinema. If such a thing exists in the movie, then it was a conspiracy between Producer Itō and scripter Katsura."

Robert Firsching at Allmovie writes, "Hasebe strikes the perfect balance between blood and sex." He notes, however, that the director's next entry in the "Violent Pink" genre, Rape! 13th Hour

Rape! 13th Hour

is a 1977 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's Roman porno series, directed by Yasuharu Hasebe and starring Yuri Yamashina.-Synopsis:A man sporting a red jacket seeks shelter at the gas station where he works. He is an anonymous serial rapist known as "Crimson" and is fleeing a vigilante group which has...

would go too far, and almost single-handedly stop Nikkatsu from producing films of this sort.

Actress Tamaki Katsura had long hair before taking her role for this film. Hasebe told her that he wished for her character to sport an Afro

Afro

Afro, sometimes shortened to fro and also known as a "natural", is a hairstyle worn naturally by people with lengthy kinky hair texture or specifically styled in such a fashion by individuals with naturally curly or straight hair...

 perm. Realizing that this would limit her career choices for a time, Katsura nevertheless agreed to the change in hairstyle for the film. Usually playing secondary characters, it was Katsura's first starring role. For her performance in the film, she was nominated as Best Actress at the mainstream Japan Academy Prize. The Weissers, in their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, write that Katsura was the critic's favorite to win, but that the extreme nature of the film and her performance alienated many voters.

Availability

Assault! Jack the Ripper was released on DVD in Japan on March 21, 2007, as part of Geneon's seventh wave of Nikkatsu Roman porno series. Mondo Macabro released the film with English subtitles on Region 0 on October 28th, 2008. Among the extras included on the disk are an interview with Japanese cinema writer Jasper Sharp, and the Roman Porno episode of the British television program Mondo Macabro

Mondo Macabro (TV programme)

Mondo Macabro is a British television series based on the book of the same name by Pete Tombs. Written and directed by Pete Tombs and Andrew Starke, the series focuses on cult cinema from countries not usually associated with genre product...

.

English

• Hasebe, Yasuharu
  Yasuharu Hasebe
  was a Japanese film director best known known for his movies in the "Violent pink" subgenre of the Pink film, such as Assault! Jack the Ripper , Rape! , Rape! 13th Hour and Raping!...
  
  . (1998). Interviewed by Thomas and Yuko Mihara Weisser in Tokyo, 1999, in Asian Cult Cinema, #25, 4th Quarter, 1999, p.32-42.