Ekiben (film)

Ekiben
Directed by Shungo Kaji
Produced by Shinsuke Kaji
Written by Shungo Kaji
Starring Shungo Kaji
Saki Shiratori
Cinematography Koichi Ishii
Edited by Naoki Kaneko
Distributed by Hot Entertainment
Release dates
 October 9, 1999 (Japan)
Running time
 108 minutes
Country Japan
Language Japanese

Ekiben (Japanese: 駅弁) is a 1999 Japanese mock documentary film centering on the adult video (AV) industry which was written and directed by Shungo Kaji. Ekiben refers to a box lunch sold at train stations in Japan and it is also a slang term referring to a sexual position where the man remains standing while supporting the woman who faces him with her legs wrapped around his waist.[1] This position is the "specialty" of the adult video actor Chocoball Mukai who appears in the film.[2]

Plot

The first half of the film has real-life AV director and company executive Shungo Kaji reminiscing about his days as a film student at the Nikkatsu studio, surreptitiously watching the filming of the studio's Roman Porno series and then discoursing on the mechanics and problems of making and producing adult videos. The second half is a fictional depiction of the discovery and grooming by Kaji of a young AV starlet Saki (played by pink film actress Saki Shiratori).

Cast

Critical appraisal

The critic for Variety says the film could, with judicious editing and marketing, have a "brief specialized career." He calls it inventive and funny, well acted and observed and he finds Kaji's aspiration to be taken seriously as a director touching with "a curiously melancholic style of humor."[3] The AllRovi entry describes it as a "funny and oddly poignant film."[4]

Release

Ekiben was released theatrically in Japan as an R-15 film on October 9, 1999, by Hot Entertainment.[5] The film was screened in February 2000 at the Berlin International Film Market (part of the Berlin International Film Festival) and in March 2000 at the NatFilm Festival in Denmark.[6] It was released in DVD format in Japan on January 15, 2002.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ "ekiben". JSlang. Retrieved 2011-10-02.
  2. ↑ "Who needs a gym when you have Chocoball's 'station bento' sexercise workout?". JapanAddicted. April 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-25.
  3. ↑ Elley, Derek (April 16, 2000). "Box lunch". Variety. Retrieved 2011-09-24.
  4. ↑ "Ekiben". AllRovi. Retrieved 2011-09-24.
  5. ↑ "駅弁(1999)" (in Japanese). AllCinema. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
  6. ↑ "Film Festival". www.kaji-world.net. Retrieved 2011-09-30.
  7. ↑ "駅弁 [DVD]" (in Japanese). www.amazon.co.jp. Retrieved 2011-09-30.

Bibliography

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