Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Screenplay: Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Kunitoshi Manda
Starring: Yoriko Doguchi, JĆ«zƍ Itami, Kenso Kato and Usagi Asƍ
Country: Japan
Running Time: 82 min
Year: 1985

Last year, I covered Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s The Guard from Underground, released by Third Window Films in their (at the time, brand new) Director’s Company line and earlier today, I covered his horror-thriller classic Cure. A year later, and we’re treated to more releases from this period of Japanese cinema and one of them caught my eye, Bumpkin Soup. I was intrigued for a variety of reasons. First, like the last title I covered, it was directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa and second, it was a pink film. For those unfamiliar, pink films are features released in Japan with an emphasis on nudity or sexual content. Think Basic Instinct, Tokyo Decadence, etc and you know what you’re in for. I’ve never seen a traditional pink film before, which had me all the more intrigued. 

Bumpkin Soup was
 well, interesting. It’s Kurosawa’s second feature, after Kandagawa Pervert Wars (incredible title, by the way) and like that film, it’s a pink film. There’s not a great deal of sexual content or nudity. It’s incredibly influenced by the early works of Jean-Luc Godard. Also, it’s a musical. I hope I’m illustrating how bizarre this film actually is. 

The film follows Akiko, who’s on a mission to find the love of her life at a college in Tokyo. Unfortunately, that mission is interrupted by students with sex on their mind, strange professors and other individuals who leave a bizarre, yet lasting impression on her. The film’s absolutely scattershot in many ways, feeling more like a series of absurd vignettes, mostly played for laughs which didn’t work for me most of the time, but from what I can tell, very atypical compared to more traditional pink films. 

It’s gorgeously directed and it feels like Kiyoshi is doing everything he can to make something unique and unlike anything else in the genre at the time, which he absolutely succeeds at but unfortunately, the (purposely) aimless nature of the film made it hard to really connect or find myself invested in what was happening. If you’re a fan of Kurosawa’s later efforts, it’s still worth checking out to see how he was able to make an art-house, stylish take on what’s traditionally a fairly trashy genre of film. It’s no surprise that when Nikkatsu saw what Kurosawa made, they decided to shelve it instead of release it as a Roman Porno title and eventually re-edited and re-shot the film. 

I can’t say that I really enjoyed Bumpkin Soup, but it’s definitely a curiosity that’ll work for those more familiar with pink films, I’m sure. A lot of the humour in the film was lost on me, and outside of a few outrageous and memorable sequences (in particular, the musical numbers) as well as the solid visual direction, it was a misfire for me. Still, it’s not something I’d consider bad and given how the film was interfered with in post, it’s almost difficult to blame Kiyoshi for the end product. I’m still interested in checking out more pink films in the future, as I have a feeling that the arthouse musical anti-pink film wasn’t the best place to start
 

Film:  

Bumpkin Soup releases on Blu-ray via Third Window Films on February 17th. It’s part of the Director’s Company line which the label has been releasing titles under for the past year or so. Visually, the disc looks good but the source materials definitely have a rough feel to them. There’s a lot of grain and it’s not the prettiest disc I’ve ever seen, but given that Bumpkin Soup is making its Blu-ray debut with this release, I can’t complain too much. The 2.0 DTS HD M.A mix is decent too and serves the film well. By no means a reference disc but decent A/V results. The following extras are included: 

  • Interview with actress Yoriko Doguchi
  • Feature length audio commentary by Jasper Sharp
  • Video Essay by Jerry White, author of “The Films of Kiyoshi Kurosawa : Master of Fear”
  • Slipcase with artwork from Gokaiju
  • ‘Directors Company’ edition featuring insert by Jasper Sharp – limited to 2000 copies

The feature length audio commentary by Jasper Sharp is a good listen, which should be expected for anyone knowledgeable with Sharp. The track is packed to the brim with information about Bumpkin Soup, and hilariously opens with a warning that Sharp won’t be describing what the film’s narrative means. While I felt fairly mixed on the film itself, Sharp’s commentary track offers enough information to help me appreciate it. A good listen.

The interview with Yoriko Doguchi runs for around fifteen minutes and features her describing how she came on board for the film, her early love for music over cinema and her thoughts on the film itself. It’s a solid interview that’s worth checking out, although I would have loved to see an additional interview with Kurosawa. 

Jerry White’s video essay runs for twelve minutes and focuses on Kurosawa’s pink films, including Bumpkin Soup. White has written about Kurosawa’s films at length before, so he’s clearly knowledgeable about the man and it results in a solid introduction to both Kurosawa’s early work as well as pink films as a whole. A great watch.

Unfortunately, I’m unable to comment on the slipcase or the insert as I wasn’t provided with them. 

The Third Window Films release of Bumpkin Soup is a decent one, which is easily recommended for fans of Kiyoshi Kurosawa or some of the more out there titles in the Director’s Company series. Solid extras, a decent transfer and by all accounts, a lovely looking physical release. Recommended.

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