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
- Shungo Kaji
- Saki Shiratori
- Chocoball Mukai
- Masahiro Nakai (中居まさひろ)
- Susumu Kenzaki (剣崎進)
- Masahiro Tabuchi (田淵正浩)
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
- ↑ "ekiben". JSlang. Retrieved 2011-10-02. External link in
|publisher=(help) - ↑ "Who needs a gym when you have Chocoball's 'station bento' sexercise workout?". JapanAddicted. April 17, 2008. Retrieved 2008-10-25. External link in
|publisher=(help) - ↑ Elley, Derek (April 16, 2000). "Box lunch". Variety. Retrieved 2011-09-24. External link in
|publisher=(help) - ↑ "Ekiben". AllRovi. Retrieved 2011-09-24. External link in
|publisher=(help) - ↑ "駅弁(1999)" (in Japanese). AllCinema. Retrieved 2011-09-30. External link in
|publisher=(help) - ↑ "Film Festival". www.kaji-world.net. Retrieved 2011-09-30. External link in
|publisher=(help) - ↑ "駅弁 [DVD]" (in Japanese). www.amazon.co.jp. Retrieved 2011-09-30. External link in
|publisher=(help)
Bibliography
- "Official Website".
- Ekiben at the Internet Movie Database
- "駅弁 at the Japanese Movie Database" (in Japanese).
- "=駅弁 at AllCinema" (in Japanese).