Kandagawa Wars
  
      
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Year: 1983
Rating: 4.0
Aka - Kandagawa Pervert Wars

In his early directing years Kiyoshi Kurosawa began as did many Japanese directors in the 1980s and 90s with low budget, often straight to video films. And in some cases directors who became famous later on had a few Pinkish films under their belt. Not many of the early films of Kurosawa are available, but this one surfaced and as I have been meaning to see some of his later horror films, I thought it might be interesting to see this early outing. It was and it wasn't. I came across a few gushing reviews about how certain aspects of his successful films were within - and his love for film itself is evident - but even if that is true this is very boring unless you can be entertained for 60 minutes with naked couples rolling about in various positions. Maybe back in 1983 before the Internet this nudity was titillating enough, but now it just seems tedious. To his credit Kurosawa has fun with this and adds doses of absurdity to it, but still most of it is just humping.



Akiko announces that after doing it ten times with her boyfriend in one day that she is bored. So she takes to watching a couple that have just moved in to a building across the way and who have the habit of leaving their window shades up. Think Rear Window. But instead of a man murdering his wife, there are a mother and her teenage son having a go at sex. Beginning with your basic breast kissing but moving on from there. The boy appears to be nearly unresponsive to much around him but not to his mother's entreaties. On the wall behind him for no reason that has anything much to do with the film are large pieces of paper taped to the wall with the titles of dozens of French and American films. I would guess those were favorite films of Kurosawa at the time - a few from Godard and there are certain still moments with the camera centered on a character that are a bit Godard-like.



Akiko goes to visit a female friend down the hall and after of course first having sex, they decide that incest is bad and that this boy needs rescuing. They take it upon themselves to do this - failing miserably at first but finally breaking into his apartment - subduing the mother - and then . . . of course having sex with the teenager. It took Kurosawa nearly fourteen years before he was able to break out of these low budget films - a few other Pink ones, some made for TV and a few that were horror films - but it was Cure in 1997 that really got him started on a series of smart psychological horror films.