GATE OF FLESH (1964)

 Based on an old Japanese novel that comments on the state of the country after World War II(spoiler alert: it's not so nice) this is a great early example of a sleazy softcore sex film. It's also got lots of symbolism in addition to the naked bondage and torture scenes so you can show it to your pretentious artsy-fartsy friends and not feel all dirty about it. A gang of anti-American hookers take a vow never to fall in love or fuck for free. When any of them do they get hung up and whipped, have their haircut off and get generally abused in a highly stylized exploitative manner. There's also a hose shower scene and lots of parts showing how terrible and ugly Americans can be.
 This was the first part of a whole retrospective on director Seijun Suzuki down at my local snob-theater and I was really glad I got to catch this on 35mm the way God intended. Will probably be checking out the rest of the series if the smell of organic artisan lattes and gluten-free anaerobic popcorn doesn't drive me away.
 There was an early film version of this story made in the 40's but I imagine it's not quite as sleazy or rough. There's also 2 remakes, one in the 70's  and the other in the 80's, that are most likely even raunchier but possibly made with less flair. I'll have to investigate these.

DOLEMITE (1975)

           

       
                             "you know I don't wear no fuckin' cotton drawers!"

 DOLEMITE might be the greatest blaxploitation movie ever made. I say this because when people think of the genre of blaxploitation films they imagine this movie. Even people who have never seen this, or even heard of Dolemite, still think of this movie! That's some pretty powerful shit right there! Movies like BLACK DYNAMITE owe everything to this film, in fact everyone who spoofs black 70's movies(MADTV etc.) owes this film, hell even Ol Dirty Bastard inserted himself into clips from this to make his very own music video. Almost every other goddamn line of dialogue in this film is quotable. Maybe the only negative thing I can bring up is that, like many of the black films from this time, they spend a little too long in the nightclub setting. Also Mr. Rudy Ray Moore's stand-up act is not exactly the most hilarious set you could hope to see and it drags for a little bit. Besides this though everything works for an all-time classic example of an exploitation film. The acting is mostly terrible, but not on purpose like those new prefab-"cult" movies, and is a big part of the charm. D'Urville Martin as arch-nemesis, evil-pimp Willie Green actually does the best job out of anyone. The "Hamburger Pimp" character has to be a real junkie or he deserves an Oscar for this performance. The "kung-fu" is hilariously awkward and most of the kung-fu ho's are not exactly beauty queens but if you can't find enjoyment in a film like this you might be a terrible human-being.
 The sequel to this THE HUMAN TORNADO is technically slightly better but I have to give it to this one for historical purposes.

THE HAPPY HOOKER (1975)

 The 70's rating system was a strange creature.  Films full of bloody murders(BLOOD AND LACE) would oftentimes get a PG-rating and then movies like this one would come along and get rated R strictly for the sexy subject matter.  Surprisingly there's little actual nudity in a film that's all about a woman's journey through the world of prostitution and finally ending up becoming a world famous madam.  It's all based on a best-selling book at the time so maybe due to the infamy of it all they had to keep the kiddies away.
 The film itself, to me, plays almost like a TV-movie drama and not so much an exploitation flick which you might expect.  It is probably the only movie where you can see Lynn Redgrave dancing around in her underwear before going on to becoming a more respectable actress so that's something.  It's interesting that the 2 big high-profile madams after Xaviera Hollander(the Mayflower Madam and Heidi Fleiss) only got TV-movies made about their exploits and that kind of makes sense since it is all really a big TV-tabloid kind of a story anyway. I did like the all-black gang of bad-ass street hookers that we meet in a holding cell, it's too bad the movie wasn't about those chicks.  The other thing that kind of lets you down while viewing is that the plot never really goes anywhere and if you know the basic story of The Happy Hooker you know just about everything that you'll see here.  Check it out only if you're a big fan of high-priced escorts.