“PARADISE? TO ME IT’S TOO NOISY”: PRECARITY, ALIENATION, AND INVISIBLE VIOLENCE IN THE PINK CINEMA OF HISAYASU SATŌ

Abstract

This is a full-length study centered on the career of Japanese Film Director Hisayasu Satō, in which I argue that his films were representative of the social issues that plagued Japan in the 1980s and 1990s, specifically as such issues affect Japan’s youth population. I also make the argument that, though Satō worked primarily within the genre of pink cinema (softcore erotic cinema), his work can be placed within a variety of other cinematic traditions as well, such as those of body horror and postmodern science fiction. Far from being a limiting factor in his work, Satō’s pink films used physicality to depict a wide spectrum of emotional and social issues, from social alienation to state violence to depression and collective trauma. His utilization of other genre styles, such as that of science fiction, served to sharpen his social commentary and reinvigorate the landscape of Japanese pink cinema by rearticulating what such films could be in terms of content.There are a number of factors, such as confusing and abrasive film titles, as well as some genuine instances of extremity that have helped keep Satō’s films away from the mainstream. This, however, is exactly where he appears to want his films to be.