The Film 

The Japanese Wife Next Door is the latest in a long line of great titles from US outfit Pink Eiga who are slowly but surely releasing celebrated “pink” titles into the marketplace. For the uninitiated the “pink” genre must follow some pretty strict guidelines:  
 
1. The film must have the requisite number of sex scenes (typically a minimum of five). 
2. The film must be approximately one hour in length (perfect for the Pink Eiga triple-bill format). 
3. It must be shot on 35 mm film (or occasionally 16mm) in a week and finished within one month. 
4. The film must be completed within an extremely limited budget (around $35,000 US).

Our tale begins with the lonely Takashi (Naohiro Hirakata), fresh from the breakup of a 4 year relationship, attending a singles mixer and finally meeting a couple of lovely young ladies, both of whom he really likes. Both are quite different from each other, Ryoko (Akane Yazaki) a little shy and reserved and Sakura (Reiko Yamaguchi) a little more forward – more on that later! Sakura makes her move and before Takashi knows it, he is deeply into Sakura and six months later they are married.

They move in with Takashi’s Father, widowed Mitsuo (Kikujiro Honda), Grandfather (Koji Makimura) and sister Yayoi (Kaoru Akitsu) with Sakura only too desperate to be the perfect housewife and wanting to bring the family very close together. She cooks, cleans, feeds Grandpa and certainly looks after her new husband by loudly having all manners of sex with him to the disdain of the other members of the family who seem quite shocked and appalled! Takashi too is feeling the strain with Sakura’s decorating, love of America and most of all her insatiable libido causing problems! Indeed within 3 months he is impotent and can no longer satisfy her. What is the newlywed wife to do? Why turn her attentions to a delighted Grandpa, get all Sapphic with the sister and blow the father! What did you expect?

“She is an angel during the day...and a whore at night time!” - Yayoi

This is another delightful entry to the Pink cinema echelons by Pink Eiga, with director, Mr Pink himself, Yutaka Ikejima taking control of the tale. Being a veteran of over 100 Pink movies, Ikejima has woven a really fun and enjoyable tale of this sexually backward family being liberated by Sakura and she really makes them happy in more ways than one. It’s only Takashi, that feels he is being left out in the cold and so he has many a dilemma to overcome including a chance meeting with Ryoko, the girl he didn’t choose! Indeed the sequel to this movie, also due soon from Pink Eiga, will deal with the “what if” scenario of Takashi marrying Ryoko instead! Performances are pretty good all round with the very cute Reiko Yamaguchi as Sakura and Koji Makimura as Grandpa really standing out, especially with his fourth wall quips to the audience.

“There’re so big...like balloons!” - Grandpa

This is one of the more explicit Pink titles I’ve seen, complete with some famous fogging covering up the more racy scenes, but at no point do they seem sordid or serving no purpose. In addition some of the situations the family find themselves in are very over the top, so there was very little to offend this reviewer! Indeed I found myself chuckling away to some of the positions poor Takashi found himself in and the product placement for the “Pearl Nebuto” dildo was a cool touch.

Transfer and Audio 

The 1.85:1 non anamorphic image is overall in pretty good shape despite being a little soft at times and not being flagged for progressive playback. However these problems affect most of the releases from Pink Eiga and they can only work with the source materials they are given. However, I watched via a Sony S350 Blu-Ray player and Philips 32” LCD and the image looked pretty fantastic and I appreciated Sakura’s delights to the full!

The 2.0 Japanese audio is fine as well, clear and concise with the English subtitles are well translated, but believe me you will have a hard time drawing your eyes away from some of the delights onscreen!

Extras 

This is really where Pink Eiga have pulled out all the stops, no EPK or run of the mill self congratulating fluff pieces here – they have filmed 3 great featurettes specifically with the foreign fan bases in mind!

First up is the full length cast and crew video commentary, with the director, writer and composer, the Shin-Toho producer plus the saucy Reiko Yamaguchi! This is fun, interesting and full of titbits that fans of Pink cinema have always wanted to know, plus with the US and Euro audience in mind, they are always quick to explain the finer points of the genre!

Next we have an interview (13:42) with Reiko Yamaguchi conducted by Mr Pink, director Ikejima! This is very nice as well, with Ikejima pointing out how all men would love to put something between Reiko’s fine assets! Don’t think we would get Michael Bay saying that to Megan Fox – well not on camera anyway!

Finally we have an interview (14:46) with Ikejima himself, that has lots interesting facts about the Pink industry but most of all it’s really nice to see how happy he is that this genre has reached a US audience and happy that its popularity is growing! Kudos to Pink Eiga for the time and effort to make brand new extras specifically for the foreign fans!

The DVD is rounded off with Bios, Filmographies and Trailers for this and forthcoming Pink Eiga releases including The Japanese Wife Next Door – Part 2! I can’t wait!

Overall 

A fantastic piece of incestuous Pink fun, loaded with interesting and insightful extras, add to the shopping list at once!

Story/Film 4.5/5 BITCH SLAPS
Picture 3/5 BITCH SLAPS
Audio 3.5/5 BITCH SLAPS
Extras 5/5 BITCH SLAPS
Overall 4.5/5 BITCH SLAPS