Fairy in a Cage (1977)

[pro-bassoonist]

Fairy in a Cage Blu-ray PRE-ORDER



NEWS
https://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=10225

Impulse Pictures, Synapse Films' sub-label, has revealed that it is planning to release on Blu-ray Japanese director Kôyû Ohara's controversial film Ori no naka no yôsei a.k.a Fairy in a Cage (1977). The preliminary release date set by Impulse Pictures is March 12th.

One of the best films in Nikkatsu's pinku eiga catalog, Fairy in a Cage will appear on Blu-ray with brand-new high-definition transfer taken from the original 35mm camera negative.

During World War II, the tyrannical Judge Murayama uses his military power to imprison and torture innocent people. Suspected of helping an anti-government movement, the lovely Namiji Kikushima (Naomi Tani) is captured, along with a local kabuki actor. Helpless and unable to escape, the two are subjected to a grueling series of tortures including rope bondage and physical assault. As the Judge and his evil assistant Kayo revel in their perverse fetishes, a new military recruit they have hired named Taoka may be the key to the prisoners' freedom. He loves Namiji and will do whatever he can to help her, even if it means betrayal to organize an escape.

Special Features:
Liner Notes

Pro-B

[Kentai]

Giggity.

Not quite my all-time favorite Tani flick, but certainly one of the better ones out there. Recommended for anyone who likes vintage sexploitation, and doesn't mind seeing it go down some pretty dark alleys.

[Dr. Seymour Love]

Sweet, bring on the shibari! I don't know how many of these they have left to release but I hope to see more on blu. I believe this one is based on a Oniroku Dan story too. We need more classic smut on blu.

[Hawkguy]

This is now up for pre-order at ImportCds for just $10.49 before shipping...probably going to be the best place to buy.

[logboy]

managed to preorder at wowhd for £10 including shipping.

I'm in the uk, so it's close to importcds price cos of their shipping rates.

[SimBelm]

Originally Posted by logboy

managed to preorder at wowhd for £10 including shipping.

I'm in the uk, so it's close to importcds price cos of their shipping rates.

Thanks for the heads up.

[logboy]

Originally Posted by SimBelm

Thanks for the heads up.

it's not so cheap right now - £11.99, but if you do you're own sums it might still be the best you can find.

i do use importcds.com, but i find the way they process orders really bizarre and unpredictable at times, and i have to buy several at once to make the charges for postage efficient.

http://www.wowhd.co.uk/blu-ray/fairy...226415#bc=4d3f

but check their facebook for discount codes, and look at weekends as they often have the prices suddenly drop by £1 for a couple of days. i got a short-lived 15% code via facebook and managed to pre-order 'rolling thunder' at the same time.

always worth a look, wowhd, wherever you live. some of the prices are great and others i can't fathom.

[SimBelm]

Thanks for the tip £11.99 is still decent, I'll keep an eye out for offers though. I also use importcds often, as long as I order a few things the postage isn't so bad, and they really do have some unbeatable prices. I'll start checking out wowhd more now.

[logboy]

Originally Posted by SimBelm

Thanks for the tip £11.99 is still decent, I'll keep an eye out for offers though. I also use importcds often, as long as I order a few things the postage isn't so bad, and they really do have some unbeatable prices. I'll start checking out wowhd more now.

here's one that's working now, for 10% off - code is SOCIALTEN - you need to be logged in before it will acknowledge the code. makes it about £10.80

http://www.hotukdeals.com/vouchers/cdwow.com

always worth a google for current codes too...

btw, they also have some great offers on HK releases that are discounted at other HK retailers, but with slightly better prices to start with. that is, if you also like HK films and know what's decent in terms of picture quality, as it's a big issue with HK discs.

http://www.wowhd.co.uk/bluray/0/0/Re.../0/0/top-value

[SimBelm]

Thanks v. much, I haven't used HUKD in a while. Will go ahead and order now.

[boltmfs]

Why this release hasn't been reviewed yet?
I confess I find this fact very odd.
Speaking about pink movies, is there any other "roman porno" blu-ray release?
I've noticed pinky violence got a few BD releases in North America (Lady Snowblood, Female Prisoner Scorpion, Stray Cat Rock), but not the Nikkaktsu ones, besides "Fairy in A Cage".

[llj]

There aren't really a lot of Nikkatsu's "roman porno" on blu-ray, though...if there were, you can be sure we'd have more threads in here on them.

[logboy]

Originally Posted by boltmfs

Why this release hasn't been reviewed yet?
I confess I find this fact very odd.
Speaking about pink movies, is there any other "roman porno" blu-ray release?
I've noticed pinky violence got a few BD releases in North America (Lady Snowblood, Female Prisoner Scorpion, Stray Cat Rock), but not the Nikkaktsu ones, besides "Fairy in A Cage".

japan has only started issuing RP films on BD fairly recently, so there will be the typical window before USA releases are allowed & the masters made available. synapse have long said one or two will get BD, but most that are expected are likely to still be DVD.

im still surprised theres not more interest in RP, as they often fit into similar areas of interest in exploitation, bizarre, grindhouse and other genres or styles.

[McCrutchy]

Finally, it looks like Synapse is releasing a newly acquired Roman Porno...on DVD.

I believe this is the first in the series since Nurse Diary: Beast Afternoon (看護婦日記 獣じみた午後) (1982) was released in November 2016. I remember that back in 2013, the excuse at the time was that Fairy in a Cage was the only title available with an HD master, and since Nurse Diary: Beast Afternoon was only released on DVD in Japan as well, I will afford Synapse the benefit of the doubt, there.

However, according to Synapse, the next title, Women in Heat Behind Bars (檻の中の欲しがる女たち) (1987), releasing in April 2018, has a "[b]rand new 2017 remaster by Nikkastu", and it is available on Amazon Video (in Japan) in HD, too:

[Show spoiler]

Perhaps Nikkatsu disallowed a Blu-ray, but somehow, I can't help feeling that Synapse didn't even bother, even though we're now in 2018, and DVD releases are starting to look really silly, especially for a Roman Porno that clearly must have an HD master available. Although this film isn't available as part of the Blu-ray series from Happinet in Japan, the Japanese Blu-rays are restricted to Japan by Amazon, and in any case, are optically blurred during the love scenes, so they're not a viable solution, either.

I know that Synapse supposedly care a great deal about their releases, but this should have been an easy, inexpensive BD-25 release (it runs only 68 minutes) with no extras to deal with. Coming as this does on the heels of several high profile releases, including the expensive Limited Edition of Suspiria and subsequent news of its "standard" edition counterpart, I can't help but feel pretty disappointed that Synapse couldn't have given us only a second Roman Porno Blu-ray in five years.

[logboy]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

Finally, it looks like Synapse is releasing a newly acquired Roman Porno...on DVD.

I believe this is the first in the series since Nurse Diary: Beast Afternoon (看護婦日記 獣じみた午後) (1982) was released in November 2016. I remember that back in 2013, the excuse at the time was that Fairy in a Cage was the only title available with an HD master, and since Nurse Diary: Beast Afternoon was only released on DVD in Japan as well, I will afford Synapse the benefit of the doubt, there.

However, according to Synapse, the next title, Women in Heat Behind Bars (檻の中の欲しがる女たち) (1987), releasing in April 2018, has a "[b]rand new 2017 remaster by Nikkastu", and it is available on Amazon Video (in Japan) in HD, too:

[Show spoiler]

Perhaps Nikkatsu disallowed a Blu-ray, but somehow, I can't help feeling that Synapse didn't even bother, even though we're now in 2018, and DVD releases are starting to look really silly, especially for a Roman Porno that clearly must have an HD master available. Although this film isn't available as part of the Blu-ray series from Happinet in Japan, the Japanese Blu-rays are restricted to Japan by Amazon, and in any case, are optically blurred during the love scenes, so they're not a viable solution, either.

I know that Synapse supposedly care a great deal about their releases, but this should have been an easy, inexpensive BD-25 release (it runs only 68 minutes) with no extras to deal with. Coming as this does on the heels of several high profile releases, including the expensive Limited Edition of Suspiria and subsequent news of its "standard" edition counterpart, I can't help but feel pretty disappointed that Synapse couldn't have given us only a second Roman Porno Blu-ray in five years.

unsure how many RP have an HD master - there's no certainty of them existing, and i think nikkatsu have begun to work through them, but i don't know how selectively. remember, there are 1000+ of these films that nikkatsu has to pick through... !

no guarantee synapse can afford to do BDs of all of their licenses either - or that they find them viable for the market. as far as i know (from interviews in last couple of years) there are a couple of upcoming ones that will get BDs, and now that the line has restarted again i suspect that we will see / hear of those again in the next year or so.

as for censorship on the discs, that's not going to disappear when USA releases occur due to the nature of how productions occurred and what techniques were used to avoid what needed censoring or to make it relatively cheap to perform themselves - that is, nothing clearly explicit was necessarily ever happening, actresses had methods of covering their genitals, and things like print scratching, blurring and selective framing also usually occurred.

as it is, although RP films are essentially pornographic in nature, they're removed anough from the western ideas of the genre to essentially be a highly-sexualised form of storytelling and artistic expression. assessing them as though merely for titillation is misguided, i think.

don't think we can expect them to receive comparable treatment to 'suspiria', either - although many are clearly missing great films with lots of crossover appeal for genre and b-movie fans, sometimes horror fans too - the whole issue of argento's crossover appeal having rocketed to a point they're perhaps a little too obvious is something else altogether.

[McCrutchy]

Hey logboy,

I think you may have missed my point. First of all, I am talking about one Roman Porno film, not all of them. I know many of them don't have HD masters, and that Nikkatsu only began releasing Blu-ray versions in Japan in 2016, as well as the fact that not every film with an HD master is released on Blu-ray in Japan. However, unless something is awry, a 35mm film remastered in 2017--even a pink film--should now have an HD master available, and the presence of an HD streaming option on Amazon Japan only supports that idea.

And while I know there are many of these films, Synapse are releasing them very slowly, and my point regarding Suspiria is the these films are minimum effort releases, by comparison, not that they should be given better treatment. Because of their length and lack of extras, it should be comparatively inexpensive and simple to release titles with HD masters on Blu-ray, and since this is the first one in some eighteen months, I think they should have done just that.

Also, I don't know if you have seen one of the Japanese Happinet Blu-ray releases. I have (I own one), and the one I have has clearly had very particular new optical blurring added to the encode of the HD master. All of the Blu-ray release pages at Happinet claim that the films have undergone re-examination by the Japan Contents Review Center, presumably to ensure that new HD masters don't reveal anything that needs to be censored per Japanese law. My guess would be that even though genitals were usually covered or shielded, someone is being overly cautious, since these are Japanese releases of Japanese erotic films.

[logboy]

... these things take time and money. not to mention inclination, concern for market possibilities.

[Takuma]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

I have (I own one), and the one I have has clearly had very particular new optical blurring added to the encode of the HD master.

Which title and which scene(s) are you talking about?

I'd find it very surprising if they had added censorship considering the trend has been the exact opposite for decades (except for "political correctness, e.g. "high school girls" becoming "school girls" (女子高生　--＞ 女子校生), nudity being censored from posters upon re-releases etc., that started in the 80s I believe).

[McCrutchy]

Originally Posted by Takuma

Which title and which scene(s) are you talking about?

I'd find it very surprising if they had added censorship considering the trend has been the exact opposite for decades (except for "political correctness, e.g. "high school girls" becoming "school girls" (女子高生　--＞ 女子校生), nudity being censored from posters upon re-releases etc., that started in the 80s I believe).

This is the title I have:



During the sex scenes, optical blurring has been used at certain specific points where I'm guessing someone thought there was something more to see. I was fairly surprised by it, because like you, my understanding is that the trend in Japan has been moving in the opposite direction, towards lessening optical censorship. However, I also understand that the guidelines are self-determined to a point, by either the distributor and/or the ethics organization to which they belong. For example, I own this disc of the 2014 UK film Hyena by Shochiku:



and while they clearly display the film's Japanese R18+ certificate on the box, Shochiku also decided to optically blur the sex scenes in the film. It was quite a shock to me, but it is blatantly obvious, and the censorship isn't present on the French copy of the film I also own.

Yet, Japanese arms of Western majors have released discs like Basic Instinct (and supposedly) Emmanuelle in Japan without censorship, and those who bought it confirmed that Kadokawa released their box set of Peter Greenaway Blu-rays uncensored, too. So it seems only certain companies in Japan are still censoring non-pornographic films.

EDIT: I see, according to reviews, Fairy in a Cage does still have optical blurring in the Synapse release. I tend to prefer softer erotica, so I never picked this one up, but I'm still curious if the blurring really is baked into the source film elements, or if it has been re-applied for the new HD masters. I will have to dig out my Japanese disc, but the blurring looked pretty digital/modern to me, and I always thought things like that need to be adjusted / enhanced for new iterations of the films.

And still, my point regarding Women in Heat Behind Bars stands, since that one hasn't even been released yet on Japanese DVD, let alone Japanese Blu-ray.

[AKNewbie]

Originally Posted by McCrutchy

...Also, I don't know if you have seen one of the Japanese Happinet Blu-ray releases. I have (I own one), and the one I have has clearly had very particular new optical blurring added to the encode of the HD master. All of the Blu-ray release pages at Happinet claim that the films have undergone re-examination by the Japan Contents Review Center, presumably to ensure that new HD masters don't reveal anything that needs to be censored per Japanese law. My guess would be that even though genitals were usually covered or shielded, someone is being overly cautious, since these are Japanese releases of Japanese erotic films.

Since you own one, would you confirm that these anniversary Happinet Roman Porno Blu-rays do not have English subtitles?
It's the only thing stopping me from buying them.