Masaru Konuma Movies

Wife to be Sacrificed director Masaru Konuma takes the reins for this notorious women in prison classic about an innocent beauty wrongly imprisoned in a brutal penitentiary. As her sanity begins to slip, the desperate inmate decides to strike back against the sadistic convicts and ruthless warden with a fury that cannot be contained. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

The last of a four-film series which began with Naku Onna, and the second to be helmed by Nikkatsu's top director of the time, Masaru Konuma, is probably the best of the four. All were made to spotlight the studio's new reigning queen of softcore, Maiko Kazama, and this well-made pinku eiga melodrama casts the actress -- whose reputation as a maneater gave her the nickname "Horobosu" ("she who devours") -- slightly against type. While her husband is away, Kazama is raped, and is later kidnapped and tortured by the rapist and his wife. What the abused Kazama doesn't know is that she is the focus of their revenge because her husband showed up at their wife-swapping party with a hooker instead of her. Needless to say, Kazama is not happy with her husband when all is said and done, and "Horobosu" comes to the fore once again. Asami Ogawa co-stars. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

One of pinku eiga starlet Asami Ogawa's best films, this softcore melodrama from the Nikkatsu studio and the always-interesting Masaru Konuma bears some resemblance to Heavenly Creatures in its exploration of a fantasy world created by two troubled girls. Utae (Ogawa) and Aiko (Yuko Asuka) attend an all-girl private school where the devoutly religious principal (Shoichi Kuwayama) seems to be raping some of the students, including Utae. Aiko is really the principal's daughter, and was horribly abused by him when she was a child. Or so the audience is led to believe. Eventually, Utae and Aiko kidnap the lecher and viciously torture him in scenes so diabolically Sadean that they could only have come from the pen of Kyusaku Yumeno, author of the well-regarded Dogura Magura. There's a very nasty abortion scene, self-immolation, and enough psychological weirdness to keep even the most demanding fans of extreme Japanese cinema happy. Hideaki Ezumi co-stars. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Japanese erotic cinema mainstay Naomi Tani stars in director Masaru Konuma's stylish "Roman Pink" film concerning an elegant widow and single mother whose relationship with a handsome young man sparks a bizarre rivalry between mother and daughter. Mrs. Yoshimo (Tani) lives a secluded life with her pretty teenage daughter Takako. The familial solitude is soon shattered, however, by the arrival of a mysterious but handsome man named Hideo. Hideo bears an uncanny resemblance to the man who claimed Mrs. Yoshimo's virginity many years back, and now as old passions are reawakened a young girl begins to experience the urge to explore her sexuality for the very first time. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Masaru Konuma directs this 1970s landmark of Japanese exploitation cinema, a wildly over-the-top softcore S&M drama based on a book by famed erotic writer Oniriku Dan. Kunishada (Nagatoshi Sakamoto) is an unabashed pervert. One day, he happens upon his kimono-clad ex-wife, Akiko (Naomi Tani), kidnaps her, and drags her to a secluded old house up in the mountains. At first he merely ties her up and humiliates her, but after she cuts him with a razor the real horror show begins. Soon Akiko finds herself tied up in a variety of exotic knots and covered in hot wax. Later, after an escape attempt ends in Akiko being raped by two darkhearted hunters, she awakens sexually and starts to enjoy her debasement. About the same time, Kunishada discovers a suicide victim in a cave. What starts as a pleasant necrophilic fling abruptly ends when he realizes that the would-be suicide Kaoru (Terumi Azuma) is not quite dead. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Prolific exploitation director Masaru Konuma made this first of Nikkatsu Studios' sadism-themed softcore roughies. Morio Kazama stars in this story of an upwardly-mobile banker whose boss introduces him to the adopted daughter of a wealthy client. He falls in love with the girl and wants to marry her, not knowing that she is involved in a kinky sadomasochistic relationship with her artist father. Konuma, who went on to direct Hana To Hebi and the trash-classic Ikenie Fujin (both 1974), keeps the story as interesting as the erotica, making an honest attempt to explore the dynamics of the girl's conflicted desires. Yuri Yamashina, best known to American genre fans for the drive-in favorite Sengoku Rokku Hayate No Onnatachi (1974), gives a thoughtful and sexy performance as the obsessed daughter ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

This is the sort of film which contributes to many westerners' negative impressions of Japanese society in general and the pinku eiga genre in particular. It is also the jarring debut of Masaru Konuma (Ikenie Fujin), one of the Nikkatsu studio's most unconventional filmmakers. The outrageous story line deals with Masako (Keiko Maki), a journalist who is raped while researching a story. The rape causes her to develop amnesia, so her brother devises a novel way to get her memory back -- he has her boyfriend rape her again. It doesn't work, so the brother and boyfriend do more research, discovering that Masako was raped by an African-American soldier. As might be expected, they then hire a black GI to rape the poor girl yet a third time. There remains nothing else to say about this film. Those who might enjoy it will surely be searching for it already, and those who are repulsed will surely not be swayed by hearing what a well-made film it is, or how well novice director Konuma composes scenes. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi