Kan Mukai

a.k.a. Hiroshi Mukai and was a Japanese film director, cinematographer, producer and screenwriter, known for his pioneering work in the pink film genre. In the realm of pink cinema, Japanese critics have estimated that Mukai is "the only serious rival of Kōji Wakamatsu." As a producer, Mukai helped the early careers of many prominent directors, including Hisayasu Satō and Academy-Award winner Yōjirō Takita. In his career, he directed nearly 200 films and produced approximately 500.

Life and career

Early career and 1960s Kan Mukai was born in Dairen, Manchukuo (modern Dalian, China) on October 16, 1937. He studied economics at Kyushu University, but dropped out to pursue a career in film. He also worked as a cinematographer on projects for various studios, mostly for educational, children's and industrial films.

Mukai made his debut as a director in 1962 with , an educational film. Wanting to direct, but lacking the educational requirements necessary to be hired as a director at a major studio, Though the film was a plotless series of scenes in the life of a prostitute, Mukai's technical skill impressed early pink audiences and critics, and he quickly became a major name in the genre. Flesh received international distribution, and was released in Germany on May 14, 1965 as Nacktes Fleisch. The Bite (1966) was another early Mukai film shown overseas, playing in the U.S. soon after its Japanese release, and in Britain, under the title Bait, in 1967. It was released on DVD in the U.S. in 2008.

According to some sources, Mukai's Sexy Partners (1967) was the first S&M film. It was the first to use the subject as its primary theme. He worked with his wife, Mukai's section was titled Beauty and Ugliness (Bi To Shu). Takako Uchida later starred in Nikkatsu's big-budget pre-Roman Porno venture into the pink arena, Story Of Heresy In Meiji Era (1968). Mukai gave future first Nikkatsu Roman Porno star, Kazuko Shirakawa, her film debut with the 1967 film Girls' Dormitory. Until that studio's reorganization in 1967, Mukai's films were released principally through Kanto Films. In 1968, Mukai founded his own studio, and , was the first film released by Mukai Studios.

Mukai often employed gimmick-like elements in his films or their publicity to create audiences for his films. His Blue Film: Estimation (1968) benefitted from a publicity campaign emphasizing that mainstream actress Mitsugu Fujii was starring in this pink film. The whisper-campaign behind Flesh 2 (1969)—sequel to Mukai's debut film—focused on a sex scene between a Korean girl and a black U.S. G.I., and Japan Virgin Rape (1970) had the first lady of Indonesia in its cast. In 1969, Mukai's film (1966) was released in Italy under the title Naomi. The film was banned due to obscenity, but scored a triumph in a showing at Waseda University's Okuma Auditorium. Deep Throat in Tokyo, directed for Toei in 1975, is his best-known film. Comparing Mukai's film to the original Deep Throat (U.S., 1972), Jasper Sharp writes that Mukai's film, a softcore, "airbrushed fantasy" with a higher budget and, in Kumi Taguchi, a more attractive leading lady, is "a world apart from the more crude and direct approach taken by its revolutionary American model." Nevertheless, Sharp judges that Mukai's softcore film is more offensive than the hardcore original because of its more reactionary approach to sex.

In 1979, after the closing of his original Mukai Productions, Mukai started . The name "Shishi", meaning "Lion", was a pun on "4x4", indicating Mukai's ambition to foster the careers of 16 young directors. As producer, Mukai had an influence on the careers of the group of directors who came to prominence in the 1980s. Hisayasu Satō began working in the film industry through Shishi Productions in 1981, and had his directing debut there with (1985). He continued working with Mukai throughout the decade. Takahisa Zeze also gained his first film experience at Shishi, working as a screenwriter, and assistant directing for Satō. Through Shishi Productions Mukai gave Academy-Award-winning director Yōjirō Takita his first work in the film industry.

In June 1982 Mukai re-formed Mukai Productions. As a production company, Mukai's films were distributed by other studios, including Nikkatsu, which used these films to supplement their Roman porno series triple-bills. During the 1980s, when rape-themed films were popular, Mukai produced some of Nikkatsu's most extreme examples of the genre, including the Subway Serial Rape series (1985–1988). Mukai produced celebrated Roman porno director Tatsumi Kumashiro's final film, (1995). He directed a sequel to Going West entitled Hometown in 1999.

Partial filmography