Nikkatsu pink classic 'Osou!' stars Asami Ogawa as Kumiko, a pretty policewoman who, after being repeatedly raped by an unseen assailant, doesn't get even by feeding her attacker his own knackers, but rather learns to appreciate the pleasures of forced sex, even to the point of waiting longingly for the next assault; if ever there was a film guaranteed to get a feminist's knickers in a twist, this is it! (although judging by the heavy misogynistic content in many a Nikkatsu pink movie, feminism was still a very alien concept in 70s Japan; even if a woman did try and complain to director Yasuharu Hasebe, I imagine that his answer would've been along the lines of 'You know what your problem is, love? You need a damn good seeing to!', followed by a swift smack on the rump).
Aware of its controversial story-line, and having already seen Hasebe's highly offensive rape-themed movies 'Rape! 13th Hour' and 'Assault! Jack the Ripper', I was fully expecting 'Osou!' to be the mother of all 'violent pink' films, but was surprised to find it a comparatively tame affair, lacking the hard edge evident in the director's other work: the repeated attacks on Kumiko are shot in a surprisingly restrained fashion (ie., very little flesh on show) and there's no gory violence to break up the repetitive (and ultimately tedious) scenes of rough rumpy-pumpy.
With its bizarre premise, stark cinematography and an excellent soundtrack that makes great use of instantly recognisable classical music, 'Osou!' is certainly not a total waste of time for fans of the genre—besides, Asami Ogawa is way too cute for it to ever be considered that—but neither is it the totally reprehensible piece of extreme cinema that I believed it would be.
