Rope Hell

Rope Hell (縄地獄, Nawa jigoku) is a 1978 Japanese film in Nikkatsu's Roman porno series, directed by Kōyū Ohara and starring Naomi Tani.

Rope Hell
Theatrical poster for Rope Hell (1978)
Directed by	Kōyū Ohara[1]
Written by	Kyōhei Konno
Produced by	Yoshiki Yūki
Starring	Naomi Tani
Cinematography	Hidenobu Nimura
Edited by	Atsushi Nabeshima
Music by	Hajime Kaburagi
Distributed by	Nikkatsu
Release date	June 24, 1978 (1978-06-24)
Running time	69 min.
Country	Japan
Language	Japanese

Synopsis

Akiko is the heir to a yakuza clan. Hitoshi, who has been kicked out of the rival Hono Clan after attempting to seduce Akiko, kidnaps her at the behest of Hanamura. Hanamura has formed a new gang and intends to use Akiko as a hostage to take over her clan's territory. During the torture and abuse sessions which follow, Akiko comes to enjoy the treatment and forsakes her gangland empire.^[2][3]

Cast

• Naomi Tani: Akiko^[4]
• Nami Aoki: Machiko
• Hirokazu Inoue: Saiji
• Hitoshi Takagi: Hitoshi Hanamura
• Kenji Fuji: Gorō

Background

Rope Hell was based on Oniroku Dan's novel Yakuza Angel (やくざ天使, Yakuza tenshi).^[1] Like much of Oniroku Dan's works, Rope Hell uses the theme of a character who is changed through S&M sessions.^[2] At the same time that he was creating such dark torture-fests as Rope Hell, Kōyū Ohara was also directing the bright and upbeat Pink Tush Girl films, which were popular with women as well as men.^[2][5] Ohara had previously worked with Naomi Tani in Fascination: Portrait of a Lady (1977), and had teamed her with her on-screen tormentor in Rope Hell, Hirokazu Inoue in Fairy in a Cage (also 1977).^[2] Both of these films had also based on Dan's writings.^[3]

Critical appraisal

Allmovie judges Rope Hell to be an inferior film compared to Fairy in a Cage.^[2] In their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, the Weissers also write that Rope Hell is not up to the quality of Ohara and Tani's previous work together, but comment positively on Ohara's visuals.^[3] The Weissers judge Oniroku Dan's story to be more objectionable than some of his others, with the message that a woman will choose submission and reject self-expression if given the choice, to be clearer than in his other scripts.^[3]

Availability

Rope Hell was released theatrically in Japan on June 24, 1978.^[6] It was released to home video in VHS format in Japan on February 6, 1998.^[7]

Bibliography

English

• "NAWA JIGOKU". Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
• Nawa jigoku (1978) at IMDb
• Sharp, Jasper (2008). Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema. Guildford: FAB Press. pp. 220, 335. ISBN 978-1-903254-54-7.
• Weisser, Thomas; Yuko Mihara Weisser (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications. ISBN 1-889288-52-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)

Japanese

• 団鬼六「やくざ天使」より 縄地獄(1978) (in Japanese). allcinema.net. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
• 縄地獄 (in Japanese). Japanese Cinema Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Retrieved 2009-09-14.
• 縄地獄 (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
• 縄地獄(邦画) (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Retrieved 2009-09-14.
• 団鬼六「やくざ天使」より・縄地獄 (in Japanese). www.nikkatsu-romanporno.com. Retrieved 2009-09-14.