With Dada Chen at NYAFF 2013

With Dada Chen at NYAFF 2013
With Dada Chen at NYAFF 2013

Sunday, October 12, 2014

INFLATABLE SEX DOLL OF THE WASTELANDS to kick off Japan Society NY's latest film series

Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands (c) 1967 KOKUEI
 Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands / Koya no Datch Waifu
Directed by Atsushi Yamatoya
Japan, 1967, 85 minutes
When: Saturday, October 18, 2014 at 7:00 PM
Where: Japan Society NY
333 East 47th Street, NYC
(Between 1st and 2nd Avenues)

The Dark Side of the Sun: John Zorn on Japanese Cinema, Japan Society NY's new monthly film series, will begin this coming Saturday evening with a screening of Atsushi Yamatoya’s Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands.

Taking some hints from Ambrose Bierce’s celebrated short story “An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” it's a deliciously delirious cult film about a hitman (Yuichi Minato) who is hired by a rich real estate agent to find an abducted woman (Noriko Tatsumi). This simple setup gives way to a hip and chaotic worldview full of hard-boiled characters, sexy action, and hallucinatory imagery.


A close collaborator with the likes of Koji Wakamatsu, Yamatoya was part of the group of anonymous writers who worked on Wakamatsu Productions and was also one of the anonymous writers on the script of Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill. Though considered a “pink film,” Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands has surprisingly few sex scenes. Nevertheless, the film remains incredibly sexy through creative montage and innuendo. In his book Behind the Pink Curtain, Jasper Sharp calls the film “probably the most idiosyncratic work the genre has ever produced.”

A feast for the eyes as well as the ears, the sparse and cool music was provided by jazz pianist and composer Yosuke Yamashita.

Commemorating the life of writer, producer, and director Koji Wakamatsu, who passed away on October 17, 2012, this screening of Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands will be followed by a reception..

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