Akumekun (アクメくん 妖艶大戦争) (1995)

Takao Nakano’s Akumekun is everything you can expect from the cult director. You got the props, the parody, boobs and catfights and there you go! For those of you not familiar with the director’s work you can start off by having a look at the amazing Sumo Vixen which is perhaps Nakano’s most famous film (being released on VHS and DVD in the U.S.). Although some people may categorize his work as trash, I think it is quite hard to actually put Takao Nakano’s film in a specific genre, as it crosses many boundaries and goes far beyond the simple soft-erotic movie or plain silly action. As a matter fact Nakano’s film are very unusual as they always have really sexy catfight scenes (one might recall some Russ Meyer films) and a penchant for unique cosplay. So, if you put all this together along with movie parodies and sometimes crude video special effects you get some substantial cult material.

So here we have the story of a young man who meets with an old hermit and a witch (coming out of a coffee thermos) who help him fight evil forces, which are mostly personified by sexy and lustful girls. From that point, the movie is an homage to the famous 1960’s series Akumakun. But here Nakano chose a rather promiscuous approach, for that matter Akumekun refers to Acme which definitely as a perverted meaning in this film. Also, many details from the original series are portrait in Akumekun, such as the original black and white intro or some of the characters costumes. Akumekun is even edited as if it was featuring several episodes, to give the old series feeling. But what really shines in this film (just like in any Nakano films) is the cosplay and catfights. Here with this 1995 production, we are lucky to have a bit more flesh for our dollars compare with his turn of the century films, Akumekun is bold enough to feature lesbian scenes and some full nudity (sorry no frontal). It is not a porno of course, but on this department it could compete easily with any Nikkatsu movie of the genre. I have yet seen his Exorsister series which looks very wild and promising but I can only guess that since Akumekun was made right after, it might just follows the same path.
In conclusion, I highly recommend this more obscure Takao Nakano film as it gives a very guerrilla approach to video movie making and transcend the pure essence of Japanese underground cinema.

ORIGINAL TITLE
Akumekun

DIRECTOR
Takao Nakano

CAST
?

RELEASE DATE
1995