Sweet Scent of Eros

This was one of Nikkatsu’s Roman Poruno series movies, that had sex oriented stories made under low budget. But the stars seemed to have lined up when this movie was made, and outstanding gathering of talented actors, director, and writer came together to create this one of the better movie to come out of Japan from the ’70s. The title roughly translates to “Sweet oder of Eros”.Story is about two couples who come together for one reason another to share an apartment together.Koichi (Choei Takahashi) a cameraman comes to visit Etsuko (Kaori Momoi), his old flame, but his intention was actually to shack up with her so he has a roof over his head. He rapes Etsuko to force himself into her apartment. He’s been asked to moonlight by not so legitimate people to develop some film containing pornographic pictures, but he’s also weak willed , and has affairs with women he meets. Yukie (Hiroko Isayama), and Akira (Hajime Tanimoto) who’s a comic artist comes to visit Etsuko while she’s not home. They start to have sex in her apartment while she’s not home. From that point on, Yukie and Akira also starts to live in Etsuko’s apartment. Koichi seems to be not so stable mentally, and attempts a suicide, and does other weird things around the place. It’s not exactly sweet eros that’s going around the place, but no doubt that these people are living on a forefront of Japanese culture of the ’70s.Director Toshiya Fujita, and script writer Atsushi Yamatoya are notable director and writer. Kaori Momoi is a famous actor from the ’70s, known for her nice looks. All these seems to bring the quality of this movie a notch above that of other Roman Poruno movies. A young Kaori Momoi had stunning good looks. The movie is bit like a prequel to another of Toshiya Fujita’s movie “Slo na Bugi ni Shitekure”. Depicting the lifestyle of non-mainstream people in society is typical of Roman Poruno series. This was a movie from the early ’70s where Japan was trying to find a new style of living, and many experimental movies were made. This movie is like a cross between regular Roman Poruno movie, and the avant garde movies that were popular at the time.