Shudojo Runa no kokuhaku (1976)

User Rating:

5.7/10   

Director:

Masaru Konuma

Writer:

Toshio Ashizawa (writer)

Plot Keywords:

Nun

Cast

Yoko Azusa
Nobutaka Masutomi
Aoi Nakajima
Shin Nakamaru
Luna Takamura		(as Runa Takamura)

Also Known As:

Cloistered Nun: Runa's Confession (USA)

Runtime:

USA:74 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Company:

Nikkatsu

Ring the bell

I've sometimes wondered why a country like Japan, in which maybe 1 percent of the population is Catholic, would have gotten involved in the notorious "nunsploitation" genre when many countries with much larger Catholic populations (like the US) have not. This movie does give you some insight on the appeal of "nunsploitation" for the Japanese. Only two scenes actually show life inside the convent--the opening scene where the heroine "Runa" is being sexually assaulted by the (non-Japanese) priest while she rings (and rings and rings. . .) the convent bell, and a flashback scene where as a novice she is assaulted for the first time by the same priest. Most of the movie, however, is about "Runa" returning to her hometown. She had apparently entered the convent after her slutty sister had stolen her boyfriend. She has apparently forgiven them though and has come to offer them a chance to buy and re-sell some convent land so they can afford to get married. Unbeknownst to her, they are no longer a couple (although the boyfriend does sexually assault the sister on a pool table for old times sake), but the greedy pair are willing to work together to get their hands on the valuable land.

Your enjoyment of this movie will no doubt depend on how much you are able to get around the typically cavalier Japanese attitude towards rape. Japanese films treat rape in the titillating and rather non-serious manner that Hollywood films treat murder. The slutty sister, for instance, gets the money to buy the land by promising to marry a half a dozen rich guys (and giving each a print of an intimate part of her anatomy). When they find out about her deception, they lure her to a warehouse to take their revenge.But in this movie even gang rape seems to be only a minor inconvenience for the woman involved, and they actually seem to enjoy individual rape, especially if it involves a bi-sexual three-way and a shotgun. . .

All in all, this a typical Japanese "pink" film. It's VERY politically incorrect, but much better made than any kind of American porn product. There's plenty of softcore sex scenes and the plot generally holds together pretty well. The acting is fairly competent, even if the characters are all completely ridiculous and the whole thing is virtually impossible to take seriously. This certainly isn't for everybody, but the people who would want to watch it know who they are.