Skin Of Roses (1978)

Depraved softcore romance porn with a story... only the Japanese could pull off something like this and still make it feel classy.

Ritsuko's beautiful, and that's part of why this is as good as it is! The story's about a gangster, and love, but in the end none of that really matters after all. Ritsuko matters. Though the story ultimately contributes an air of sadness that somehow just amplifies her beauty, and both the importance and the meaningless of it all... give it a watch, you'll understand.

It doesn't take long before she (and her closest friends) are all performing various pleasurable acts in artistic ways. They play with things. They express themselves. There's always intrigue too. Always ulterior motive. It's not all black and white or linear or square or anything in that over-exaggerated and saturated Westernized kind of way... not sure what I mean by that but: it feels right here, no matter how far they take it. There's always a reason. It's always redeeming.

It's the good stuff. Porn and poetry. Though maybe you can't really call it porn after all. Seems too crude. Poetry of the perverse? Art of the acts of... love? This is that. Worldly words don't capture the rapture.

Don't expect anything crazy, but sometimes simple really is more.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle