Inflatable Sex Dolls of the Wastelands - Limited Deluxe Edition (Blu-ray)

INFLATABLE SEX DOLL OF THE WASTELANDS (KÔYA NO DACCHI WAIFU), 1967, 86 min.  “Every day at 3 o’clock I’ve been killing you in my daydreams,” murmurs low-rent hitman Shô (Yûichi Minato), haunted by the death of his girlfriend five years earlier and seeking revenge on the gangster who killed her, in director/writer Atsushi Yamatoya’s eerie, seedy and dreamlike noir with fractured, time-bending overtones of John Boorman’s POINT BLANK and Christopher Nolan’s MEMENTO.  Yamatoya co-wrote Seijun Suzuki’s BRANDED TO KILL (released the same year as this), and the films are companion pieces in many ways:  subversive and jarring with strange flashbacks, inexplicable dialogue and song lyrics (“My burning dumdum goes flying, bites the enemy’s neck”), inserts that shatter the fourth wall, and a dissonant free jazz score.  Produced by Keiko Satô, one of the few female producers in the underground Japanese pink film genre, the absurdly-titled INFLATABLE SEX DOLL is comparable to similar movies by American erotic auteurs Russ Meyer (FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL!) and Radley Metzger at their most arthouse.  The feverish S&M vibe and lurid B&W cinematography is like a junkie’s smack-induced nightmare:  basically the cinematic equivalent of listening to the Velvet Underground’s “Venus In Furs” and “Sister Ray.”  Recently rescued from the only surviving 35mm film elements by Rapid Eye Movies in Germany, and newly digitally restored by Craig Rogers for Deaf Crocodile. 

Special Features:

• New commentary by film historians Arne Venema and Mike Leeder.

• New video interview with film professor Alexander Zahlten on the Pink Film subgenre in Japanese cinema.

• New video essay by journalist and physical media expert Ryan Verrill (The Disc Connected) and film professor Dr. Will Dodson.

• Blu-ray authoring by David Mackenzie of Fidelity In Motion.

• New art by Beth Morris.

Deluxe Edition Bonus Content:

• Slipcase featuring new illustration by Tony Stella

• 60-page illustrated book

• New essay by film historian Alexandra Heller-Nicholas

• New essay by Japanese film expert and musician Chris D.

• New essay by film critic Walter Chaw.

• Interview conducted with producer Keiko Satô of Kokuei Films, conducted by producer Hiromi Aihara of Bewiz

- Deluxe Edition is limited to only 1500 copies -