A director falls in love
A lot has been written about Yotsuha Kominato’s adult video debut late last month, including my own blog “Major pop star to make porn debut on June 26, 2022” https://xhamster.com/posts/10336834
But much of the discussion took place before the video had been seen. And it really needs to be re-evaluated in light of the rather astonishing result.
Porn debut
The debut was eagerly awaited. As a member of the highly successful but now defunct pop group The Fairies (under the name Inoue Rikako), Kominato has a lot of fans. A lot of those people wanted to see her naked. And now they have (apart from bits hidden by the damn mosaic, of course). But other fans wailed and gnashed their teeth at the idea of their pop idol becoming a porn star. After so much talk about Yotsuha’s porn debut, I am a little surprised to see that no English speaking commentator has made an apparently obvious observation about it since its release: that it is not porn at all.
What is porn?
American judge Potter Stewart famously declared that he although he could not define it, he knew pornography when he saw it (I know a lawyer when I read their words and Stewart was plainly not one. If one cannot define something then for purposes of the law it does not exist.) Porn is a representation of the sexuality of one or more individuals for the main or sole purpose of inducing sexual excitement in the reader or viewer. Erotica is the same but the aesthetic element is of equal purpose. If it’s very beautiful then it’s erotica. If it’s very sexually exciting, it’s porn. Yotsuha’s debut is not porn. But I am not sure that it is erotica either. It is something else. Something I have not seen before.
The film
The film runs for more than three hours. And there is an even longer version available too. It starts with a music video. Yotsuha wanders around her home town of Nagasaki and sings. It’s all very pretty. Then we see the set being constructed and Yotsuha arrives, makes-up, and examines the set. There are a series of interviews throughout the film and footage of Yotsuha wandering around a garden, making friends with the film crew, and so on.
Then comes the first sex scene. It runs for an hour. It moves at a pace similar to that of a tortoise with gout. It’s length and the number of edits are so few that it puts the famous traffic jam scene in Godard’s Le Weekend to shame. A male actor appears. He and Yotsuha introduce themselves to each other. Slowly and very gently, they explore each other until finally, they make love. On a white bed in a white room the director/cameraman (Yoshiaki Nomoto) silently circles the pair. His camera focusses primarily on Yotsuha’s face. She speaks rarely and then only in whispers. The male actor matches her volume. The predominant sound is that of silence. Carefully, gently, the male actor guides her in the lovemaking. It is very, very much as if she has never done any of this before.
After more interviews in which Yotsuha describes her schooldays and her mother’s teachings to her amongst other things, there is a solo masturbation scene. Everyone who watches porn has seen hundreds of these. This is not like any of those. Again, it is like she has never done this before. Sitting on a grey Ikea couch, Yotsuha reluctantly but good-naturedly inserts a few fingers into herself. And that’s it. Again, the director asks her a series of questions afterward. She seems comfortable in his presence.
A second sex scene follows. The room and the male actor are different. A red blindfold is worn by Yotsuha for some of the time. A white feather is produced to stroke her with. In all other respects it is a carbon copy of the earlier scene.
What is this?
Anyone hoping for some masturbatory relief is wasting their time here. This won’t get most men even to half mast. It is so slow and so narrow in its focus that I am reminded of Yoko Ono’s Fly - a 25 minute film consisting of nothing more than a single insect wandering over a woman’s naked body. That film is about as interesting as watching paint dry. And yet this new film is utterly compelling. What we have here is the only filmed scene of real sex between people that I have ever seen. What we see is obviously real. Yotsuha has no acting experience or training at all. She doesn’t have the ability to fake it in what are nearly single takes lasting an hour each. This is what it looks like when a young, emotionally mature woman of modest sexual experience (Yotsuha confesses to having had three lovers before this film was made) has sex for the first time with a stranger. It is awkward. It is embarrassing. It is difficult. It is sometimes vaguely erotic. But mostly it is moving. Because there is a lot of emotion going on as two human beings explore each other in the most intimate way possible. And the director is focussed entirely on capturing that. After the male actors ejaculate, they quickly withdraw leaving Yotsuha to discuss what has happened with the director. It feels strangely like a violation to approach this woman who is still warm from the embrace of her lover and wet from his semen and then to speak with her whilst she clutches at the bedding to cover her nakedness. But she goes along.
This plays like a documentary: a famous pop star has sex with two strangers for money. This is what it looked like. And here she is talking about what it felt like to her. In a whisper.
A love affair
A film like this only gets made in a set of extraordinary circumstances. I can only assume that both the director and the producers fell in love with Yotsuha before this film was fully conceived. Perhaps they were Fairies fans. I cannot see that there can be any other explanation. What has been made here is not a very commercial product. And it is the absolute antithesis of what is expected of the Japanese porn industry, which is renowned for its ruthlessness toward young women. It reflects Yotsuha’s own personality so well that it is impossible that she did not have a hand in its conception. But it is unheard of for an actress to have this measure of involvement in a porn debut. And, despite her past celebrity, she doesn’t have the clout to demand it: she was working as a cosmetologist before this. However it was put together, the result is a tasteful, deeply respectful, frighteningly intimate exploration of its star as she embarks on something that is not particularly easy for her. The director hangs on her every whispered word or whimper. The camera lingers on every eyelid flutter, half smile, and every bashful attempt she makes to hide her face. Because of the absence of any other action, these small movements achieve the level of high drama on the screen. By the time we are done, it is very hard to believe that one does not know this woman intimately. And, I venture that anyone who endures to the end will want at least to be her friend. Or her lover. But probably the former first. Because it is plain that she is a lovely, deeply sensitive, sensible, introverted and careful woman. And although that is also the impression one got from the prerelease publicity it is nevertheless a surprise. Simply because one does not expect such a person to have chosen this path. But, as I have explained, the result is not what anyone had expected. Not at all.
This film should be shown in cinemas. That is the proper venue for what it is. It needs to be watched without interruption from start to finish in a single setting on a large screen and with rapt attention. For the few who will do so, it will be very rewarding. I fear very much, however, that this is not the spirit of our time and many will watch it on a mobile device with the fast-forward button to hand. Those people need not bother to watch it at all.
Beauty
At 26, Yotsuha debuts later than most in porn. She is slightly heavier than many of us are used to seeing in younger porn actresses. But she is very beautiful. Her beauty shines out of who she is. And that is the greatest difference between this film and any porn I have ever seen. Porn actors and actresses leave their personalities at the door. Their role, to a large degree, is to bring their body to the set and submit it to a variety of acts with only the most modest of indications of what they are really thinking - a smile or a giggle here and there may be cherished for its rarity. Porn actresses are largely interchangeable and distinguished between one another by viewers seemingly on the basis of analysis of the size of their breasts alone. Who is Ichika Matsumoto really? I have no idea. Even someone like Umi Yatsugake, who invites one to get to know her through her You Tube channel and social media, is so carefully studied in the way she presents herself that it’s difficult to work out whether there is anything more behind her exquisite face and studiously polite and deferential manner. One hopes so. Because it would be tragic if anyone so beautiful were as (pleasantly) vacuous as she appears.
This film, on the other hand, is all about the personality of its star, which is imprinted on it from the first frame to the last. From the clothing she wears - which match the palette of the scenery in the film, is tasteful, looks expensive, covers almost all of her skin, and is the exact opposite to what anyone might expect to see a woman wear in a porn movie - through to the discussion of her upbringing and schooling, and ultimately the close study of her dark eyes as she experiences pleasure.
Next step
As for Yotsuha’s new career, I have absolutely no idea what comes next. I am doubtful, however, that it is going to be porn as we know it. She doesn’t really seem capable of that. But we shall see. In the meantime, true fans of the Fairies have been given an extraordinary gift. Wankers, however, will have to find what they need elsewhere.
But much of the discussion took place before the video had been seen. And it really needs to be re-evaluated in light of the rather astonishing result.
Porn debut
The debut was eagerly awaited. As a member of the highly successful but now defunct pop group The Fairies (under the name Inoue Rikako), Kominato has a lot of fans. A lot of those people wanted to see her naked. And now they have (apart from bits hidden by the damn mosaic, of course). But other fans wailed and gnashed their teeth at the idea of their pop idol becoming a porn star. After so much talk about Yotsuha’s porn debut, I am a little surprised to see that no English speaking commentator has made an apparently obvious observation about it since its release: that it is not porn at all.
What is porn?
American judge Potter Stewart famously declared that he although he could not define it, he knew pornography when he saw it (I know a lawyer when I read their words and Stewart was plainly not one. If one cannot define something then for purposes of the law it does not exist.) Porn is a representation of the sexuality of one or more individuals for the main or sole purpose of inducing sexual excitement in the reader or viewer. Erotica is the same but the aesthetic element is of equal purpose. If it’s very beautiful then it’s erotica. If it’s very sexually exciting, it’s porn. Yotsuha’s debut is not porn. But I am not sure that it is erotica either. It is something else. Something I have not seen before.
The film
The film runs for more than three hours. And there is an even longer version available too. It starts with a music video. Yotsuha wanders around her home town of Nagasaki and sings. It’s all very pretty. Then we see the set being constructed and Yotsuha arrives, makes-up, and examines the set. There are a series of interviews throughout the film and footage of Yotsuha wandering around a garden, making friends with the film crew, and so on.
Then comes the first sex scene. It runs for an hour. It moves at a pace similar to that of a tortoise with gout. It’s length and the number of edits are so few that it puts the famous traffic jam scene in Godard’s Le Weekend to shame. A male actor appears. He and Yotsuha introduce themselves to each other. Slowly and very gently, they explore each other until finally, they make love. On a white bed in a white room the director/cameraman (Yoshiaki Nomoto) silently circles the pair. His camera focusses primarily on Yotsuha’s face. She speaks rarely and then only in whispers. The male actor matches her volume. The predominant sound is that of silence. Carefully, gently, the male actor guides her in the lovemaking. It is very, very much as if she has never done any of this before.
After more interviews in which Yotsuha describes her schooldays and her mother’s teachings to her amongst other things, there is a solo masturbation scene. Everyone who watches porn has seen hundreds of these. This is not like any of those. Again, it is like she has never done this before. Sitting on a grey Ikea couch, Yotsuha reluctantly but good-naturedly inserts a few fingers into herself. And that’s it. Again, the director asks her a series of questions afterward. She seems comfortable in his presence.
A second sex scene follows. The room and the male actor are different. A red blindfold is worn by Yotsuha for some of the time. A white feather is produced to stroke her with. In all other respects it is a carbon copy of the earlier scene.
What is this?
Anyone hoping for some masturbatory relief is wasting their time here. This won’t get most men even to half mast. It is so slow and so narrow in its focus that I am reminded of Yoko Ono’s Fly - a 25 minute film consisting of nothing more than a single insect wandering over a woman’s naked body. That film is about as interesting as watching paint dry. And yet this new film is utterly compelling. What we have here is the only filmed scene of real sex between people that I have ever seen. What we see is obviously real. Yotsuha has no acting experience or training at all. She doesn’t have the ability to fake it in what are nearly single takes lasting an hour each. This is what it looks like when a young, emotionally mature woman of modest sexual experience (Yotsuha confesses to having had three lovers before this film was made) has sex for the first time with a stranger. It is awkward. It is embarrassing. It is difficult. It is sometimes vaguely erotic. But mostly it is moving. Because there is a lot of emotion going on as two human beings explore each other in the most intimate way possible. And the director is focussed entirely on capturing that. After the male actors ejaculate, they quickly withdraw leaving Yotsuha to discuss what has happened with the director. It feels strangely like a violation to approach this woman who is still warm from the embrace of her lover and wet from his semen and then to speak with her whilst she clutches at the bedding to cover her nakedness. But she goes along.
This plays like a documentary: a famous pop star has sex with two strangers for money. This is what it looked like. And here she is talking about what it felt like to her. In a whisper.
A love affair
A film like this only gets made in a set of extraordinary circumstances. I can only assume that both the director and the producers fell in love with Yotsuha before this film was fully conceived. Perhaps they were Fairies fans. I cannot see that there can be any other explanation. What has been made here is not a very commercial product. And it is the absolute antithesis of what is expected of the Japanese porn industry, which is renowned for its ruthlessness toward young women. It reflects Yotsuha’s own personality so well that it is impossible that she did not have a hand in its conception. But it is unheard of for an actress to have this measure of involvement in a porn debut. And, despite her past celebrity, she doesn’t have the clout to demand it: she was working as a cosmetologist before this. However it was put together, the result is a tasteful, deeply respectful, frighteningly intimate exploration of its star as she embarks on something that is not particularly easy for her. The director hangs on her every whispered word or whimper. The camera lingers on every eyelid flutter, half smile, and every bashful attempt she makes to hide her face. Because of the absence of any other action, these small movements achieve the level of high drama on the screen. By the time we are done, it is very hard to believe that one does not know this woman intimately. And, I venture that anyone who endures to the end will want at least to be her friend. Or her lover. But probably the former first. Because it is plain that she is a lovely, deeply sensitive, sensible, introverted and careful woman. And although that is also the impression one got from the prerelease publicity it is nevertheless a surprise. Simply because one does not expect such a person to have chosen this path. But, as I have explained, the result is not what anyone had expected. Not at all.
This film should be shown in cinemas. That is the proper venue for what it is. It needs to be watched without interruption from start to finish in a single setting on a large screen and with rapt attention. For the few who will do so, it will be very rewarding. I fear very much, however, that this is not the spirit of our time and many will watch it on a mobile device with the fast-forward button to hand. Those people need not bother to watch it at all.
Beauty
At 26, Yotsuha debuts later than most in porn. She is slightly heavier than many of us are used to seeing in younger porn actresses. But she is very beautiful. Her beauty shines out of who she is. And that is the greatest difference between this film and any porn I have ever seen. Porn actors and actresses leave their personalities at the door. Their role, to a large degree, is to bring their body to the set and submit it to a variety of acts with only the most modest of indications of what they are really thinking - a smile or a giggle here and there may be cherished for its rarity. Porn actresses are largely interchangeable and distinguished between one another by viewers seemingly on the basis of analysis of the size of their breasts alone. Who is Ichika Matsumoto really? I have no idea. Even someone like Umi Yatsugake, who invites one to get to know her through her You Tube channel and social media, is so carefully studied in the way she presents herself that it’s difficult to work out whether there is anything more behind her exquisite face and studiously polite and deferential manner. One hopes so. Because it would be tragic if anyone so beautiful were as (pleasantly) vacuous as she appears.
This film, on the other hand, is all about the personality of its star, which is imprinted on it from the first frame to the last. From the clothing she wears - which match the palette of the scenery in the film, is tasteful, looks expensive, covers almost all of her skin, and is the exact opposite to what anyone might expect to see a woman wear in a porn movie - through to the discussion of her upbringing and schooling, and ultimately the close study of her dark eyes as she experiences pleasure.
Next step
As for Yotsuha’s new career, I have absolutely no idea what comes next. I am doubtful, however, that it is going to be porn as we know it. She doesn’t really seem capable of that. But we shall see. In the meantime, true fans of the Fairies have been given an extraordinary gift. Wankers, however, will have to find what they need elsewhere.
3 years ago