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Hard times for Japanese AV productions filmed outdoors

Cops slapped obscenity charges on 3 suspects for filming in a park in Nagoya

Last Thursday, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported the arrests of the members of a film crew on obscenity charges for the alleged filming of an adult video (AV) inside a public park in Nagoya’s Nakamura Ward.

Just before 6:00 p.m. on October 15, Aichi Prefectural Police arrived at Biwajimabashi Ryokuchi Park to find director Ben Takatsuki, 39, hospital employee Masahiko Sago, 56, and a 20-year-old female college student engaged in the filming of an “outdoor play AV” production. Someone had previously phoned in a tip about a possible kidnapping. Witnesses had observed the female, dressed in a sailor uniform, performing oral sex on Sago in the back of a station wagon.

Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 4) says that the incident is further evidence that though demand for outdoor-themed films is firm regulation on filming by law enforcement remains rigid.

The paper says that an incident from 2008 was a turning point. That June, the president of AV production company Hot Entertainment and seven crew members were arrested for filming sex scenes in the back of an 11-ton dump truck in Shibuya.

“Previously, scenes showing honban (coital sex) and blow-jobs were filmed in front of passersby,” say an employee in the AV industry. “But nowadays that will end in an arrest.”

For that reason, most productions these days will utilize a ‘magic mirror’ — in which the glass is transparent in one direction only — when filming inside a large-sized car or open-air bath, says the source.

“But there are rabid fans who want to see authentic natural landscapes,” says the employee. “Productions like that featuring honban scenes will sell for between 7,000 and 8,000 yen.”

With the risk of arrest being fairly high, the compensation is higher than normal.

AV writer Kazuo Kajiyama says that a director who might make 400,000 yen for an average production might fetch between 600,000 and 700,000 yen for an outdoor shoot. Likewise, an actress may have her wages bumped from 200,000 to 400,000 yen.

The male lead may be tasked with the greatest challenge as he must have a desire to show off in public. Kajiyama says shyness is not an option. “It all may be for naught if the guy gets stage fright and can’t get it up,” says the writer.

The process is indeed fraught with hardships, chuckles Nikkan Gendai.

Source: “Gyara waridaka…’yagai puree AV’ ha torishimari genkakuka demo kakujitsu ni ureru,” Nikkan Gendai (Nov. 4, page 5)