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Flesh Trade: Tales from the UK Sexual Underground
From the 1950s through the 1990s
in America, magazines bore the brunt of legal assault against sexual entertainment.
In Japan, by contrast, major movie studios led the struggle against censorship.
In 1972, the country's oldest studio reinvented itself as a soft porn
producer. On the verge of bankruptcy, Nikkatsu Corporation made "roman
poruno" - romantic softcore films. At the time the country's slumping
box office forced five major production companies out of business. "When it comes to good-looking erotic stars and high production values, the United States rules the world.... If for no other reason than advanced dentistry, our stars are heads, shoulders and teeth above all others. "In my European tape-viewing experience, the German women are pale and dumpy, the men Nazi-like; the French have a lean, feral cast, especially the guys; the English have pale skin and really big bottoms; the Scandinavians are good-looking but appear bored; and the Eastern Europeans…should do something about those serious skin rashes." (Steve Brent, author of Couples Guide To The Best Erotic Videos)) Pornographers like Private travel the world in search of beautiful women willing to fornicate in front of their cameras. With demand for fresh meat inexhaustible, producers collect money, and pack their camcorders for exotic location such as Israel, South America, South Africa, Australia and parts of Asia. Porn locations provide a way to measure a country's freedom. If one sees a porno shot in a particular nation, one knows there's liberty in that country. Freedom to fuck on film goes hand-in-groin with relative freedom of speech and expression. Since the end of apartheid, one can videotape sex in South Africa as well as sell sexvids, but few other places in the Dark Continent are as open. You're not likely to find The Girls of Mozambique or Nelli Does Nigeria. Popular Asian locations include Thailand and the Philippines because of their beautiful women and scenery and low currency values. But you can't make porn in Communist North Korea or China. Depending on the country, European productions can show anything - from bestiality to urination to bondage videos featuring hardcore sex. According to a representative of one of Europe's largest packager and distributor Scala Agenturn, based in the Netherlands, only about ten percent of American XXX product is saleable in Europe because of its bad technical quality. Times have changed since Europe would take any American porn. "Domestic producers of adult films and videos, who once depended on selling their titles to European countries for huge profits, are discovering that a large glut of product is forcing prices down, making much of their product unwanted in many countries across the pond. "American pornography, once the staple diet of consumers in Germany, France, Spain and the like, has been displaced by the quality production values and sexual heat of Sweden's Private Video... Germany's Moli Exclusive line of high-budget features, big Italian productions such as Marco Polo and an unlimited supply of European product that covers the broad spectrum of sexual tastes." (AVN 9/94 p.181) Says a leading American exporter, David Kravis of Coastline Films: "Two years ago [1992], American product was king, but we've run up against competition from the European productions. I put the blame on our (American) industry for...generic product." Europeans prefer film to video. "The most popular American titles are the older ones such as Amanda by Night and I Like To Watch," says Betty Geerts of Scala. Most of the older Caballero 35mm titles still sell well as do VCA and Vivid features. American gay tapes also sell well because "they are superior." In Denmark, the Theander brothers own the largest porn publishing house in the world, while partners Becke Uhe and Hans Maer pour out product from Germany. Sweden's Private - founded first as a porn magazine by Berthe Milton - produces much of the world's highest quality porn, combining Vivid's touch with production values with fresh girl and nasty sex. Milton began publishing Private magazine in the 1960s. Content with the magazine's slow but steady growth, Berthe in 1990 had only four employees - one for each edition of his magazine published each year. In 1990, Berthe handed over control of his company to his like-named son in 1990 who overflowed with new ideas for the company. The younger Berthe Milton started a videotape line based around Private magazine's worldwide success. Each issue of Private Video Magazine features six to eight sexual vignettes. Next came Private Films - full-length video features of reckless sex taped in beautiful locations around the world, including Costa Rica, Thailand and Australia. "The only place we had a problem was in Russia," Milton told AVN. "We couldn't do anything there until we had gotten permission from the local crime bosses. "We always use new, fresh talent," says Milton. "Normally we never use any talent more than three times. We never use porn stars..." AVN: "The Emmanuelle series plus the Mermaids series, plus some of the freshest, dirtiest, most lushly-photographed hardcore in recent memory, equals Private Film. When you add the twin penchants Private has for showcasing American stars in heights that they may have not reached in domestic productions (reference Kitty Yung in Virgin Treasures or Lydia Chanel in Anal Clinic, or Danyel Cheeks in Anal Manor, for example) and finding some incredible European new faces and bodies, we're talking instant-classic status." (AVN 10/94 p.66) AVN says Private Video Magazine 5 "…has in abundance what many big-budget adult videos lack: incredible, outrageous, unbelievable sex action from beginning to end. "The women - mostly new to U.S. audiences - are strikingly beautiful and uninhibited; there's not a scene that doesn't include anal; several of the scenes are gangbangs; there's plenty of DP action; and to top it all of there are no less than 20 pop shots, 15 of them facials." "Private cranks out features with great production values, gorgeous performers who aren't stale or feel the need to bleach their hair, tattoo themselves, and then go from a 34B to 40D bust size, non-offensive looking dudes, and plenty of hardcore sex every time out of the block," writes RAME moderator Brad Williams. "Private thrives. They run billboards in California hyping their latest releases. Private is living proof that big budgeted, well produced material that is shot over several days instead of an afternoon has a substantial market." AVN reviews Anal Manor. "You're not likely to recognize many faces in this cast [except for Danyel Cheeks], but being an all-anal feature, faces aren't the focus of attention. A Marquis de Sade cult, replete with masked monks and submissive, butt-cleaving babes all called Justine, sets the tone for a well-shot, handsomely mounted romp. Eleven nasty scenes - including a DP, four-on-one, multiple simultaneous cumshots...and a chrome dildo attached to an arm stump. Absolutely filthy." Swede Nic Cramer directs both mainstream and pornographic flicks for Private including Apocalypse 2, shot in the Philippines. "A chancy combination of two amalgamate themes (sex and war) succeeds. Copulation is rampant and can be seen continuously through mortar fire on bamboo shoots and inside camouflage tents." (AVN 97) Michael Ricaud directed Beauties in Paradise. "Lush beaches, emerald forests and luscious foreign youngsters are eager for nasty booty bustin' and facial frostings in one of the finest imports since Australian Toaster Biscuits. Exterior locales are exploited for maximum effect in a tale of two sisters who dash off to become papaya juice waitresses at a remote resort for widowers." (AVN 97) Ricaud made Skin 3 - the umpteenth steal of The Story of O - "timid young thing sent to chateau by boyfriend who wants her to be a better slut, she does, she comes home and writes about it. "The cast is composed of equal parts American and European actors, including Keisha and a hairy brute named Siegfried who seems to be the Gallic Ron Jeremy. Perfect bodied Eurasian princess Gyn Seng steals the show, as she submits her enchanting coochie to the increasingly humiliating sex." (David Aaron Clarke) One of Europe top directors, Michael drowned while shooting a feature in the Seychelles for Private. He was standing on a rock, overlooking the scene, when a wave knocked him over. AVN: "One of the few amenities one can usually count on in life is the Private line, so consistently delirious in its devotion to classic tease, nasty butt-fucking, multiple facial shots and a bevy of international to-die for babes to whom the term "breast augmentation" is a foreign concept. A gaggle of Venezuelan Venuses, those nut-brown beauties endowed with great, meaty-but-firm butts which true ass-lovers kneel down and supplicate over is reason enough to recommend the tape." Critic Pat Riley stopped watching Private after their first 18 movies "due to total disgust at their attitude to the women. How many times can you stand some guy call the girl a "salope" and "putain" and then watch while he gangbangs (rapes?) her with his sleazy buddies. Yecch! And all that looking at the camera while she's getting screwed. Everything's group sex...a sperm war… "Pornoland discovered the foreign movie during 1995/96," writes Riley, "or saw how well the Private series was doing for Odyssey and tried to hop on the bandwagon by flooding the market with every scrap of dreck that could be scavenged from the archives of their European counterparts. Battalions of porno producers, directors, and actors marched in lockstep into the Eastern block countries to video their dalliances with the local hookers in crumbling hotels and then inflicted the results on us. Locals churned the video cameras faster, producing tape after tape of copious facials, anals, double penetrations, double anals, and gang bangs but nary a hint of personality, romance nor even a last name to most of the performers. When the travelogues of Budapest started to pall, the Czech Republic became the hunting ground and now Russia and Romania; not to be outdone, Private headed to South Africa after hitting Indonesia and the Philippines." AVN advises retailers that if they stock only one "Eurofuckfest tape, Viola Video 2 from Pleasure Productions is it.... All in German... A potpourri of porn resides between the reels of this gem. Five thermal segments featuring Double Penetration, a double anal, oral, straight, girl/girl, and a hot solo with a three foot long parsnip. Long scenes, attractive women, great camera-work, lavish sets, a purple candle getting shoved up some Kraut's ass..." German production company Magma erupts with molten porn. Take Anal Power for instance. "A dance instructor copping a feel is the lead-in for the first part of this nefarious video from overseas... A non-stop anal flick which uses many angles of penetration made popular by Max Hardcore. The girls range from average to gorgeous and are all eager to bend over." (AVN 97)
Time International wrote 3/24/97 that Budapest, Hungary is the new European center for the production of porno. After Communism's collapse in 1989, Hungarians explored the limits of freedom. Says former Foreign Minister Geza Jeszenszky: "People hated the restrictions and rushed to obtain formerly forbidden fruits, including pornography." Hungary produces about 150 sex films a year, about 10% of Europe's total.
Time: "But the Hungarian porn business has a sinister side. Young children - usually homeless or neglected by their parents - are being lured off the streets with promises of glamorous careers in modeling. It's only later - often too late - that they learn what they're really required to do. In the provincial town of Eger in northern Hungary, a man was arrested last June for featuring girls between the ages of 10 and 15 in his pornographic films." Photojournalist Istvan Kovacs made the first all-Hungarian skin flick, and over the past five years, he's produced more than 30 features through his production and distribution company Luxx Video. "It used to be a novelty for foreigners to use girls from behind the Iron Curtain," says Kovacs. "But that's no longer the reason they come. Hungarian girls work well, it's cheaper to film here and there are lots of great venues." With the average Hungarian bringing home only $220 a month, there's no shortage of eager youngsters who hope to earn anywhere from $100 to $5000 a day to perform in porno. Anita Rinaldi, a former hairdresser from the industrial town of Dunaujvaros in southern Hungary, entered porn at age 19. Five years later she owns Hungary's largest sex model agency, Touch Me Productions. "I never enjoy the sex in the films," says Anita. "I'm just acting. I can separate my body and my soul." (Time) Censorship varies throughout Europe. England and Ireland are the most repressive. Both cut scenes considered too sexy from mainstream movies (no X is allowed). While Ireland is sensitive to blasphemy (Monty Python's Life of Brian didn't make the cut), violence in film is ok. The British frequently censor violence in movies. Sweden rejected the violent Belgian film Man Bites Dog, but it has no barriers to sexual content. As a producer of porn, Sweden lags behind Germany and the Netherlands. Germany and Holland have little censorship. Says Pat Kelly of the Europa Times, "This liberal system confounds its critics by pointing out that despite a lack of censorious control, Holland has a lower crime rate than many of its counterparts with strict film guidelines." Spain, Europe's second biggest porn consumer, and Portugal have no censorship laws. Porn tastes vary around the world. Americans seem obsessed with size - big breasts and big dicks and the Europeans in raunch. The Japanese appear more interested in youth and the British in schoolboy punishment. Randy Jorgenson founded Adults Only Video, Canada's largest retailer of hardcore sex films and magazines. Since 1987 he's transformed Adults Only from a single outlet in Saskatchewan into a company with 500 employees, annual sales of $25 million and 80 stores stretching from Kingston, Ontario to Victoria. He used to run a muffler shop in his home town of Moosomin, Saskatchewan, before owning an industrial tools franchise, managing hotels and exported cars to the U.S.. Then Randy stumbled into his fortune. "Farm-boy friendly but ambitious and shrewd as well, Jorgensen markets hardcore films and magazines the way other businessmen sell fast food and kid's clothing. He has a corporate logo to identify his stores. He advertises in newspapers, on radio stations and in the Yellow Pages, and he has conducted market surveys to determine what type of people are renting his movies." (Macleans 10/11/93) "Most people think of adult video stores as sleazy, back-alley operations patronized by dirty old men in trench coats," says Jorgensen. "But image is important to us. Many of our customers are well-educated people with lots of disposable income. Our stores are designed to make them feel comfortable."
Macleans: "Located mostly in strip malls between, say, a real-estate office and a pet office, the Adults Only stores bring dirty movies into the clean streets of middle-class Canada. They are the most visible sign of a spreading trend: pornography in the home." Most Southeast Asian porn comes from Japan which boasts a $10 billion a year industry that produces over 10,000 sex videos a year. "The most sophisticated distribution system in the world retails the product via video stores, convenience stores, vending machines, even mom and pop groceries." (Speed Tribes) "The Japanese get their cheap sex from foreigners then come home and have normal relations with their own kind," says Max Volume. "Japanese women are socialized to be passive. The girls in Jap porn do the same thing every time: they lie on their back, turn their head to one side, and close their eyes. That's about the only thing that turns me off about them. I want a girl who grabs me with two hands, looks in my eyes and demands I fuck her brains out. "Japan was lucky enough to keep Christianity and Freud out of their country, which probably has a lot to do with them being much more casual about sex." (RAME) Many of the Japanese porn stars go on to careers in TV or modeling. To taste the current sex environment in Japan with its reduced interpretation of the censorship laws, one has to only go into the local video shop and see the walls of Schoolgirl videos (aged 14-18), enema/peeing vids, and bestiality vids. If you have the 10,000 yen or so, all videos are available uncensored. Japanese Jew Karl Taro Greenfield describes Japan's porno industry in his 1994 book Speed Tribes. Like porn users around the world, Japanese men thirst for fresh meat, literally maguro which translates to "tuna", the nickname for the females in Japanese sex videos. The typical male performer earns $100 per pop shot while the women make up to $6000 a day. Unlike the American industry, Japanese porn does not regularly test performers for the HIV virus. Greenfield profiles leading Japanese director Shoji Onodera. "He could tell instantly if a girl would work out... He turned down beautiful girls with fulsome figures whom the crew was catcalling for, and chose… homely girls who'd turn out to have that animal sexuality... The girl who was shy but liked it. The girl who was a little insecure about her looks and so was pleased to be regarded as a sex object, flattered to be in a porno film, thrilled that men all around Japan would be masturbating into tissues at the sight of her pussy wet and split on the television screen." In Japanese porn, as American, the male usually ejaculates on to the female's face, no matter how difficult the sexual position they are in at the time of the male orgasm. "...Demon, who has holding Emi in midair and penetrating her from behind, had to throw Emi down on the bed and flip her over in order to come in her face." (Greenfield) The Japanese series Sperm Face features eight to ten guys jerking off onto a girls face. "The Japanese girls I know have muscular legs," says Max Volume, "mostly from all the walking they have to do. The main problem is that the Japanese porn directors do not know how to lens a porn film, thus we do not get clear and good shots of thighs and butts bent over. These directors play to what they perceive as the Japanese male's desire to see women as submissive, thus the long shots of Japanese girls lying on their backs naked." "They have flatter asses than the US," says John Nowakoski, "but no ass is too flat once it's bent over and sticking in your face... Japanese women have beautiful faces, and that look a Japanese woman gets when she hits orgasm...roar.... See it in person and you'll never be the same again." (RAME) The biggest problem with Japanese girls, writes Max Volume, "is their incisors which stick out like fangs..." (RAME) One must look long and hard to find Chinese porn. The production is usually amateurish and the sex random - "meaning that there's no buildup or any of the usual cues that come with hardcore movie... The performers exaggerate their movements and facial expressions... Sometimes the women can be truly skanky, most likely prostitutes hired off the streets." (Onanist of RAME) If Chinese police catch someone making porn, they frequently execute them.
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