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Paper short abstract:

This paper critically examines the form and function of the early Nikkatsu Roman Porno films marketed as "Sweden Porno" (Suêden Poruno). Produced by Nikkatsu and filmed on location in Sweden with an all Swedish cast, these films came to capitalize domestically on the exoticism of the "Swedish sin".

Paper long abstract:

The frank depictions of nudity and sexuality in Swedish films such as "One Summer of Happiness" (Arne Mattsson, 1951) and "Summer with Monika" (Ingmar Bergman, 1953), helped to cement Sweden's sexual reputation internationally, and the epithet "the Swedish sin" became an internationally known phenomenon after US president Eisenhower in 1960 famously claimed in a speech that "sin, nudity, drunkenness and suicide" in Sweden were due to welfare policy excess.

In Japan, the concept of the "Swedish sin" was thriving during the 1960s and 1970s, and during a few years in the early days of Nikkatsu Roman Porno production the studio produced several films under the moniker "Sweden Porno" (Suêden Poruno). With titles such as "Sweden Porno: Desire First Sex Experience", "Sweden Porno: Forest of Beastly Desire", "Sweden Porno: Blonde Animal", "Sweden Porno: Sex Beast's Agony", "Drops of Honey" and "Inn of Perverted Beasts", these films were shot on location in Sweden with a Swedish cast, yet production, script and direction was done by an all Japanese staff.

This presentation critically through close readings and contextualization examines the form and function of the films marketed as "Sweden Porno" (Suêden Poruno), and how these films came to capitalize domestically in Japan on the exoticism of the "Swedish sin" and how the idea of the sexualized Swedish woman and man came to be inflected for a Japanese audiences sensibility.