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So a hero of mine died over Christmas....
halkun
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Well it looks like a Hero and idol of mine, Ai Iijima, was found dead in her apartment on Christmas eve.
Ai started her entertainment career as a late night grauve (bikini) model, and went into porn in 1992. Her stint as an adult actress was short-lived but incredibly revolutionary. She was known for her very stright forward matter-of-fact ways of talking about sex. In Japanese culture talking directly about *anything* is something of a rarity. When she became a video directer and producer, she single-handily legitimated and mainstreamed the Japanese porn industry. She adopted a philosophy that porn was could be more than mindless misogynistic smut. She demonstrated that women could have equal standing in adult videos, something that, in a Japanese gender-role society, was quite an achievement. She paved the way for directors such as Chie Sugawara who were able to produce videos that divorced the "smut" from sex and made adult videos engaging and fun to watch. Chie went on to become president of Soft on Demand, one of the most renowned adult video companies in Japan. (Second is S-1, which also adopts a lot of the same philosophies)
While I lived in Japan, I religiously watched Ai's TV show, "Gilgamesh Night" on NHK. It was a panel discussion program with a weird line up of commentators. Ai sat in the middle and lead the discussion. To her immediate right and left were two bikini models, that commented in the subject matter in a "mainstream" way. Next the to models were, two female porn stars, that took the porn industry slant on the subject, and finally a pair of comedians were on the end of the table. They were there to tell the matter-of-fact truth. This was something that only comedians could get away with.
They had subjects that ranged from "Lesbians, what's up with them?" to "Should women be on the pill' (At the time, the birth control pill was banned in Japan. It was believed that a woman should not have control over her fertility. This put a woman control of starting a family, which was traditionally a man's job.)
Anyway, Ai quit show business and became a writer. The book that she is holding in the picture from above is "Platonic Sex", which was also turned into a movie. I own a copy of this book too, and was the first Japanese novel I ever bought.
According to the autopsy, they couldn't find anything wrong with her and so they are chalking it up to "natural causes". She was only two years older the me....
Anyway, this New Years I'll be getting piss drunk and celebrating her life. Say what you want about her being a porn star, she was an amazing person and America could of used someone like her.
Ai Iijima's Wikipedia entry
Ai started her entertainment career as a late night grauve (bikini) model, and went into porn in 1992. Her stint as an adult actress was short-lived but incredibly revolutionary. She was known for her very stright forward matter-of-fact ways of talking about sex. In Japanese culture talking directly about *anything* is something of a rarity. When she became a video directer and producer, she single-handily legitimated and mainstreamed the Japanese porn industry. She adopted a philosophy that porn was could be more than mindless misogynistic smut. She demonstrated that women could have equal standing in adult videos, something that, in a Japanese gender-role society, was quite an achievement. She paved the way for directors such as Chie Sugawara who were able to produce videos that divorced the "smut" from sex and made adult videos engaging and fun to watch. Chie went on to become president of Soft on Demand, one of the most renowned adult video companies in Japan. (Second is S-1, which also adopts a lot of the same philosophies)
While I lived in Japan, I religiously watched Ai's TV show, "Gilgamesh Night" on NHK. It was a panel discussion program with a weird line up of commentators. Ai sat in the middle and lead the discussion. To her immediate right and left were two bikini models, that commented in the subject matter in a "mainstream" way. Next the to models were, two female porn stars, that took the porn industry slant on the subject, and finally a pair of comedians were on the end of the table. They were there to tell the matter-of-fact truth. This was something that only comedians could get away with.
They had subjects that ranged from "Lesbians, what's up with them?" to "Should women be on the pill' (At the time, the birth control pill was banned in Japan. It was believed that a woman should not have control over her fertility. This put a woman control of starting a family, which was traditionally a man's job.)
Anyway, Ai quit show business and became a writer. The book that she is holding in the picture from above is "Platonic Sex", which was also turned into a movie. I own a copy of this book too, and was the first Japanese novel I ever bought.
According to the autopsy, they couldn't find anything wrong with her and so they are chalking it up to "natural causes". She was only two years older the me....
Anyway, this New Years I'll be getting piss drunk and celebrating her life. Say what you want about her being a porn star, she was an amazing person and America could of used someone like her.
Ai Iijima's Wikipedia entry
halkun on
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I could relate to it.
it still can be
Eartha Kitt though, man I will pour out a 40 for her
Thumbs up on both counts, Dru.
Bless that wonderful black woman's soul.
To be honest, I don't think I'll ever remember naything she's done more fondly than playing Catwoman, and Yzma from Emperor's New Groove.
Dammit, Eartha Kitt played Yzma?! Crap, that movie was fantastic.
and giving her some tribute wanks
this lady sounds familiar though and i could always carry out the same plan
She was even doing the voice on the fairly decent TV series. So much for that show now.
my condolences halkun.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
i go home and stroke the locks of hair i keep in a box instead.
steam | Dokkan: 868846562
You can't stay at my place any more.
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I'll be smokin' fat blunts for the late Ai Iijima
Happy new year ya crazy mother fucker
I agree.
America can always use more porn stars.
She was pretty old, but still..
yeah
I'm gonna go watch the episode of Space Ghost with her on it
BATMANTIS
Don't forget Madame Zeroni in Holes. That was a pretty good movie.
Indeed.