How Japanese Film Auteurs Riffed On The Tropes Of The Country’s ’70s Softcore

Mike Hale writes about the Roman Porno Reboot Project, in which the Nikkatsu studio asked five directors to put a contemporary spin on roman porno (short for “romantic pornography”), the rigidly formulaic genre that saved the studio when it hit hard times 46 years ago. (Among the results: Aroused by Gymnopédies – yes, the Satie piano pieces.)