Playful White Fingers

Once more unto the Roman Porno breach we go with one of the last - unless more are planned - 88 Films releases: Playful White Fingers, which so far has been quite an intriguing line of films (with the notable exception of Blonde Animal, which was terrible) and this early 1972 entry also being the directorial debut of Toru Murakawa (The Game Trilogy, The Beast to Die) gave an additional reason to check it out. 

Country girl Yuki (Hiroko Isayama) moves to Tokyo and falls for a petty criminal, Jiro (Hajime Tanimoto), whose crimes causes her to lose her job. Though Jiro is arrested and imprisoned, Yuki falls into a life of crime, falling in with Jiro’s ex-girlfriend, Yoko (Yoko Ishido) and his ex-cellmate, Taku (Ichiro Araki). 

The title of the film, considering its provenance, is certainly sexually suggestive but if anything the playful fingers you can strongly argue are more in terms of crime: pickpocketing. Jiro is a pickpocket and shares his skills with Yuki. This sense of really being about crime comes to the fore in how the film seems unusually uninterested in sex or nudity. Yes, we have some of this on offer, but often it’s more restrained, less leering then other titles. This element seems more tacked-on than integral, to allow it to pass as a Roman Porno. If anything, Playful White Fingers works its way out as a lowkey crime film, almost counterculture in nature because there’s no particular sense of Yuki being denigrated or criticised for her moving into a life of crime. No matter that she moves from low-level criminality to stronger stuff, Yuki’s character seems to be playing out an arc that is curiously sympathetic, more so than the police that shadow her footsteps at times. Equally, Jiro and Taku, though both use her to an extent, seems more akin to dishonour amongst thieves as opposed to malice, or the aforementioned leering sexuality. 

It’s a relaxed film and oddly nuanced, even touching to an extent, specially how Yoko looks to help Yuki when she’s down and out. Yoko could be all spite and vitriol considering Jiro throws her over for Yuki, but no. Without shelter or having eaten, Yoko provides comfort and there’s perhaps a slightly sapphic ring to their relationship but that could have been my reading of it rather than the film’s intention, though it would fit with the tone of the film. Considering Hiroko Isayama as Yuki was the young girl in Woods Are Wet, that surprisingly effective reworking of parts of Justine or the Misfortune of Virtue, she’s again rightly cast as the young innocent.  Whereas she becomes lost in the Sadian nightmare of Woods are Wet, in this film she finds her feet as a person. Even much of the limited sexual content is something that she is control of, that exists for her pleasure rather than that of the men around her. Certainly there’s not much more sex or nudity than in many Nikkatsu’s films of the late 60's (Branded to Kill is arguably kinkier and has more flesh than Playful White Fingers). Again, Hiroko Isayama is striking in the lead role, and not your average sexualised actress. 

Slightly longer than many a Roman Porno, even if at a mere 75-minutes or thereabouts, you can see why it was brought into the 88 FIlms catalogue (OK, it’s produced by Jasper Sharp and he’s written about Pink films so this is hardly a surprise). It’s more a laidback crime drama than a sex film and more engaging and intriguing than you have a right to expect. It's also stylish at times, Murakawa using colour well and able to conjure up a surprisingly playful scene (Jiro’s balancing of folded paper on his nose, for instance), but then there’s also Isayama’s striking leading performance that’s just the right mix of innocence turned to excitement, but for her sake not for another’s.