Cracked.com, the scholarly online journal that brought brilliant lists like “6 Ways that Porn Rules the World” and “8 Reasons Competitive Eating is the Worst Thing Ever” as well as nemesis to Alfred E. Neuman, came out with its own short history of Japan filled with facts not unlike a country report from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Pointing out that Japan’s culture stretches back to 30,000 BC (or as the website puts it, way older than dinosaurs if you’re Sarah Palin), Cracked.com describes the country’s art as, “The Japanese have a rich tradition of blah blah woodcut blah blah haiku blah…more importantly, the Japanese are known for rubber monster suits, hentai, insane game shows, ear-splitting pop music, giant robots and awesome sword fights.”

And with regards to religion: “Theirs is also a spirituality rife with magical nutsack raccoons and heavenly penises.”

All of which are reasons why Japan is awesome.

Cracked Topics: Japan

While the weirdness of Japanese game shows is nothing nothing new, but making a contest out of putting your face between a pair of boobs is something that Fox needs to bring to the US right now — or the terrorists really have won.

I can only guess that in this game, playing is its own reward. Unless you don’t make it to the boobies. Then it’s just the agony of defeat.

EMBED-Don’t Ram the Boobs – Watch more free videos

It’s not often that I talk about mainstream movies. Trust me, I’ve been choking down the urge to write about Blade Runner and Encino Man.

But in this case, it’s relevant. As someone who’s written his share of porn scripts, I firmly believe the best adult movies are ones that can only be told with graphic sex. The sex should be a natural progression of the story, not the only reason for the story.

There are very few movies that fit this criteria. Fewer still that were produced by the adult studios in the Valley and to be fair, nothing I’ve ever written satisfies that ideal.

Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses is the first movie I was exposed to that made me aware of films that told intelligent adult story telling that didn’t shy away from sex or use it a gimmick. Produced in 1976 by a United Nations of financial backers, which I’m told by XBiz/XFanz’s Tod Hunter included the Shah of Iran. It’s also one of the latest movies added to the Criterion Collection, the company that invented the DVD special edition and pioneered bonus features like cast and crew commentaries.

It’s the true story of sexual obsession between and its downward spiral — how a woman and a man’s purely physical relationship, fully explored, leads to their demise. The sex is graphic and the ending (cut from the Japanese print, and still censored in the country today) is not for the squeamish.

The female lead of the cast, Eiko Matsuda, was shunned in Japanese film and theater after the release of the movie. While AV idols are now celebrated despite coming from the adult side of the entertainment business, Matsuda was exiled into obscurity. It could be that Matsuda’s true life counterpart, Sada Abe, made Lorena Bobbit look rational. Or, as an essay on Criterion’s website points out, Matsuda seemed to be “doing it all for foreigners” in their uncut versions of the movie.

For any enthusiast of Asian erotica, In the Realm of the Senses is a must see and while it’s not an easy movie to watch (particularly in the end), it is satisfying in its execution as art and as an important Japanese film.

IN THE REALM OF THE SENSES: TWO WOMEN

View the trailer here.