The SM Detective

Since that seems to be the case, it would be pretty difficult for Shocking Asia to contain scenes from Hebi no Ana.

But I could have sworn the movie was Shocking Asia which, as I recall, was a kind of low budget, sleazy documentary on various aspects of Asian culture that, at the time at least, seemed bizarre to a Western audience. It helped that a solid portion of the film concentrated on sexual behavior.

There were strippers, a sex change operation in the Philippines and a showgirl in Tokyo inserting razor blades into her vagina. And then there were the bondage scenes from Japan.

One scene showed a woman hoisting herself up by her ankles completely naked in a candlelit dungeon. Once she was hanging upside down, she proceeded to tie her upper body tightly with rope. The scene continued with hot wax being dripped on her ornately tattooed back.

When I saw these scenes, I just assumed the producers shot them exclusively for their movie. But years later I saw the film Hebi no Ana and realized that these scenes had come straight from this Nikkatsu SM flick. Now I'm completely confused as to the other movie where I had originally viewed these scenes. I wonder if they paid Nikkatsu to use them or if they just borrowed them for their film. Weird.

Unlike some other Oniroku Dan-penned SM films, I wasn't able to find a lot of information about Hebi no Ana on the internet. In fact, it is completely missing from one quite exhaustive list of Nikkatsu Roman Porno films.

It wasn't easy following the plot which centers on Ms. Shima who plays the wife of a rich guy with SM proclivities.

The scene where Ms. Shima is in the darkened dungeon (which turns out to be a high class SM club) is towards the beginning of the movie. After hanging herself upside down, she is then taken over to a table where the patrons are invited to drip hot candle wax on her tits as her husband looks on in the background.


There are a few flashbacks during the movie. It appears that Ms. Shima's father committed suicide when she was a young girl. The sound of the creaking rope haunts her into adulthood. In one scene Ms. Shima, dressed in a kimono, walks down the street of a picturesque seaside town. Movers are hoisting a large object with a rope and pulley in order to pass it through a home's second story window. The sound of the rope creaking as it runs through the pulley causes Ms. Shima to drop to her knees, covering her ears with her hands.


Besides Ms. Shima, the girlfriend of her husband's friend also gets tied up as does the woman who plays Ms. Shima's sister. There is also an older woman who I originally thought was the husband's mother. She doesn't get tied up but once when she is in the backseat of the chauffeur-driven car with Shima's husband, the husband rips up mom's top and starts fondling her tits. Maybe she wasn't playing the role of his mother after all. Perhaps she was just the housekeeper. Then again, since this is an over-the-top, balls-to-the-wall Nikkatsu sexploitation flick, she may well have been playing the role of the mother!


It seems apparent that Ms. Shima's husband is trying to break her of her fear of rope. They are driven out to a suspension bridge in a remote area (this bridge, by the way, looks very familiar). He is wearing a suit and tie, she an elegant, long black coat with very little on underneath. She is also bound with her wrists behind her back under the coat.

A dramatic scene ensues on the bridge once Ms. Shima's coat has been tossed aside. The ropes of the bridge creak and strain driving Ms. Shima crazy and eventually into the arms of her husband. But she is now cured of her phobia.

Back at home, the couple celebrate with Ms. Shima tied nude and spread-eagled on the bed. Her husband decides to have his way with her and it turns out to be not only the ultimate fuck but his last one as he keels over from a heart attack.

Ms. Shima, bound and helpless, calls out for her mother-in-law. The woman clambers up the stairs to be met by the scene of Ms. Shima naked and struggling on the bed and her son naked and dead on the floor. The sour woman then sticks a dildo between Ms. Shima's legs and calls the cops.

The movie ends with Ms. Shima becoming a Buddhist nun. There is a cutaway scene where she is hanging upside down by her ankles, arms tied behind her back in a dark, foreboding room of the temple. We then return to the present where she continues her climb up the ancient stone steps, stopping only to bow to a statue.

I first saw Hebi no Ana several years ago and just recently viewed the Geneon DVD (pictured here). The Geneon DVDs always have different covers but they usually put a small picture of the movie's original poster on the back.

The transfer is excellent. The strange thing is they seemed to have changed to a digital mosaic pattern to censor out the forbidden parts when these movies originally used a kind of fog pattern. There is one scene in the movie where they neglected to make the change as the fog pattern is apparent.

This film has an abundance of bondage scenes which make the movie well worth watching -- if you can find it. Three-and-a-half erect cocks out of a possible five for this one.

KabukiJoe

Hebi no Ana Trailer