Beginning in the early 1960s, pinku eiga (literally, "pink films," a tag for softcore pornography) challenged film industry taboos by showing simulated sex and bare female breasts. To avoid the censors' scissors, filmmakers had to hide forbidden areas by using creative camera angles and discreetly placed vases.
The censors loosened up a bit in the '90s. Jacques Rivette's erotic-themed drama "La Belle Noiseuse" (1991) screened here without pixelating any part of Emmanuelle Beart, who played a nude model to Michel Piccoli's obsessed artist.
With "Still Life of Memories," the latest film by indie veteran Hitoshi Yazaki, the censors have seemingly tossed the scissors aside. Inspired by the work of French artist Henri Maccheroni, the film celebrates female genitalia in both dreamy images and explicit photos.