When Japan’s oldest film studio faced financial collapse in 1971, it made a move nobody saw coming. Nikkatsu ditched mainstream productions entirely and pivoted to erotic cinema.

The gamble paid off. For 17 years, the studio’s Roman Porno line became a proving ground for young filmmakers who would define Japanese cinema in the decades to come. Now Japan Society is celebrating 55 years of the genre with a 12-film retrospective running November 20 through December 6.

Roman Porno wasn’t your typical softcore fare. Shot in 35mm color with actual studio resources, these films had to follow strict rules: a sex scene every 15 minutes, 70-minute runtimes, 10-day shooting schedules. But within those constraints, directors found remarkable creative freedom. Future auteurs like Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Shinji Somai cut their teeth here.

The series opens with a 35mm import of Noboru Tanaka’s A Woman Called Sada Abe, which beat Nagisa Oshima’s In the Realm of the Senses to the screen by a year. Other highlights include Tatsumi Kumashiro’s The World of Geisha, praised by François Truffaut, and rarely screened gems like Love Letter, Nikkatsu’s most successful Roman Porno release.

The genre wasn’t without controversy. In 1972, Tokyo police raided Nikkatsu’s offices despite the films passing Japan’s official rating board. The resulting eight-year obscenity trial ended in acquittals and became the last time a film was prosecuted for obscenity in Japan.

For aspiring filmmakers stuck outside the crumbling studio system, Roman Porno offered something rare: a chance to make art on someone else’s dime.