The Embryo Hunts in Secret (1966, Kôji Wakamatsu)

It's certainly surprising, even by Japanese standards, that a film of this high sleaze-caliber came out of the mid-60s. I mean, as you could imagine, "The Embryo Hunts in Secret" is a bit 'mild' as far the pinku genre goes, conisdering the way it evolved throughout the 70s and continues on to this day, but it can't be denied that "Embryo" was positively ahead of it's time.

The plot is pretty simple: the manager of a department store is out on a date with a female employee and takes her back to his apartment where he goes into a woman-hating frenzy - tying her up, whipping her relentlessly and rambling on about how she's nothing but a dog and he intends to 'train' her as such.

That's basically the movie. There's a few scattered flashbacks to a married couple - who I assume were the sicko's parents - and we get a little insight into Daddy's frustration over Mommy's want for a child after Dad gets "snipped". She goes behind his back and gets inseminated and he apparently didn't like that so much - hence the beatings. I guess that ties into the main story somehow, since our whip-slinging male lead enjoys dishing out much similar punishments on a particular helpless woman. The film is very well shot with a very artistic flair in the cinematography and creative editing that pops up here n' there. Again, you gotta appreciate "The Embryo Hunts in Secret" as a 'leading-edge' forerunner of "rough", bondage-oriented Jap-sleaze that would become very prevalent in the following decade.

If you're interested in tracing the origins of Japanese 'exploitation', somewhat, than I must recommend checking out "The Embryo Hunts in Secret".