It’s no secret that the Japanese have a very distinct fascination for porn (Well, who doesn’t?). Porn in Japan is an entire industry that’s estimated to be worth around 20 billion dollars. And funnily enough, the Japanese are considered to be some of the most proper and polite people in the world, with honorable manners ingrained into their culture and traditions for centuries. So you could probably understand our current fascination with Netflix’s new series, “The Naked Director”.
We go to 1980s Japan and are introduced to the larger-than-life story of Toru Muranishi (Takayuki Yamada)–the man who revolutionized the adult video in Japan–which begins when his life, as he knew it, was over. After becoming the top seller at an English encyclopedias company, the company folds and he returns home early to witness his wife cheating on him. Having lost his job and family in one swoop and feeling hopeless, he meets Toshi (Shinnosuke Mitsushima), a small-time hustler who introduces him to the world of adult magazines. Realizing that sex sells, Muranishi works with Toshi to quickly establish a chain of adult magazine shops. With unparalleled ambition, he dares to defy Japan’s porn censorship laws by enlisting a local publisher, Kawada (Tetsuji Tamayama), to produce uncensored adult magazines. This quickly draws the attention of the police, the yakuza, and Japan’s preeminent publisher of porn, Ikezawa (Ryo Ishibashi).
Before long, Muranishi has built an adult magazine empire and starts his more infamous work in adult video thanks to inspiration from a repressed art student desperate to unleash her sexual prowess, Megumi (Misato Morita). As the adult video industry begins to take off, Muranishi’s disruption of the industry has him face-to-face with the law, led by Detective Takei (Lily Franky).
In “The Naked Director”, Muranishi will push the boundaries of what’s acceptable, create a revolution and witness the birth of a star as Megumi becomes Kaoru Kuroki.
“The Naked Director” premieres only on Netflix this August 8.
