a tribute to
The Excitement of the Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Girl (aka Bumpkin Soup)
by Yorikolab : Yoriko Douguchi English Fansite
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<Yorikolab's note> "Do-Re-Mi-Fa Musume no Chi wa Sawagu" (The Excitement of the Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girl) is Yoriko Douguchi's first film. In 1984, when Douguchi was 19, her life came to its first turning point when she was starred in a major role in a "roman poruno " (romantic porn) film. "Roman poruno" is a brand of sex-oriented films by Nikkatsu, the oldest film production company in Japan. Most of them were low-budget films, featuring obscure young and interesting actresses, actors and filmmakers. Some of their works won acclaim for their quality in the 70s in particular. Douguchi's debut film was directed by a young and promising director named Kiyoshi Kurosawa (no relation to Akira Kurosawa). Its working title was "Joshidaisei Hazukashi Zeminaaru" (A coed taking a seminar on shyness). Although Douguchi still had some qualms about playing a major role in a roman poruno film, she was also excited to work with young and relaxed people who were heavily influenced by Godard and Nouvelle Vague as well. Unfortunately, Nikkatsu, the film company, refused to release the film, due to its not being lascivious enough for a (softcore) porn film. Despite the efforts of Kurosawa and his supporters to purchase the film back from Nikkatsu,some sexual sequences had to be cut from the original version to pass the censors as a general (non-porn) movie. Moreover, to make up for the missing sequences, other new sequences needed to be filmed. In 1985, when Douguchi's debut film was eventually shown, it had been reborn as a completely new film, "Doremifa Musume no Chi wa Sawagu"(The Excitement of the Do-Re-Mi-Fa Girl). (excerpt from Yoriko Douguchi English Biography ) |
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"I realized that Douguchi-san had already been an actress before the shooting for DO-RE-MI-FA started. She was just not aware of it, but she was already an actress." (Kiyoshi Kurosawa) On November 14, 2009, Kiyoshi Kurosawa was invited to be present at Cinemavera Shibuya for Yoriko Doguchi Film Festival, as a special (talk show) guest. He had a congenial chat with Yoriko about some episodes from the backstage of DO-RE-MI-FA, and on stage was also Souzou Teruoka, who is a film critic now and appeared as Teruoka-kun, a student with Brahms record in that movie. It was a pleasant evening for us to spend. Many of us Douguchi's fans do love Kurosawa's films and really wished them to be in one frame of time. A fan of the both later told me, "I was almost crying !!!", and I really understood what he meant. Here is my report on this special event, extracting several interesting topics from the evening. Kiyoshi Kurosawa reminisced that his first impression of Yoriko was unlike other candidates. "She obviously looked reluctant at the audition", he looked back with a smile. (Hearing this remark of Kurosawa, Yoriko and the audience burst into laugher.) She didn't put on a forced smile toward the audition judges including Kurosawa, and it made a rather strong impression on him. It was a venture for a young director like Kurosawa to choose a non-actress like Yoriko, but he made a bet on her. Souzou Teruoka remembered that
Yoriko had already had such a star aura that could make her look
a little aloof .
Kiyoshi Kurosawa talked about
the first of the whole shootings for DO-RE-MI-FA. Yoriko
Douguchi reminisced about when she sang Brahm's
lullaby at the ending of DO-RE-MI-FA. |
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<Jerry
White talks about Do-Re-Mi-Fa and Yoriko
Douguchi> |
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<Yoriko
Douguchi's merch availablle @ TACO ché online
store!!> |
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<Yorikolab's Do-Re-Mi-Fa collection>
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