Female Teacher: In Front of the Students (1982)

Studio: Impulse/Synapse

Theatrical Release: April 9, 1982 (Japan)

DVD Release: March 12, 2013

Rating: UnRated!

Directed by Yasurou Uegaki

Review by Craig Sorensen

 

Next in the long line of Impulse’s Nikkatsu series is Female Teacher: In Front of the Students.  This is the second film in the Female Teacher series that they have released.  Like the first film, Female Teacher: Dirty Afternoon, this film’s plot hinges on a rape.  Rather than having something interesting to say about what is generally thought of as a shocking and abhorrent act, this film is content with that old misogynist chestnut: all women secretly want to be raped.

Reiko (Rushia Santô of Sexy Doll: Abe Sada Sansei) is a new teacher at a Japanese high school.  Her students like her for the most part and she has new friends in a fellow female teacher and her boyfriend the soccer coach.  She’s even taken up coaching the tennis team.  So things are going OK.  Of course being a woman in a Nikkatsu film, you know that can’t last.  Reiko has a run in with a bully and kicks him off the team.  He vows revenge.  Later that night Reiko is brutally raped in the faculty showers.  The only clues are the rapist’s blue track suit and a lone puzzle piece.  I guess it would spoil things if I explained much more so I’ll stop myself.  Some of the plot twist you will probably see coming, some you probably won’t.  Suffice to say, Reiko becomes obsessed with finding her rapist.  Is it the angry student?  The puzzle loving soccer coach?  Or someone completely different?

 

So, In Front of the Students is full of rape.  It’s really hard to recommend this particular strain of Nikkatsu pink films.  It’s dour, depressing and light on comedy and weirdness (which is what I’m really looking for in these films).  It’s just nasty.  The previous release in the Female Teacher series (Female Teacher:) was also centered around a tramatic rape but took a more somber, less sleazy path.  And the film is much better for it.  This film though is rough going.  I’m having a hard time justifying this thing.  It is a very well made film though, for what it’s worth.  It’s not as colorful as some of the other Nikkatsu films in this series (seems to be the case for most the ‘80s films) but is filled with great cinematography.  The acting is good across the board as well.  So, if you're looking for a depressing, misogynist rape film then Female Teacher: In Front of the Students is the film for you.

 

Like the rest of the films in Impulse’s Nikkatsu series, Female Teacher looks great.  All their Nikkatsu films have good transfers so this isn’t much of a surprise.  And like the other films, the Japanese language mono soundtrack sounds fine.  Of course you get some English subtitles as well and a theatrical trailer.  And again some fine liner notes.

[Rating: 2 stars]