Vengeance has about 10 titles ready to roll out, including a handful of European gonzo movies from Italian director Mario Salieri as well as five movies the company produced in Japan under the direction of David Lord. It will release two titles per month under the Vengeance banner.
While the Salieri movies were produced independently and picked up for distribution in the U.S., Vengeance owner Jim Crawford sent Lord, along with performers Nick Manning, Cheyne Collins and Derek Pierce, to Tokyo for 27 days to film the Japanese movies taking advantage of local talent and scenery.
It was an expensive undertaking that presented some unique challenges.
“[Shooting porn] is a totally different setup in Japan,” Lord told XBIZ. “You can hire a girl for a scene or a day, and the rates start at $3,000 up to $30,000. And everything had to be done two or three times because of the language barrier — first in English, then it would go through the translators, then back to us. If you watch the behind the scenes, it looks like David Lord’s big gay pose down.”
Despite the challenges, ASM vice president of sales John Amatucci said filming in Japan was the only way to get the desired results.
“It’s hard for Japanese girls to get visas to come to the U.S. and work here, and Jim wanted to do something special to introduce this line,” Amatucci said. “With a crowded field of producers flooding the market, it’s important to do something out of the norm, so we sent an entire crew to Japan so we could hit a different niche. At the end of the day, good content wins.”
The movies are presented in vignettes that make the most of the city. For example, the theme of one movie is that the American performers are lost in Tokyo and need the help of local girls to find their way — necessitating a lot of outside filming.
“Everyone looked at us like Godzilla,” Lord said. “But in the land of a million cameras, no one said anything.”
One unique challenge was convincing the Japanese women that it was OK to enjoy themselves.
“The culture is so different,” Lord explained. “In Japan, girls aren’t supposed to enjoy sex. Over there, porn is all about male pleasure. We flip it over here; it’s about the woman’s pleasure. That was hard to communicate.”
Amatucci said future titles from Vengeance may also be shot overseas, but the company also plans to produce domestically, releasing two titles per month through ASM.
To order, call John Amatucci at (347) 713-4946.
