Product Details

• Actors: Yukijiro Hotaru, Naoto Takenaka, Kaoru Kaze, Yuka Takemura, Serina Miyabi
• Directors: Yojiro Takita
• Format: NTSC, Widescreen
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: All Regions
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Pink Eiga
• DVD Release Date: November 23, 2009
• Run Time: 64 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002VB69ZG
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #41,642 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "GROPER TRAIN: Search For The Black Pearl" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

About the Director

Yojiro Takita is one of the most acclaimed filmmakers working in Japan. Even though he is a veteran filmmaker, he was, until recently, relatively unknown. This changed when his hit movie, DEPARTURES (aka. Okuribito) won the Best Foreign Film Oscar at the 81st Academy Awards (2008). Poised to be an international hit, few people are aware that Takita-san is also an acclaimed Pink Film director. Entering the film world in 1974, Yojiro Takita got his start with Mukai Productions(A.K.A: Shishi Production), where he worked as an assistant director on numerous Pink Films. Seven years later, he made his directing debut with ONNA CHIKAN KYOSHI (aka. The Professor of Molesting Women), and immediately went on to direct numerous popular Pink Films. Hailed as a Pinky genius throughout the 1980s, Takita-san made his first non-Pink film in 1986 with COMIC ZASSHI NANKA IRANAI (aka. I Don t Need a Comic Book). Takita-san proved that he s a capable filmmaker in any genre. His films have enjoyed great critical praise both domestically and abroad, as well as box office success. Yojiro Takita has stated that his filmmaking motto is, Sadly, humans are comedians, as a result, most of his films are comedies. Furthermore, he claims that his filmmaking roots come from the world of Pink Films. While it is true that DEPARTURES was the first official win for a Japanese film at the Academy Awards, one could also call it the first Pink / exploitation filmmaker to win an Academy Award, because Takita-san was forged in the world of Pink Filmmaking. Selected Filmmaking Awards: 81st Academy Awards, Best Foreign Language Film 32nd Japan Academy, Best Picture and Best Director 2008 Montreal World Film Festival, Grand Prix 2008 Hawaii International Film Festival, Audience Award 27th Japan Academy Award, best picture and best director 2000 Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival, Best Film 2002 Neuchâtel International Fantasy Film Festival, Best International Film 17th Japan Academy Award, Best Director 1985 Zoom Up Film Festival, Best Picture and Best Director 1984 Zoom Up Film Festival, Best Picture and Best Director Selected Filmography: Departures (2008) Ashura (2005) When the Last Sword Is Drawn (2003) Onmyoji: The Yin Yang Master (2001) Secret (1999) Selected Pink Filmography: The Groper Train The Search for the Black Pearl (1984) The Groper Train Wedding capriccio (1984) Jack the Ripper in Day Time (1984) Renzoku Boko (Successive Rape) (1983) Chikan densha: Rumiko no oshiri (The Groper Train Rumiko s Ass) (1983) Chikan densha: Motto tsuzukete (The Groper Train Please Keep Fucking me!) (1982)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Silly, Goofy and Funny Japanese "PINK" Mystery-Comedy!, December 20, 2009

By 

Woopak "The THRILL" (Where Dark Asian Knights Dwell) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: GROPER TRAIN: Search For The Black Pearl (DVD)

I've often said that most acclaimed Japanese directors made their 'breaks' into the film industry through the so-called Japanese "Pink" films and award-winning director Yojiro Takita is one such director. Pink films often have a social commentary but there are also other variations such as "Pink horror", "Pink violence" and "Pink comedies"; they do have one common denominator and that is the abundant content of sex and nudity. "Groper Train: The Search for the Black Pearl" (1984) is part of the "Groper train" series that features the detective Ippei Kuroda in a series of silly, goofy, exploitive yet clever mysteries.

Back in 1934 during the Japanese-Chinese war, the world's largest known black pearl goes missing and remains as one of the great unsolved mysteries in Japan. Some years later, a war veteran named Gohei Yamamori confessed that he knew where the black pearl was all along to his wife Matsuko (Mitsuo Nakayama) before his untimely death. His last words were (as in the female genitalia) print. Puzzled, Matsuko enlists the aid of a private detective named Kuroda (Yukijiro Hotaru) to help her solve the mystery and find the coveted black pearl. Things become more complicated when Gohei's son Hasuo and his niece Yoko (Serina Miyabi) also expressed interest in the coveted jewel. What makes matters worst is when mystery writer Matsuki (Naoto Takenata) offers his aid and people begin turning up dead; can Kuroda and his assistant Hamako (pink veteran Yuka Takemura) solve the mystery before they also fall victim to the killer?

"Groper Train: Search for the Black Pearl" serves as a cautionary tale for those whose lust for riches go beyond their control. The characters in the film are pretty motivated by greed and would stoop to anything to get their desires; they would cheat, lie, intimidate and black mail, all in the name of greed and for sex. The women in the film are portrayed as gold-diggers who uses their bodies to get under a man's skin. Now don't let its serious subtext fool you, this is a sex-comedy and this film is insanely silly and goofy. Pink movies always have a message to get across and often uses it sex as a device to pull off a more intricate commentary.

The film isn't wanting in the graphic displays of sex and nudity; there are a lot of them and with the 64 minute runtime, I would say it has an exploitive scene every 5-8 minutes. The way Kuroda approaches the search for the clue is more humorous than perverse, as he tries to find his quarry with the use of matching the vagina print with the riders of the train (hence the title "Groper Train"), he encounters the most odd folks in the train and even gets more than he bargained for most of the time. The investigation scenes do have some cleverness in them albeit they are pretty goofy. Matsuki the renowned mystery writer even addresses the viewer directly as to challenge them to figure out the mystery.

The sex scenes in the film are very graphic and exceeds the ones we see in America when it comes to softcore. Curiously, there is no full frontal nudity but all the actresses get to show their stuff. Yuka Takemura is a household name in pink cinema and she gets to strut her stuff in this movie quite often. Some sex scenes are more goofy than actually arousing as we see Kuroda and Matsuki's silly over-exaggerated facial expressions. There are some shots inspired by hentai anime as we see from a vagina viewing perspective (I know, I could hardly believe it!) but it all made for goofy fun as it was so obvious that it was fake.

"Groper Train: Search for the Black Pearl" isn't one of the best pink films I've seen out there but it is fairly entertaining when it comes to goofy fun. There is a lot of sex and nudity on display that those looking for this type of movies will not be disappointed but I like my `pink' films with either an intricate commentary or violently pink. I rather found the way Kuroda turned the tables on his nemesis and the climax just reinforces the fact that greed doesn't pay. Still, this is a fun film for those who like this type of Japanese filmmaking; the Japanese continue to surprise me when it comes to executing bold, perverse ideas such as this.

Recommended timidly ONLY to fans of Japanese cinema [2 ½ Stars]

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another nice work from an oscar winner!, December 27, 2009

By 

HSPlus (Los Angeles CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: GROPER TRAIN: Search For The Black Pearl (DVD)

This film is pretty funny, screwball comedy from Oscar winner(Departures) Yojiro Takita. This film is one of his early works from Pink film and it proves that he has a great sense and deserves to get an Oscar.
It got pretty nice balance between black humors and silly jokes, and got increadible camera angles. The story streams very nicely with mysiteries, exciting sexual scenes and funny characters. I dis not get tired of it.
Groper Train series show you a different face of the Dir. Takita so that it is very treasurable.
Pretty good film.

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was hoping for, January 13, 2012

By 

Jeffrey "Jeff" (USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: GROPER TRAIN: Search For The Black Pearl (DVD)

I was expecting something more along the lines of "Murder on the Orient Express", where the entire search for the black pearl, and thus all the groper scenes would take place on this one train throughout the entire film. Also many scenes were done when a detective was searching for "pussy prints" (think finger prints), so there were no seduction scenes during those encounters, only quick, nude butt shots and ink blots taken between the legs of standing girls on moving passenger trains, while we saw no facial reactions at all during these moments.

Otherwise, there were really very few seduction scenes to speak of when one thinks of train and groper, maybe only 4 or 5, while the rest of the film is not even on the train system at all.

I'm not saying it was a bad film, it wasn't. It was amusing, and the story line was, as reviewers have pointed out, nicely played out. I just was expecting something else when I ordered it. Maybe not so much in the way of seduction scenes, as that was not what this movie was all about, but at least more action taking place on a train, where more groping would take place, as that was what the title was telling me was to have been expected.