Revisiting interracial erotic drama Bedtime Eyes with Kanako Higuchi

We wanted to revisit the nude sex scenes featured in the 1987 Japanese movie Bedtime Eyes, about a Japanese jazz singer and a black American GI, and based on a novel by Amy Yamada.

The film stars Kanako Higuchi, who does several sex scenes with her foreign lover, plus one with a Japanese man.

Besides one sex scene while standing up against a pillar, they mostly keep things conventional with missionary sex on beds. There is lots of passionate kissing and some nice breast-sucking.

It’s a relatively obscure film today, with little availability on streaming or home media.

It’s also a rare mainstream portrayal of interracial sex in Japanese movies. The only other example of a similar film that comes to mind is The First Timers (2000), in which Honami Suzuki plays a blind woman who has a romance with a white man. They make love on the tatami, with Suzuki showing off her beautiful breasts.

That said, sexual encounters between American GIs and young Japanese women is a key trope in postwar Japanese culture, treated both negatively (“these foreign men corrupting our women!”) and exploitatively.

Higuchi needs no introduction to long-time readers, who will know how the actress was a pioneer of the hair nude full-frontal photo book. Her Water Fruit (1991) was a classic of the genre and a huge bestseller, helping set the precedent for famous and popular female celebrities stripping off for provocative and artistic photo shoots that caused a sensation (and resulted in a bonanza of sales).

She is known for her short hair and tough, slightly androgynous beauty and innate sexual allure.

She also did sex scenes in Manji (1983), a sapphic drama that has been adapted several times.

Today, she is still a famous figure, acting in TV dramas and fronting major advertising campaigns. She had an affair with married Shigesato Itoi, a well-known copywriter and media entrepreneur. He divorced his previous wife to marry her (shortly after she released Water Fruit, no doubt earning the envy of most men in the country) and they remain one of Japan’s power couples.