KA-1166 - 新・ズームアップ 冴島奈緒

Saejima-san, who I often enjoyed in my younger days. I heard she passed away suddenly from cancer. It's a real shame. Works from this era often had a theatrical structure. They didn't just have sex; they acted out scenes properly, including the foreplay. So, simulated sex was the standard. She even said she never did the real thing during her active years. Because of that, high quality was required in terms of direction, script, and camerawork, putting the talent and passion of the creators to the test. Masterpieces were born from this environment, and this is one of them. It's so erotic even without the real thing. It must be thanks to the actress's superb acting and the staff's hard work under the director. I wish current AV makers, who just cast a pretty popular actress and leave the rest to the male actor to churn out cheap content, would learn from this. That said, whether it's worth paying for is another matter. There's only one real scene, the whole thing is very short, and the direction is dated. The 70s-style Japanese violence-movie setting feels undeniably cheesy now. If you want to know the true charm of Nao Saejima, I recommend other works.

A 1988 production. I believe director Kazuto Kuramoto was exceptionally skilled at filming couples embracing on a bed from the head-side perspective during this era. Rather than shooting from directly above, he used a near-horizontal angle to create depth and highlight the three-dimensional form of the woman's body through perspective. One might argue this is common today, but the atmosphere is quite different from modern works, where the know-how of keeping the male actor's body as far from the actress as possible has become standard. Nao Saejima knew exactly how to showcase her body; she would arch her back, move her shoulders, and lean back to emphasize her greatest asset: her breasts. The lead-up to the scene with Taiga after the 20-minute mark is beautiful. I wonder if it was her own acting choice or the director's instruction to deliberately hang her head off the bed and expose her throat. All of director Kuramoto's works released by Alice are in excellent condition, and in terms of image quality, other vintage AV labels simply don't compare. Nao Saejima has passed away, but her beautiful body remains forever.