Pulp 2.0

V-Cinema of Yesterday Gives Clues to Today and yes, Tomorrow

Welcome. Sit a spell. Take your shoes off. Have a drink. I don’t have any cigars so bring your own. But most of all, just relax, we might be here awhile.

My purpose (mission?) with this new application of the blog process is to discuss all sorts of pulp culture - paperbacks, comics, magazines, movies (never “films”), VHS, and DVD. All the so-called second class junk media that speaks more volumes on the nature of a society than the highbrow LITERATURE of the also so-called high society. 2nd class media is my wheelhouse: part nostalgia, part entrepreneurship, part practical applications of the old methodology to today’s media chaos. You see, we seem to have forgotten all the lessons that pulp culture originally taught us. We tried to get high-falootin’ upscale, elevated - whatever you want to call it - and we lost something. Make that several somethings. That something is pretty important - at least to me - and I think it’s in all our interests to at least discuss them, even if we don’t necessarily put them into practice.

Besides, I have no time for any literature or form of media that doesn’t seek to entertain me first.

So please, if you don’t mind a little dirt, a few blisters and callouses (Okay, maybe a bit of blood splatter too); then join me in my musings, rantings, and generally raucous behavior. Yes, I am a mad pulp bastard. One hundred percent, one hundred percent of the time. I am your old uncle with a whiskey in his hand that’s been there and done that; and if there’s anything I want to accomplish other than hear myself think, it’s to tell you that you can do this too. Trust me on this (Thanks for that catchphrase, Howard! I steal from only the best). If I can carve out my own little niche in the media landscape, you can too. It’s hard, but you can do it if you keep your eyes and ears open, have some passion, and learn the lessons history has to tell you.

Nothing would please me more, than for someone to come up to me at a show or market and say they applied some of the words I wrote to their process and made something. In addition, if this “thing” takes off then I will bring aboard some guests from my checkered past (and present) in movies, paperbacks, and comics to impart their wisdom to you. I will also point you toward things and people that I consider worthwhile and entertaining.

All righty then. “Pitter patter, let’s get at ‘er.”

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I recently purchased a Blu Ray box set V-Cinema Essentials: Bullets & Betrayal Limited Edition which has a plethora of Japanese V-Cinema movies. What is V-Cinema you ask? Well, according to the internet:

“V-Cinema” is a term that originally referred to Japanese direct-to-video films produced by Toei Company starting in the late 1980s. The term is now used more broadly to describe the entire Japanese direct-to-video industry, which allowed for creative freedom and risqué content outside of traditional theatrical and television censors. While Toei’s trademarked label is the origin, other companies adopted the model, and “V-Cinema” became the general name for these low-budget, straight-to-video titles.”

The fascinating thing about the V-Cinema that the entire business plan was born from a distribution change, not from some form of artistic expression. The business aspect came first, and then they hired eager, young filmmakers to fill that artistic aspect. Here’s how it came about:

• The Toei group owned video stores around the country (throughout Asia really), much in the same way they owned theaters, a movie studio and talent agencies. Those 16,000 video stores circa 1989 were making a ton of money, and Toei looked at the numbers and realized they needed more releases.
  

• They started looking around for independent product to distribute through their video stores and quickly realized that for what the indies were asking in terms of fees and so on, it would be cheaper to make their own movies, and self-distribute them. Crime movies were still hot, and Toei had a longstanding tradition of producing excellent yakuza (gangster) films throughout the 60s and 70s. That is what they would pursue for their video distribution chain.
  

• Toei’s accountants determined that they could make a wholly-owned movie for home video for the equivalent in today’s money of $400,000 (which also included the money set aside for promotion and marketing). Given the number of stores they had in the distribution chain, they could reasonably expect to make that money back within 6 months’ time.
  

• Another aspect to this plan was based on Toei producer Tatsu Yoshida visiting the video stores and talking to customers. He saw a man renting the entire 5-movie set of Battles Without Honor and Hu

  manity which had to be returned the next day. What he found out shocked him, and influenced how the V-Cinema line was produced. He found the customer would fast-forward through what he called “the boring parts.” Yoshida determined the new V-Cinema line they were proposing should have “no boring parts,” so he mandated the movies should be no longer than around 75 minutes. No boring parts, no exposition, and this also allowed the producers to stretch their budgets putting more value onscreen for their “goraku eiga” (entertainment films).

So Toei, with a business (distribution) plan in hand began with their first V-Cinema feature Crime Hunter: Bullets of Rage. To say it was a success would be an extreme understatement. The film spawned 2 sequels and laid the foundations for the business of V-Cinema. Inexpensive movies made not for theaters, or for TV broadcast, but for the VHS cassette. Fast-paced, yet artistic in their execution because the filmmakers knew if they were going to make a crime movie, they were going to do it with style.

V-Cinema was a breeding ground for more movies, and for more new moviemakers (as long as they stayed within budget). These moviemakers (to which I am including writers, directors, actors, technicians, etc…) soon understood, as did animators of OVA releases (Original Video Animation), that they had created something that spoke to the most devoted of fans who could afford to even buy the very expensive cassettes. These weren’t movies, they were V-Cinema!

But what does that have to do with films today? Artistically one could make the case that the V-Cinema methodology or movement spawned and developed talent that reached far beyond Japan’s shores. Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, winner of the 1994 Oscar for Best International Feature film) and Mamoru Oshii (Ghost in the Shell) are both directors who came up through the Toei V-Cinema system.

This was because it was a cinema built on: a) speed which fed a very hungry mass entertainment enterprise, b) budget conscious production, c) targeted demographics that focused on who was watching (most importantly for this discussion) and renting their video cassettes. Toei’s VHS audience were primarily men in their 20s and 30s. They wanted to continue the traditions of Toei’s earlier yakuza films, but with all of the boring bits cut out. This led to “brutal cinematic styles, rapid hand-held camera movement, fast cuts, and extreme close ups.” Cinema of momentum born out of budgetary restrictions based on the distribution plan.

I am fond of saying, “Distribution changes everything,” and that philosophy couldn’t be more evident than in the V-Cinema movement. But what about our distribution system here in the Western world? Is someone applying the “rules” of V-Cinema to our media landscape?

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I recently had the pleasure of reading Evan Shapiro’s Substack - THE MOVIES WILL BE REVOLUTIONIZED which I urge you to read here.

In his post Shapiro discusses the making of his independent movie SKIT which is something that tangentially follows the example of V-Cinema.

“We made a feature film for sixty-five thousand dollars. In eight days. Under a SAG contract. Then we got picked up by a distributor: Filmhub, a next generation film distribution platform tailor-made for this moment in movies. Then we were picked up by Tubi for an exclusive world premiere in their territories (US, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the UK). Plus, we will simultaneously debut on streaming in all other regions of the world, via Filmhub’s indie film app Relay.”

“SKIT is the definition of an Indie Film. But unlike many of today’s independent films, we did not have to scramble around begging for investment. We did not have to hit up family and friends for funds. We did not start shooting with only part of the financing in place. We didn’t apply to dozens of film festivals and wait a year to see what happened…

“By this Friday (Nov 11, 2025) , in less than a year, we will have greenlit, produced, finished, and released the movie — worldwide on platforms where audiences will be able to find it and see it. And that, in my studied opinion, is the new normal for independent movies.”

The parallels are there, but in case they weren’t clear:

• SKIT, like V-Cinema, went in with a business plan first. V-Cinema’s was based on video rentals. SKIT was based on today’s streaming economy which monetizes views on Free Advertising-Supported Streaming Television (FAST)
  

• They developed their film for a specific audience. V-Cinema for males in their 20s or 30s. SKIT for people who want to be influencers or digital creators.
  

• Both produced their films for a specific, non-negotiable budget to which they had to adhere.
  

• Toei hired eager young filmmakers with talent and gave them an opportunity to build their careers. SKIT built a team to also use this small stepping stone to greater success.

So what does this mean for today’s filmmakers, and other media entrepreneurs?

You are going to have to show what you can do first. That means making your own small media and getting it out there on social media platforms.

You’re going to have to make a movie - or book, comic, podcast, whatever - that makes money. You must demonstrate that you can make money making entertainment. The shittiest people in Hollywood are the ones who feel they are making art, and have something important to say. They don’t want to work in a team atmosphere. They don’t want to get things done. They want to express themselves and show people their art (which somehow never gets displayed or shared). They clog the system. They waste investors’ money, and they take opportunities away from those who want to do better and more.

So please, make your movie with no money. Make your comic yourself and print it on demand or put it up on Webtoon. Get stuff done. Make some money, pocket the profit, and make another.

You’ll be so far ahead of the guys who talk a good game but never deliver.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to refill my glass.
Talk amongst yourselves.