This is my most popular post, with 49,861 views as of the time of upload. I decided to turn it into a working paper.
Dowload at Academia.edu: https://www.academia.edu/14902905/Sex_Power_and_Purity_in_Kawajiri_s_Ninja_Scroll
Abstract: Kawajiri’s Ninja Scroll features two interlaced of sex scenes, each involving men who are large and hulking and men who are smaller. But one man is clothed in the robes of minor officialdom and has appropriately dressed hair while the other is semi-naked and bald. The two scenes, while both in dim night-time light, are depicted in different colors and the scenes are composed in contrasting ways. One of these acts is legitimate (the one involving the official) in the sense that it accords with social standards. The other is clearly rape. The film reveals both to be impure and the social order to be corrupt.