Billed as the "most controversial JAV movie of the modern era", MDK-001 satirises the real life controversy of women's support group Colabo. I won't go into all the details but instead recommend reading ZENRA's seven part series of blog posts on the subject (1 2 3 4 5 6 Bonus). But in short: Colabo, which has made an enemy of the AV industry, has been accused of illegal practices including misappropriating public money.
Colabo is run by Nitō Yumeno who voiced strong opposition of the so-called "new AV law" when it was passed in June 2022. She argued that the law gives legitimacy to AV, which she feels is immoral.
Also in opposition to the new AV law was a group of AV performers including Tsukishima Sakura and Inamori Miyu, as well as various other industry people. In their campaign, they argued that the law would not help victims of illegal productions but instead make performers in legitimate productions' lives more difficult.
In 2023, The Colabo Parody was announced with product code FTHTD-039, with a November release date. From studio Hot Entertainment, it was to be released under their Faleno Tube brand. Unfortunately, Nitō hit out against the production, and the video, which stars Tsukishima and Inamori, and was directed by Madoka Kazuki, was pulled before it could be released.
I resigned myself to acknowledging that this video would, like so many before it that faced legal issues, never see the light of day. But then Hot Entertainment announced they would be releasing the video themselves, which is quite extraordinary, really.
The studio set up a website where you can order copies of the DVD (now with the code MDK-001). Of course, they only deliver within Japan, but fortunately I happened to be in the country when it was released, so I was able to get it delivered to the hotel I was staying at.
So, how's the video itself? Well, Tsukishima does a fantastic job of portraying a satirical version of Nitō who runs a women's support group called Connbe (instead of Colabo). She runs into super cute AV performer Inamori and tries to coerce her to quit AV. However, Inamori loves her job and so Tsukishima has to use more underhand techniques to try to win her over.
I was fascinated by the social commentary in this video, with Tsukishima doing more harm than good to the women she claims to be protecting, as well as the corruption (we see her doing shady deals with a local government bigwig played by Ōshima Mikako) and double standards (we see her watch AV at home and masturbate to it).
The video also stars Sagawa Genji as the creepy guy who works with Tsukishima to 'save' women but instead uses them to fulfil his sexual desires, and Miyajima Kenta whom Tsukishima is perfectly happy to be filmed fucking.
We also get some interesting insight into what goes on behind the scenes at an AV production. The male talent uses a series of hand signals to ask the assistant director to hand him a cup of lube which he dips his fingers into (there is some truth to Samoari's meme after all!) and later a packet of fake cum which he squirts at just the right moment. Nice to see they have the guts to lay bare the fakery in AV.
All in all, although it could have perhaps done with a little bit more polish, this is an enthralling video that is really quite unique and I'm glad saw an official release. As mentioned earlier, DVDs of the video can be purchased from the official website, where you'll also find MDK-002 which features outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage of this video. It is also available from ZENRA with English subtitles, although please note that approximately 10 minutes of content was cut from that release to remove drug references.
★★★★★ 5/5
Technical information (DVD release)
- Runtime: 2:53:41
- Video: MPEG, 720×480 stretched to 853×480, 29.97 FPS (progressive)
- Audio: AC3, 2 ch, 48 kHz