The title of this 2021 video from SOD Create is「ペンション殺人事件」(Penshon satsujin jiken), literally The Pension Murder Case. Nope, it has nothing to do with the income you get when you retire; the "pension" in the title simply refers to a western-style lodge.
This is actually the AV debut of Kawamura Yui (川村ゆい). It is far from a usual debut video. There are no interviews or segments where the performer shyly disrobes. It is also far from a usual drama video. The screenplay was written by comedian Morita Tetsuya (森田哲矢), one half of comedy duo Saraba Seishun no Hikari, based on one of their skits.
Morita also stars in this JAV in a non-sex role as the detective, and also selected Kawamura from a list of 55 women to play a lead role, including overseeing the audition process. Kawamura was seemingly chosen largely due to her 'grinding' ability.
The premise of the film is that Kawamura and five men (including Morita's detective and fan favourites Shimiken and Taku) are staying at a lodge where the bad weather cuts them off from the outside world. This is a typical setting for a murder mystery, and reminds me of one of my favourite Japanese murder mysteries, Kamaitachi no Yoru.
For three nights, Kawamura enters a different one of her fellow guests' rooms and has sex with its occupant. The sex scenes are nothing to write home about, so I shan't describe them in detail, however I should note that Kawamura is quite dominant, particularly in the third and final sex scene. My favourite was the sex scene with Taku, who makes good use of his famous tongue by dribbling wine from his mouth onto Kawamura's body, then licking it up.
Eventually, near the end of the film, a body is discovered. Detective Morita quickly solves the crime and identifies the culprit and motive. Those of us who are avid fans of detective fiction and know our Knoxes from our Van Dines are likely to be disappointed with this rather simplistic mystery and its exposition. But although this JAV (and the comedy skit it is based on) satirises the murder mystery genre and its tropes, it was probably never meant to be much of a mystery itself, and that's fine.
This JAV is, porn aside, primarily a comedy. But does it deliver on that front? Humour is very much a subjective thing and, if I'm perfectly honest, I'm not a fan of Morita's style of comedy. There's just too much shouting, and although I found the punchline amusing, Morita then proceeds to squeeze every drop of humour that he can from it until it's just not funny anymore. But as I say, that's just my subjective opinion and others may love it.
In terms of acting, I did not think highly of Kawamura's performance. Although she has a slightly menacing look that suits the tone of the film, she does not show much range of emotion and instead has the same expression almost throughout. This may be down to inexperience, this being her debut video, but it's a shame considering this is a drama and one of Soft on Demand's highest profile videos of 2021. I thought Morita's performance was over-the-top but that is largely due to his style of comedy. I was impressed by the acting from the male AV actors, however.
The above gripes aside, the film was well produced and probably had quite a large budget. The sets were well designed, and there was good use of rain effects on the window panes. There is a brief cameo appearance from gravure model Akari Mau (燈舞羽) if you happen to be a fan of her.
In summary, this is a comedy that's not very funny, inspired by murder mysteries although there is not much of a mystery here, and the acting is a mixed bag. However, I appreciate the high production values and this video certainly stands out from all the generic mush that has been popular as of late. Therefore, I consider it to be one of my highlights of 2021.
Rating: 7/10