aka Bait is a Japanese pink film directed by Hiroshi Mukai, credited as "Kan Mukai" in the international English-dubbed version, and starring Senjo Ichiriki and Michiko Shiroyami.

Synopsis

A gigolo is paid by a rich older woman to seduce young girls while she and friends watch his love-making behind a two-way mirror. He tries to break free of the older woman's control, but when his sick mother needs an operation, he returns to the rich woman, making love to her for money. Humiliated by his dependency, he takes the woman's daughter to the love-show, where he rapes her in front of her mother.

Availability

Olympic International Films released The Bite to the U.S. grindhouse circuit soon after its original release in Japan. The film was released in Britain in 1967 as Bait.

Since its first run, The Bite had been considered a lost film

Lost film

A lost film is a feature film or short film that is no longer known to exist in studio archives, private collections or public archives such as the Library of Congress, where at least one copy of all American films are deposited and catalogued for copyright reasons...

. Jasper Sharp notes that had it not been for the overeas release of films like The Bite , these films would likely not be available today, as many early pink films were not saved in Japan. The film was rediscovered and released in an English-dubbed version on region-0

DVD region code

DVD region codes are a digital-rights management technique designed to allow film distributors to control aspects of a release, including content, release date, and price, according to the region...

 DVD

DVD

A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 by Gregory Hatanaka

Gregory Hatanaka

Gregory Hatanaka is an independent filmmaker and film distributor based in Los Angeles, California, USA.-Career:Hatanaka is the founder of film distribution and production company Cinema Epoch....

's Cinema Epoch

Cinema Epoch

Cinema Epoch is an independent film distribution & production company based in the U.S. It was founded by distribution veteran and filmmaker Gregory Hatanaka. The company specializes in foreign, independent and cult cinema. The company's first release was the martial arts classic Master of the...

 label on May 13, 2008. Preceding the DVD release, Portland, Oregon

Portland, Oregon

Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...

's Clinton Street Theater played The Bite on a double feature with Mamoru Watanabe

Mamoru Watanabe

is a Japanese film director, screenwriter, and actor, known for his work in the pink film genre. Along with directors Genji Nakamura and Banmei Takahashi, Watanabe is known as one of the "Three Pillars of Pink".-Early life:...

's Slave Widow

Slave Widow

is a 1967 Japanese Pink film directed by Mamoru Watanabe and starring Noriko Tatsumi. Along with the first "Queen" of Japanese soft-core pornography, the film's cast includes Mari Imai and an early appearance by Naomi Tani, two other major stars of pink film....

(1967) on May 9 and May 11, 2008.