Samoari: The Worst Modern JAV Director?

Published : February 21st, 2022 Written by Panking

Admin note:  the opinions in this article do not reflect the opinions of ZENRA.  As you can see, my views on male nipple stimulation match societal norms.


Oh, Samoari. He has become somewhat of a meme within some parts of the community. For those that don't know he is a prominent JAV director who has recently over the past year become quite well known for a wide range of reasons. He'd been flying under the radar somewhat for most of his career up until around 2020. Now he is getting much more attention and notoriety. Quite a folks online loathe his films and directing style. You may be wondering to yourself "why?". What makes his films so terrible, forgettable, and oh so repetitive? Well, I'm gonna break it all down starting with a brief intro to the man himself before diving into his work. So without further ado, let's see how he began his career in JAV.


Introduction

Samoari himself seems like a fun personality based on his Twitter account. He'll frequently share some admittedly cool behind-the-scenes shots from his films. They can be pretty interesting honestly.

He also participated in an insightful interview with June Lovejoy that makes for a fascinating watch if you have the time. Based on this interview though he does seem a bit full of himself especially when he states that "no other director in the business can beat him when it comes to the slut genre". I would very strongly beg to differ...

Now Samoari would make his directorial debut back in October 2016 with the film, RCT-908, courtesy of Rocket studio. It featured a silly premise of course centered all around the actresses working a job while trying to keep themselves from squirting thanks to a vibrator tucked inside themselves. He would continue directing with Rocket releasing ten films in total with them. Each one was wildly unique and different from the last. How does SamoAri shoot such varied and (production-wise at least) well-done movies back then and now pretty much does nothing but lackluster femdom-lite style releases?

He would then move on to shooting some more hardcore type films for Dream Ticket studio centered around BDSM and humiliation. Those films weren't selling too well though so he would soon start to shift away to focus on his own fetishes. These included nipple play and male squirting which became his bread and butter. However, in around late 2020, Samoari would depart from Dream Ticket to become a freelance director working with the likes of Moodyz, S1, Fitch...etc. He certainly carved himself his own niche and to this day continues to thrive within it.


Signature Cover Art Style

You can easily spot a Samoari film a mile away merely by its cover. He has a very distinct style all his own. One of the most prominent elements of any Samoari cover is the signature actress pose. You'll almost always see the actress with a hand on the guy's nipple and the other hand on his dick or wrapped around his body in some way. Not to mention she'll always have one leg raised up in the air as well. The wardrobe is almost identical across every cover radiating a slutty aura with the standard fishnet stockings and revealing centerpiece outfit. The locations tend to be the same too usually taking place on the street or in an alleyway. There's just very little variety in his covers. It gets so damn repetitive.


Typical Themes/Plots

He certainly loves to rehash the same type of plot over and over again. First, as far as certain fetishes go we all know what his number one is. It's not a Samoari film if nipple play isn't involved in every single scene. But beyond that another fetish he incorporates quite frequently is male squirting. Now I'll admit I don't mind it myself as it can be kinda entertaining, the novelty does wear a bit thin when it's featured in many of his works. When it comes to his signature plots he definitely has one he favors the most which is "nampa". Nampa refers to the act of meeting up with and seducing "random" guys. Of course, they're all actors but they occasionally will blur their faces to make it more believable(although it never works). I admittedly like this plot on its own but Samoari just drives it into the ground when he features it all the damn time. So if you've seen one of his films you pretty much know exactly what to expect plot-wise.


Obsession With Nipple Play

Samoari's obsession with nipple play permeates nearly every single film of his. It is clearly his number one fetish and good for him that he can indulge in his own personal obsession. But I think I speak for many JAV fans when I say that nipple play is very dull. It's just the same thing every time. I can tolerate it if he only utilized it for maybe one scene but instead, it seeps through the entire film and is a major element of every scene. This leads to many scenes shifting focus away from the actual sex act to instead the actress kissing and licking the guy's nipples. It just does nothing for me and if you feel the same as I do then you'll find yourself fast-forwarding through many of these scenes.


Lousy Production Values

His films have to boast some of the absolute worst production values I have ever seen from a single director. Some of his design choices just leave me baffled wondering who in the world thought this was a good idea. His atrocious technical aspects can be broken down into three categories that are as follows:

Confounding/Repetitive settings

Now admittedly this is the least egregious of all his production issues but it's still frustrating all the same. His settings suffer from two problems. One is that they're super repetitive. You can always bet on a few settings making their appearance in a Samoari film. One is a garage with a parked car or van inside. Sometimes they'll film in the vehicle too which can be rather cramped and lead to some unsatisfying camera angles. Another monotonous setting is the signature house he films in. Not a particularly bad setting but just one he uses too frequently and is rather drab honestly. The other problem is just straight-up absurd settings. Like how in one scene they film in a room with a bunch of random junk lying around and the actor sits in a shopping cart...who thought that was a good idea? Another highlight is a classroom with a bright vending machine inside with the actor tied to it. Some of his choices are just so random and make no sense at all.

Terrible lighting

One of the main problems I have with Samoari's lighting is his constant repetitive use of a ring light. The effect itself is nice sure, but it feels like he uses it ALL the time and it gets old after a while especially when all the other repetitive aspects of his directing come into play. Other times his lighting will be incredibly dim with minimal light usage at all such as the shot below. Or the only light source will be a simple ring light which has mixed results. You combine that with the fixed camera angle and it's just abysmal and completely unwatchable. Another minor issue is that he'll use some straight-up obnoxious lighting setup such as this strobe light shown below. Now, this gripe doesn't come up as often as the rest but it still happens occasionally ruining any scene it's featured in.  

Again it's not all bad. He does some very good lighting once in a while such as this shot here. The lighting is generally soft and not too obnoxious while highlighting her chest very nicely.

Wonky camerawork

By far the worst aspect of his production. I cannot comprehend what he is thinking with some of his shots. One thing he likes to do is shoot from above as seen in the screenshot below. He'll do this in many of his films and it's just awful. Who enjoys that angle? You can't see anything worthwhile! Even worse than that is his desire to use static camera shots which I absolutely loathe. This is something you'll see in nearly every film of his and it's always awful giving you a terrible view of the action. Sometimes the camera doesn't move and other times he moves it around too much. I find he'll switch between different angles way too often making it feel quite messy. And lastly, he just straight-up takes some really bad shots that are way too close up or are from a bad angle. A good example is the middle screenshot down below. Like pull the camera back or zoom out a little so we can actually see her ass. Half the damn shot is the floor for crying out loud. These are just a few examples of his shotty camerawork.

Now, this isn't to say all his camerawork is bad. Once in a while, he'll pull out this really nice frontal facing shot of the actress getting fucked while looking right into the camera. I find it quite nice especially with the soft lighting. And also he can make for some enjoyable POV shots too.


Summary

So is Samoari the worst modern JAV director of our times? I say yes he is. Let me just say that his films aren't completely devoid of value. Sometimes his signature style just "clicks" with the right setup and it can be genuinely enjoyable. But those times are very few and far between. Overall if I had one word to describe his overarching problem it's "repetitiveness". Every film of his just feels like a copy of the last. Each one boasting identical covers, the same tired plot, lighting techniques, lazy setting choices, and absurd camerawork. It's especially deflating when you see an enticing new release from a favorite actress of yours only to see his name attached to it. I have nothing against the guy personally as he seems like a fun personality but dear lord, his directing is awful. Just switch it up more often, or at all. That's all I'm asking for. Oh and maybe a little less nipple play, please.

Comments


Hana hook 2 years ago
no wonder i hate both panking and oppaira articles, it is this shit take. Comment on Lousy Production Values : - Grafitied one of the production house for a scene - Buy the actress cute clothes from his own money - choosing interesting creative shot, rendering it to highlight the actress part (example IPX-617 : i never notice how great azusa hikari before) - bright vending machine is actually great, not a lot of director manage to take their av low lighting experiment to useful degree (anyone remember light candle gimmick by SOD a long time ago, that shit is awful) - He does a great lighting once -> proceed to show maria nagai bashing in red light as the only good example. (typical for such boob-fetished lover)- Static camera shot is great, asagiri joe play a lot with this. It's like the differenece between great film and mainstream one, is how some director cut and cut, cut always cut, the great one would make the scene static as too let the actor handle themselves. As far as it goes, he nails it.- You could see how he renders a morning feels, in his work that has the theme of xxxxxxxx together. That was great and interesting way to use his signature low lighting. and my favorite series so far.
ZENRA 2 years ago

I think Pan's issue is not that Samoari is a bad director--far from it! It's that while he has the skills to shoot well, he's been taking an easier path instead of pushing himself. Granted, this probably is not all his fault. JAV directors are on tight schedules and low budgets, but if as fans one feels they're just dialing it in again-and-again, constructive criticism is warranted.

Panking 2 years ago

Okay for starters if he did buy clothes for actresses out of his own pockets then I will commend him for that. That's pretty respectable actually. Next, I strongly disagree about his camerawork. Static camerawork can work in some instances sure like more intimate settings but Samoari uses it in nearly every single one of his films making it repetitive. And I could go on to list countless examples of his terrible camerawork in general where his shots are completely off-centered. Here are two examples I just grabbed from his latest film with Marina Shiraishi https://imgur.com/a/Ml7Kx2K. You can't possibly defend awful shots like this. Not to mention his cuts between scenes can be very awkward and jarring.

short hair lover 2 years ago
I can easily say that his works are not suitable for me haha.It's a shame i really like his outfit selection and covers without male nipples present. but he emphasises male nipple play way too much and that's something i really don't want to see.His stuff seems to sell in Japan though,so he's probably doing something right.
Panking 2 years ago

His wardrobe selections can be good but even then he resorts to reusing the same outfits over and over. He has a very set aesthetic that he rarely ever shifts away from.

mu 2 years ago
Samoari's lighting and production details are indeed often lacking. In his Gothic xxxxxx film with Mia Nanasawa, for example, although he went so far as to shell out his own money to buy the expensive costumes, the bed cover looks like it's straight out of a dilapitated love hotel, and it clashes with her lovely outfits to the point of being an ugly distraction.Low production costs are unfortunately one factor that actually increased this director's value during this pandemic. Low number of staff and actors on site fit with the times. And from a business perspective, what studio could say no to making films that sell, yet don't have high production costs? It's worth noting that there actually is a market for male nipple play in Japan. There's a thread with over 11K posts dedicated to the theme on the Japanese forum bbspink. And an informal analysis on scanlover shows that 2021 saw the highest number of films advertising male nipple play on record. (http://scanlover.com/d/12944-jav-data-analysis-let-s-crunch-the-numbers/28) The theme wouldn't increase like that if it didn't sell. I imagine his choice of male actors is a turn off for many viewers. Personally, I find the tanned, muscle bound actors that permeate AV to be a turn-off, so I find the weak-looking geeks he uses refreshing. Samoari did once say, however, that Ichika Matsumoto complained that he uses the same actors too much.
ZENRA 2 years ago

I've heard similar about the popularity of male nipple play movies in Japan. Still, this is a blog for and by foreigners and I agree with the author that out of all the weird JAV fetishes, this one is at the top. Teasing male nipples, which certainly is under the umbrella of femdom, may be one way to stimulate masochistic men, but face-sitting sure seems like a more ideal tried-and-tried method with more global appeal.

drk 2 years ago
It's been a while since I've watched that interview but I believe the full line was 'no one can beats me when it comes to little devil sluts' or something like that. He doesn't really seem to work with veteran maneaters such as AIKA, HibiHata or Kurea Hasumi.
Elegance 2 years ago
I guess I'm in the minority because I love his work, and it's some of the only I look forward to nowadays. There isn't much with that "city slut" look and feel that he captures pretty well. I'm not picky on plots or the technical side of production so that part doesn't bother me.
ZENRA 2 years ago

"City slut" is a good way to describe it. I think the issue is less the look and just how it's filmed and his heavy focus on a type of stimulation there don't seem to be many fans of.

Oppaira 2 years ago

I'm with you on him. I've reviewed six of his videos and the results are all over the place. He placed in the bottom 10% of directors (with 5+ reviews) and I'm not the least bit surprised. I mean sure male nipples can be sensitive and all, but I don't really want to watch a guy's nipples being sucked on for 20 minutes. I tend to outright avoid his videos because I know what's going to happen in them, they'll be super repetitive and boring. The "Eh? What, You're Really Gonna Cum Here!!?" series you listed (the video starring Ibuki Aoi) is a prime example of the awful stuff he produces, Nao Jinguji's entry was so abysmal.

DigaRW 2 years ago
Lol, I could say this is true. He actually have some good plot such as "all night" series and few notable movie. But his obsession with man nipples just a massive turn off to me. Like what the hell with fascination with man nipples? Neither normal man or woman would like to watch those movies.
ZENRA 2 years ago

Male nipple play may be the only fetish I just don't get. I mean some touching is of course fine, but movies heavily focused on it leave me confused.

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