A Midsummer Night's Lewd Dream (Japanese: 真夏の夜の淫夢, Manatsu no Yoru no Inmu) is the gay porn video released in Japan in 2001.
About
The video came to the attention of the internet, following a scandal in 2002 when it was discovered Japanese baseball player Kazuhito Tadano played one of the characters. Since then, a huge trend has been risen on some popular Japanese websites like 2Channel (antecedents of 5Ch) and Nico Nico Douga (Nicovideo).
Currently “Manatsu No Yo No Inmu” (or in short Inmu) is used as an umbrella term to describe the online video editing subculture on the web. Even some similarities can be noted with other online gay cults or memes in Japan (such as Yaranaika? and Billy Herrington/Wrestling Series), this online phenomena is considered more notorious than others.
Origin
This video "Babylon Stage34 真夏の夜の淫夢 〜the IMP〜" includes 4 episodes. The most popular episode is the first one.
Plot Summary
Three young athletes, Miura, Nakata and Kohai, cause a car accident by rear-ending a car carrying a Yakuza (a Japanese mobster) named Tanioka. Nakata, driving the car, has his driver's license taken away, and the three young men are taken to Tanioka's office. To get back it from him, Miura is coerced into sadistic homosexual sex by Tanioka to atone. They later go on the offensive, when Nakata steals a gun from Tanioka. Miura rapes Tanioka aggressively, and, after finishing, Nakata kills Tanioka by shooting him in the anus.
The film is characterized by low quality acting and cinematography.
The Incident
Soon after this video was released, some viewers claimed Miura in this video resembled a famous college baseball player at that time. However, this rumor wasn't spread widely until a gossip paper also reported it in 2001.
This topic finally made the headlines in the middle of 2002. Many Japanese gossip magazines and papers began reporting that a man who closely resembled a candidate of that year's professional baseball draft appeared in a gay porn video with younger players on the same team. Though the reports kept his name a secret, they did so in vain, as it was commonly known that the player was Tadano. The manager of the baseball team at the university where he had gone made a statement saying that there were players on his team who had been in the video. As a result of this, he was unable to hear any offers from other Japanese professional baseball teams, out of fear of scandal.
The baseball player, Kazuhito Tadano, went to the US and managed to continue his career by passing a tryout for Cleveland Indians. In January 2004, he left the comment about the incident to American media for the first time, saying "It was a one-time incident… I'm not gay."
This video itself went out of print. Several episodes were compiled to DVD in later years, minus the first episode.
