WARNING: Depending on where you work, this list may be deemed NSFW.
Female full-frontal is a lot more common than male full-frontal in the movies. We’ve seen the breasts and vaginas before, but a penis is a special thing in the world of film. Let’s celebrate that as it’s not very special elsewhere in the world.
City Lights (Charlie Chaplin, 1931)
This one is more of a suggestion of a penis rather than an explicit showing of one. In the scene where the Tramp fancies himself a statue in a shop window, watch closely at what he does with his cane. Moving it around, circling a 45-degree angle until all of a sudden, it’s fully erect. Probably one of the most elegant boner jokes ever committed to flilm.
Persona (Ingmar Bergman, 1966)
Before Fight Club made it cool Ingmar Bergman was inserting shots of dicks into films as seen here for a split second in Persona’s opening sequence.
In the Realm of the Senses (Nagisa Oshima, 1976)
Probably the most infamous, and one of the only, Japanese entries in this category. There’s not much else that can be said about Oshima’s rendition of the Sada Abe incident and this aspect of it but Tatsuya Fuji’s penis goes on an incredible journey over the course of the film, as can be seen in the above image.
Lust, Caution (Ang Lee, 2007)
This is more a balls situation, but what’s interesting is the connection to In the Realm of the Senses as far as what happened to the actors that bared all in the film. The men, Tatsuya Fuji and Tony Leung were okay, continuing to get work after the film (Fuji is even in Kitano’s latest film) but the women didn’t fare so well. Eiko Matsuda didn’t have the career she should have as she had to move to France because of the negative reaction to her performance in Japan and Tang Wei was the subject of a media ban called on her by the Chinese State Administration of Radio Film and Television. Thankfully this has been lifted and she has found work elsewhere in the world with films like Late Autumn and Blackhat.
Holy Motors (Leos Carax, 2012)
This image from Carax’ film seems almost like a painting. Denis Lavant, as his Merde character from Tokyo! kidnaps Eva Mendes, takes her to the sewers, makes her wear a burqa, and lays down with his erect penis, supposedly a prosthetic to make it look more like a dog’s. What should become the textbook example for ‘juxtaposition’.
Thirst (Park Chan-wook, 2009)
This blog entry from a kpop_rubba is better than anything I could write:
“But the point I am trying to make by this whole rambling entry is that I SAW SONG KANG HO’S PENIS!!!!! I guess some blogs had mentioned it, but luckily for me I missed those entries because the fact that i was completely caught off guard by it made it a wonderous moment. It was truly the highlight of the movie for me and probably the highlight of my next few days. I was actually giddy for a good half hour just thinking OMG I JUST SAW HIS PENIS AND OMG HE DOES NOTHING (and I mean absolutely NOTHING) TO BREAK THAT ASIAN MALE STEREOTYPE OMG OMG OMG I JUST SAW ASIAN | KOREAN PENIS AND OMG MONGOL BOY IS SO MUCH BIGGER OMG ASIAN PENIS WHAT?!!!!! yeah I am still giddy about it…”
The Overnight (Patrick Brice, 2015)
There is room for penises big and small in film, from Shame to Thirst we have all sizes covered. The Overnight is a film that imparts this message, and it comes from the most sensitive of sources, Jason Schwartzman.