With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility: ‘Eva Man’ And ‘The Return Of Eva Man’ Reviewed

When Antonio D’Agostino‘s Eva Man was released, it wasn’t widely known that actress Ajita Wilson was trans (in a 47 minute featurette Eurocult expert Alex Mendibil attempts to separate fact from fiction and go over what’s been confirmed and what’s still fuzzy about Wilson’s life). In contrast, Eva’s transness is made part of her storyline in Eva Man, as Eva (played by trans actress Eva Robin’s) is implanted with a machine that is supposed to allow her to fully channel her intersex (or “hermaphodite,” to use the language of the film) superpowers. These include being incredible in bed and there are plenty of long, drawn out sex scenes in Eva Man (though none of them hardcore — apparently the film’s distributors did insert hardcore scenes in the past, but that was against the director’s wishes and this Blu-ray release adheres to D’Agostino’s vision).

Whether the film realized it was doing this or not, Eva Man also includes love scenes between two trans people in a film released in 1980. While softcore films aren’t always watched for their plots, Eva Man is the most fun when it allows Robin’s to tap into her immense charisma and make the most of a silly story that ends up being radical because of how rare it remains to see two trans actresses get top billing in a movie.

Yes, Eva Man is low budget and full of nudity, a fact that Mondo Macabro haven’t shied away from with their cheeky — if difficult to promote — box art (the cover is reversible but Jano’s cover for The Return of Eva Man includes nudity, too, if a safer option than an anthropomorphised vagina) but those shouldn’t be seen as strikes against it. If I’m being honest, I wasted a lot of time going back and forth over this release; wanting to review it but also not knowing how adult it would be and being nervous about that. The reason I want to be honest about those feelings, though, is because while I personally could’ve done with less sex and more of Robin’s dancing and acting for the camera (as Mark Gardner and Willow Catelyn Maclay talk about in their commentary, her facial expressions are spot-on), the pros completely outweigh the cons in this case (if “cons” is even the right term for padded sex scenes).

What makes Eva Man especially fun is how in control Robin’s is. Yes, there’s a ring that the scientist (Attilio Dottesio) made that can change the settings of her “sexmaker”, but that ring is given to Eva. The scientist never tries to keep it for himself. There are others that would covet his invention, namely an impotent man (Ramón Centenero) who’s determined to steal the “sexmaker” from Eva, but her day job is as a private detective, so she’s more than capable of handling herself. The movie ends with Robin’s lip-synching to her own song, “Disco Panther.”

Fans of Barbarella (which had a death-by-orgasm machine) should definitely consider adding Eva Man to their collection. Another incentive is the commentary by Gardner and Maclay. They wrote the book Corpses, Fools and Monsters: The History and Future of Transness in Cinema and call out the fact that Eva Man has a lot more positive trans representation in it than a lot of the mainstream trans films that have received awards attention and often involve trans characters coming in harms ways. In Eva Man, Eva’s life never feels in any real danger.

All that being said, while Gardner and Maclay are absolutely right to decry the fact that more Eva Man movies weren’t made, the sequel that does exist (included on this Blu-ray) is a massive disappointment. For one thing (and this alone is unforgivable), The Return of Eva Man (1982) has a lot less Robin’s and Wilson in it. The ratio of sex scenes to plot also skews more towards sex. This time, the scientist’s invention is a love gun but it falls into all the wrong hands and consent becomes a big issue. There are also a lot more encounters with men who act disgusted when they realize Eva is trans. To top it all off, one of the rapists (Giuseppe Alotta) from Eva Man is recast as Genghis Khan, resulting in racist Asian stereotypes.

In addition to the bonus features already mentioned, Mondo Macabro’s Blu-ray includes new interviews with Robin’s, sound recordist Luciano Muratori (who doesn’t have a lot of memories of the shoot) and cinematographer Hans Burmann (who talks more about his career as a whole). Ian Higbee got to talk to D’Agostino before he passed away earlier this year and provides a 20-minute video essay on him.

“Metamorfosi” (2006) is a 13 minute short film directed by D’Agostino of a woman covered in bandages like a mummy. The runtime is her unwrapping the bandages and tossing them in the air at the end. It’s a gesture of freedom that kind of mirrors the joy of the pool scenes in Eva Man but is otherwise unrelated. There are also postcards and an essay booklet by Ismael Fernandez that identifies the dubbing actors and goes over both films.

Eva Man is available on Blu-ray from Mondo Macabro.