Tokyo Decadence Review

• 17th Oct 2011

This is a resolutely bleak look into the life of a submissive prostitute who specialises in S&M. Ai (Masahiko Shimada) is our young lonely heroine, who takes us from one sordid encounter with a client to the next. Shimada performs above and beyond the call of duty and certainly handles the balance of shame and arousal that seems to root her character. Ai is quite a depressing character and she longs to be in a relationship with a past boyfriend. It’s never really clear why she has taken on the job of a prostitute but she agrees to anything that her clients require of her and she appears to be rather detached from herself. She comes across as a rather transparent, vapid character and so there is not much emotional investment to be made with her.

The film itself will spark up a lot of mixed feelings, the sex is too grim to be arousing and most of the film is very difficult to watch. Meanwhile the occasional dark humour is very broad and a bit oddball – a woman laughs hysterically as she penetrates a businessman with a strap-on. The focus here is primarily on Japan’s sex trade and if director Ryu Murakami raises a lot of interesting questions regarding the ease of which such sordid acts is available to men with money; the film often wallows in its own filth with sex sequences that last an uncomfortable length of time. It’s a very bizarre film that certainly has its cult value but whether it is a thought-provoking allegory or just a perverted piece of erotica will be open to debate.

The films’ biggest problem may be its episodic nature, as we come to the fourth degrading encounter it begins to be rather repetitive. While a final journey for the heroine involving the misuse of a hallucinogenic drug seems to be from another film entirely. A real oddity then that will certainly be one you won’t forget in a hurry. Special mention should be made to the offbeat jazz soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto which is reminiscent of the best of Angelo Badalamenti’s work with David Lynch.

Extras:

A booklet which was unavailable for review and a bunch of trailers for Arrow’s other oddities currently being released.

Stewart McLaren