Golgo-13 A bondage, humiliation, S&M show, and not much else. The plot is flat, really just a banal setup for the stylishly depraved set-pieces. The host of the aforementioned show, a silly little man who spouts drivel while prancing around the stage in dresses, was almost as painfully distracting as the attempts at artful editing. The dream-like ending felt tacked on. To the film's credit though, Aya Sugimoto was fairly convincing as the tortured lead. Flower and Snake has been compared with Eyes Wide Shut but aside from some minor surface similarities, Kubrick's is easily the more layered, artistic, and atmospheric picture.

Scarecrow-88 Aya Sugimoto is one of the most beautiful Japanese actresses I have laid eyes on. And, she gives a daring and courageous performance, prepared to do whatever her director, Takashi Ishii, desires to bring an authenticity and dramatic depth towards a female character treated with the utmost hostility, sexual degradation, rape and bonafide humiliation through some shocking acts of indecent behavior towards her by a powerful 95 year old Yakuza king whose stoic, deeply serious lieutenant assists in continuing the success of a underground establishment, known as The Coliseum, where they service a secret society of the most wealthy and elite with sex & torture shows. Sugimoto portrays a popular tango dancer, Shizuko Tôyama, whose weak, alcoholic husband, a president of a business going under, has sold her to the elderly Yakuza boss to pay off serious debts. Her husband regrets this decision and plans to bring her home, but discovers that Shizuko seems to be enjoying the depraved and violently sexual conduct performed in front of a costumed crowd. The film before Shizuko is kidnapped, displays how her marriage is quietly dying and that she has been having recurring S&M fantasies. So, in a dark sense of irony, what she had often dreamed is coming true. Her kickboxing female bodyguard, Kyôko Nojima(Misaki), is also kidnapped and sexually molested and mistreated. While the old man and his lieutenant look on from a room through a wide screen at the shows presented for their "entertainment", Shizuko is put through a rigorous and highly exhausting series of "performances", her life in possible danger if she doesn't cooperate. Any attempts to escape seem futile. The ending opens a possibility that the torture shows and those behind them may not be what they seem.The film seems built to shock, but is incredibly well made and probably the most artistic representation of S&M mistreatment ever made. Or, one of the best. While Ishii doesn't exactly wallow in the fine details, there's enough indecency and deviant behavior to satisfy the kind of crowd yearning for so. The acting by the cast, especially from Sugimoto who is superb, is quite good. But, prepare for a lot of startlingly unpleasant sequences involving Shizuko, including a disturbing "reinactment" of Christ's crucifixion between two thieves, and our heroine's decision to make love with the very old Yakuza sleaze bag who uses his tongue to caress throughout her rope-bound body. A definite signature of torture in this film is how Shizuko, and Nojima, are often bound tightly to wood by rope...you can actually hear the sound and see the expressions of pain which really sell these scenes which are certain to make a few wary viewers squirm. There is a LOT of nudity, and Sugimoto often is featured naked, her fantastic physique put to the test often. It takes a committed performer to put herself through what this role demands.

djestic03 This is what Eyes Wide Shut should have been. This is Zalman King eroticism with a sharp story line and excellent acting. Super erotic without blatant pornography; that would seem to be the test of great acting/directing/storytelling. I'd give it 10 but the ending seems subject to much interpretation. Although much of the movie is involved in bondage and forms of S&M, I get easily bored if THAT'S all that is going on. There's much more to this, the sequences do not feel contrived, and the reaction of the actors seems very genuine. This is not a slasher/blood splatter flick. In many respects, this is more erotic than what an actual porn flick would be. Overall, a very well done movie!

christopher-underwood The first of director Takashi Ishii's own versions of this tale of BDSM and honour, following the very first in 1974. Here we have a much more sexy tale, a lot of the edge has been smoothed away. We still have an enema scene of sorts here but it is by no means as central to the lead character's degradation as it was in the first films. So, whilst this film will appear totally unacceptable to the average film-goer, it is much easier and less uncomfortable to fans of extreme Japanese cinema. In some ways this may be a more transgressive movie because we do come extremely close here to an acceptance, possibly an enjoyment and even an empowerment as a result of the pain, suffering and ultimate 'showing of the real face'. Having said all that for those partial to the sight of female bodies in exquisite bondage, this is the movie for you. Pubic hair is also, unusually, on view and this is certainly the greatest film ever made featuring extreme bondage and ballroom dancing. The men come off very badly, as usual, spending all their time in power games whilst they hand the power straight to the ladies.