Rokugatsu no hebi

Another absolute stormer from the man who melted my brain with the excellence of Tetsuo as a teenager to such an extent that I had to pull it out and iron it and put it back in again. Then I went and saw Hiruko The Goblin. Ow....then Shinya popped up acting in Ichi The Killer a couple of years ago and I was reminded once more what a sick, deep and utterly vital gentleman he is. This is his take on the erotic thriller, and is fairly restrained by his standards and all the better for it. OK he does strangle a man with a metal penis at one stage, but one would feel let down without at least a touch of the old body horror. Actually this film has plenty of that, but it's more acutely concerned with a (sadly) more everyday disease that the fetishishic, grim techno porn of his earlier work. interesting performances, utterly compulsive storyline and busy, atmospheric camera-work would recommend this film to anyone fond of the director, and to a wider audience too one hopes.

Snake of June, A (2002)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

A rather bizarre Japanese film from director Shinya Tsukamoto. A woman is photographed masturbating by a deranged stalker and soon he makes her go on a sexual voyage that includes humiliating herself. The stalker does this so that the woman will do what she wants instead of being "held down" by her boring husband. This is the first film I've seen from this director and while I loved his technique I can't really say I enjoyed the story being told. The first forty minutes are so are full of some nice, tense moments but when the side story with the husband came into play I really lost all interest in the story. The blue-tinted color of the film was very nice and the director does get some good performance but he simply lost me half way through.

I don't feel quite qualified to comment on this (not that this has stopped me before) as its my first Shinya Tsukamoto movie to see - but I can see immediately why so many people are fascinated by his movies. This doesn't necessarily make a lot of sense, and like so many movies of the 'I'm far too talented to be literal' genre of film-making, there are parts that just leave you scratching your head (or my head, as the case may be). But what is undeniable is that this movie is packed with riveting sequences and shows immense talent. This is one of those rare moves that demands a second viewing to delve beneath the layers. It starts out as a slightly creepy thriller and then goes on a variety of tangents, some of which seem logical, most do not. It seems to be about the need not to suppress our deeper needs (a pretty common theme in Japanese film making), but its 'subject' is much less important than the style - and what style there is here. The blue tinted B&W photography is stunning, with fantastic editing and very dedicated acting. Well worth catching, but not when your granny is around.....

When I learned the A Snake of June was made by the director of Tetsuo, I almost turned it off. I'm glad I didn't because Snake is a lot more interesting and somewhat more comprehensible - but that is only relative. The story starts off reasonably straightforwardly, following phone-counsellor Rinko at work and at home with her unresponsive husband Shigehiko. For the first half it is an exciting erotic thriller, complete with blackmailer.

The introduction of cancer - a transformation of the flesh echoing the techno transformations of Tetsuo - leads into new territory. The focus shifts from Rinko to Shigehiko after one of the most erotic scenes in mainstream cinema. And then it lost me. There are some sado-masochistic similarities to Cronenberg's 'Crash' with its three-way interactions. The scenes between husband and blackmailer are increasingly surrealistic. They may be dreams or fantasies: if not some scenes are comically preposterous. But however incomprehensible the film becomes it is made so well that attention never flags. The urban setting in rainy season Japan is filmed in a blue-tinged monochrome, and the constant rain is used with great effect as a significant 'player' in the film. In hindsight, well worth watching, even though I suspect that the sub-titles do not do justice to the film's complexities.

In Tokyo, Rinko Tatsumi (Asuka Kurosawa) is a married woman that works in the County Mental Help Center helping needy people. Her husband Shigehiko (Yuji Koutari) is an old man obsessed with cleaning and they have a quite inexistent sexual life, sleeping in separate bed. Out of the blue, Rinko receives an envelope with erotic pictures she took once in the past while modeling and a cellular. She receives a phone call and the man blackmails her, promising to give the negatives to her if she follows his instructions. She is forced to wear miniskirt without panties; to buy a vibrator and use it, walking and exposing to costumers of a department store. The man delivers her photos and tells that he is Iguchi (Shinya Tsukamoto), who is dying of stomach cancer that was saved by her advice; in return he asks her to go to her doctor. Rinko realizes that she has breast cancer and needs to remove one breast. When she tells Shigehiko, he gives a cold reception to the idea. Then the blackmailer contacts Shigehiko, forcing him to follow his instructions.

"Rokugatsu no Hebi", a.k.a. "A Snake of June", is a surrealistic erotic movie that follows the style of David Lynch, with bizarre sequences and characters. This is the first work of the director Shinya Tsukamoto that I have watched and this is the type of "love or hate" cult-movie. The stylish cinematography uses blue filter in the rainy season of Tokyo, giving the mood of sadness and nightmarish atmosphere to the weird story. Asuka Kurosawa is absolutely sexy breathing eroticism in the sequences that she follows the instructions of the blackmailer. There are many metaphoric scenes without explanation, but I believe that the major idea of the story is that life is to be lived in its plenitude since we may die on the next minute of our existence. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): Not Available