R100

A reticent, stiff and introverted office worker, Takafumi, joins a secret BDSM club. He is thrilled to discover that not only do the club's offerings include a wide variety of ways in which he is beaten and humiliated, the treatments are compulsory and unexpected as to time, place, manner and mistress. Everything and anything appears to be on the menu including public humiliation, pain, submission, spitting, bullying, personal insults, blindfolds, ropes and much more. When enforcers from the club invade his office, hangouts, and home, and make it clear that not even Takafumi's relatives are immune from abuse, he doesn't know whether to be scared or thrilled. In truth he seems to be both. When one of the club's mistresses is killed by accident while administering a beating, Takafumi invites the wrath of the gigantic, powerful and temperamental company CEO. This quirky, kinky, unconventional, offbeat and irreverent offering from one of Japan's most popular icons, is delightfully crude. While lacking in depth, the films is playful and fun to watch. Seen at the raucous midnight madness series of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

2/10 guy seems to be only interested in CGI, special effects and such. Must be a Gamer. Or Marvel Studios nut. Ever seen any Harryhausen? Amazing stuff with zero computer work. Did Orson Welles need those toys? Anyway, oddball movies in no discernible genre always draw me in. I see that more often in Asian films than US Corporate productions. This one did have some slow moments, but "slow moments" are not a bad thing! And some sly nonsense. Was there a moral, a wrapping up of loose ends? When did this become a necessity?

You might not like this movie and as the movie itself states several times, that might be because you're too young for it ... Obviously that is meant to be a joke. And if you don't like the nature of the joke wait til you see the rest of it. It only gets weirder and is difficult to explain in a nutshell.

A man is responsible for things going crazy for him, because he hires someone for that exact purpose. You have to really get into the mood of the film to like it and to enjoy it. Something that cannot be said about the main character. On the other hand ... who knows what is really going on with him? You also get "breaks" from the movie, with some weird analysis that kind of stops the flow ... but on the other hand is a perfect fit, if you think about it.

If you like weird and not really predictable, you will love this. Otherwise stay clear

I've seen some bizarre films in my time, but the Japanese meta-comedy, R100 has to be one of the most bizarre. It opens with a young lady kicking the hell out of a man for no apparent reason in a restaurant. She leaves, but for some reason he goes after her and she turns around to beat him up some more and throws him down stairs. She then removes her clothes to reveal a highly skimpy leather fetish outfit underneath whilst the man looks up and his face disturbingly distorts into a manic grin with some atrocious Moviemaker ripple effects. That's when you realise that this film is going to be weird. However, it only gets weirder!

In a plot similar to David Fincher's The Game, R100 centres on the idea of a family man joining a club which promises euphoric pleasure by hiring attractive young women to beat the crap out of you at any random moment. The catch is that membership lasts a year and you can't cancel. You also can't touch or hurt any of the girls. That's the intriguing premise of this delightfully wacky film. Anyone expecting a clear narrative can leave now. The less you know the better, I knew virtually nothing about this film and came out feeling highly amused and bemused in equal measure.

Not everything in R100 does work. I found it a tad too sentimental at times with the relationship between the dad and son being rubbed in our faces. The whole wife in a coma thing was also over-played to get a heart-warming reaction from the audience. A lot of things in the first hour also start to feel a little repetitive with the same jokes being played again and again. However, things take an interesting turn when events turn darker by involving the innocent family. I also really liked the postmodern aspect by showing that this is just a film directed by a 100 year-old man who says that no one will understand the film unless they're 100, hence the film's title!

Things turn seriously koo-koo in the last 30 minutes and the film completely rips up the film school rulebook in an infectiously anarchic manner. All kinds of loopy ideas are thrown at the screen and we're left with a big puddle-like mess on the floor, however it's a mess that's hard to shake out your head. I'm not going to forget the dominatrix army marching to Beethoven for quite a while! It's surreal to say the least and lacks any kind of explanation, although I'm pretty sure that there is some kind of hidden political message in there somewhere. Trying to find it is high-on impossible though!

R100 won't be everyone's cup of tea. The best thing to do is to leave your brain outside the door and just go along for the big barmy ride! It turns out to be quite an ambitious little number, however not all of its ideas are effective or explored enough. One thing's for sure though, you won't forget it in a hurry! I for one would much rather see a film I'm going to remember the next day than some throwaway action film that will be forgotten in minutes. I admired R100 quite a bit.

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Five minutes into R100, our main character is explaining to a tall woman in a trench coat what his favorite part of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9," is. Mid-sentence, she stands up and delivers the man a roundhouse kick to the jaw. And from that moment on, the madness and manic energy of writer/director Hitoshi Matsumoto's (Symbol, Big Man Japan) latest film continues to pick up momentum, further spiraling outward into something truly unique and twisted. But let's compose ourselves and wind things back a bit.

R100 introduces us to department store salesman Takafumi Katayama, played with wide eyed longing by Nao Ohmori (Ichi the Killer). Katayama's wife has long been comatose and he takes care of their young son with help from the boy's grandfather on his mother's side. It's a loving family dynamic that exists in the shadow of the matriarch's impending death. Katayama visits his wife in the hospital daily, bringing her fresh flowers and making promises of the future, but he knows there isn't one. They all know.

And so, to help relieve the heartache and make him forget his woes, Katamaya joins a strange club known only as "Bondage." The rules of the club are simple: membership lasts one year in which various dominatrices will visit you at random and you must always be submissive and you may never cancel the contract during that year's span. As wonderful as all this sounds, things take a turn for the worse at the halfway point and Katamaya finds himself, as well as his family, in grave danger.

Matsumoto plants us into Katamaya's shoes for nearly the entire run of the film. We explore a Japan that is almost completely drained of color, save for the sickly jaundiced grays and yellows that cover everything. As dreary as that sounds, it makes for the perfect canvas for his parade of unique set pieces and characters to be introduced. We meet these otherworldly dominatrices (The Queen of Voices, The Saliva Queen, The GOBBLER!) one by one and the strangeness never feels alienating because Matsumoto's sense of humor is always present. It transcends any language and cultural barriers by just being outlandishly funny as well as consistently surprising. Without giving too much away, there exists a subplot that calls into question the film's very existence. It's funny and, again, surprising. You're always on your guard during R100, never knowing what will be the next logical step the people in this world take.

Building its foundation on the central ideas of David Fincher's The Game and Fight Club, R100 continues to string together ideas seen in western cinema, somehow resulting in a completely original piece of art. Roger Moore-era James Bond, Kill Bill and countless 70s kung-fu films make up the DNA of R100, but rather than coming off as derivative and lazy, it's clear that these nods are meant as a homage to the films that inspired a young, imaginative director to tell new and exciting stories. It's actually kind of sweet in its own deranged way.

This is a film you have to see to even begin to fully comprehend anything I can say about it. That said, it is also admittedly, "not for everyone." But if you have a passion for the bizarre and unexpected, this is certainly your movie. R100 manages to be shocking without insulting its audience's sensibilities. It's an exploitation film for the 21st century; a patchwork of ideas from every corner of western (and eastern) cinema made into a single, wonderfully told story of pleasure and grief. Also, there are dominatrices with guns.