The Pleasures of the Flesh

Nagisa Oshima's "Pleasures of the Flesh" is the sad, utterly depressing tale of an average man, driven to moral corruption, by unrequited love of an unattainable woman. Atsushi Wakizaka is obsessed with the delicate beauty, Shoko. She doesn't return the sentiment, for good reason, as Atsushi is somewhat of a loser with no ambition and a weak character. Driven to murder a particularly vile man who raped, and then attempted to blackmail Shoko, Atsushi finds himself the victim of blackmail, by a yet another vile, reprehensible character that witnessed the crime. A chain of events is set into motion when he is asked to hold onto 30 million Yen while his blackmailer serves his 5 year prison term. The self-destructive Atsushi decides that he will waste the money on a succession of whores that resemble the girl who rejected him to marry a wealthy cosmetics magnate. Of course things don't turn out as planned, leading up to a shocking climax, that doesn't hold a happy ending for anybody..

Wow, what an exhaustive parade of lowlifes, losers, pimps, thugs, bums, and murderers inhabit Oshima's beautifully framed vision. Of course this controversial Japan director is known for his exploration of the seedy, dark underbelly of Japanese society. Shot in lurid, film noir style, I cannot say this is an 'enjoyable' film, but it is undeniably so well made, that it deserves it's praise. Best viewed as a cautionary tale about how money can corrupt a weak soul, and even distort reality. Despite it's sexy title, don't expect a sexually charged film, as you will be disappointed. Expect instead to witness the complete and utter destruction of a man's soul. And be prepared to spend 90 minutes with some truly slimy, despicable characters. Recommended for those viewers that enjoy wallowing in a world of crime and corruption..

What looks first like a thriller (after the murder of a man who raped one of his students, a young teacher finds himself blackmailed into hiding a huge some of money) turns into an exploration of greed and sexual exploitation by one of the less politically correct Japanese directors, Nagisa Oshima, as the hero succumbs to his baser impulses and decides to spend the money on indulging his every (often sensual) impulse - planning to commit suicide when the cash runs out. "Pleasures of the Flesh" sees Oshima first embrace of the themes of sexuality, sadism and obsession that characterize his later works. I see "Pleasures of the Flesh" as the turning point in Oshima's career, a cross between his early films, like "The Sun's Burial" or "A Cruel Story of Youth" with young criminals who exploit each other for money and enact transgressive fantasies, or "Night and Fog in Japan" with its political plot, and later films, like the famous "Realm of the Senses", and their sadomasochist tales of sex and death. Oshima is obviously already at work pushing the limits of what can be shown on screen and what can be said on the power of sex and money, on the perversion of love and capitalism. It is one of the most pessimistic works from the director. Everything is corrupt : the young girl the hero falls for (and kills for) proves to be not so innocent in the end, sex (which is a way to humiliate people), love (which only leads to frustration and guilt), money (a delusion), society (dominating and repressive). As "Pleasures of the Flesh" seems to embody most of Oshima's favorite themes, I would recommend it, but don't expect a "likeable" film with "likeable" characters. But after all, this is all too typical of Oshima's manner ! Has he ever filmed romantic stories and sweet people ?

Despite the misleading title, unless it is meant to be ironic, this is still an excellent and most eventful movie. Our hero rescues his love object from the almost unbelievable audacity of a rapist returning to blackmail her parents as she prepares to marry another, and longs for her ever more. We get a mysterious bag of money, an appearance by the yakuza, a deaf girl who prefers life on the street to life with him and much nocturnal activities. Unfortunately the 60s colour seems to have faded over the years and, particularly in the night scenes, makes for strained viewing. Even so well worth a view because this is a very well told tale that could only be set in Japan.

I would say acting is fine and camera work is fine and everything but....

I just do not really feel that the situation that is set up in the start is fully used. There could have been so many situations that could have been set up to make it more interesting.

After the set up of the plot in the movie I found it very easy to see how the movie would end and I did not not really find the travel to the end emotional interesting or exploring in any way.

I would say there are lots of great Japanese movies out there. You can find better than this one.

This is the third Oshima movie that i have watched, the other two were DEATH BY HANGING and DOUBLE SUICIDE : JAPANESE SUMMER. TPOTF is inferior to them. It starts as a neo-noir thriller but it turns into a psychological drama/thriller, a character study. During the first 10-20 minutes, i liked it a lot, it was easy to watch and the leading character was interesting. Unfortunately, movie lost its steam as it progressed. As another reviewer mentioned : "Great ideas, but not realized in a way that really makes them count".

Still it had its moments and i was sort of curious to see where it goes. Overall, it's uneven : Some scenes were powerful and Oshima's directing is expectedly great, but at some point, it stopped making sense and the leading character was more of annoying and frustrating to watch than intriguing. For a character study movie, this is not good.