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..

For a movie called 'Pleasures of the Flesh' this was actually a fairly tame time. Specifically, if you're considering that you'll see some of that 'Wow-wa-wee-wa!' sexuality that Oshima made so notorious with In the Realm of the Senses you may just be outright disappointed. This story comes more by way of a precursor to a 'Leaving Las Vegas' where it's about a guy who goes on a path of self-destruction after being blackmailed into holding on to thirty million dollars by a man who saw our protagonist (Ashima) kill another man on a train. A lot of this plot doesn't really need to be explained - or rather, the movie does a helluva job explaining it to us again and again when not really necessary - and the main thrust is about a kind of guilt and shame filled trek into despair. Cheery, of course.

I don't know if Oshima's direction had quite gotten to the point it had in just the next few films he would make - i.e. Violence at Noon, Sing a Song of Sex, and the best of them Japanese Summer: Double Suicide - where he could make a compelling plot with a wild and idiosyncratic vision with the camera (the man simply shoots wide-shots and close-ups like no one else, somehow with him people are farther away and when close you can see the whites of their eyes). Here, he's got a solid premise, and some fine acting from his lead and a couple of supporting players, but has too much explanation of things going on and not enough, frankly, titillation. We see the character hand off money, lots of it, recklessly (which is good to see) for the women he acquires, the most interesting being a wife who is sleeping with him so he can support his husband and children (when he confronts Ashima it's really quite a tense scene, mostly for how seemingly nice or mean he could be in the same breath).

But at the same time we only see a little of how he really soaks up this 'pleasure' (albeit maybe the the title of the book this is based on, Pleasures in a Coffin, could have been an indicator for the film-noir-ish nihilism on display). A lot of the film is spent with the character lamenting his lost love, a once pupil of his who married someone else (and was part of the cause of this whole thing to begin with), and being a self-destructive ass around those he makes love to; one memorable scene has him on a beach in a situation with a woman where no one comes out well, and yet brings a marriage. You know, the kind of marriage that actually has a 'divorce-by' date included.

The cinematography in color brings out (oddly enough) the melancholy state of things, and the paranoia that builds in the third act is convincing and palpable. If only there was a little more focus, or just a stronger sense of the degradation of the character past the carelessness of the money (maybe more dangerous-type scenes like a gangster threatening one of his women with acid to the face), it could have been something special. As it is, Pleasures of the Flesh is more like a 'nice' (I hate to use that word but it is) indicator of the darker recessed the filmmaker would go into just in a year or so.

The first ten minutes (past the opening credits) are stuffed so full of exposition that it becomes a little unwieldy, and are not aided by sequencing that feels uncomfortably disjointed. It's not the best of starts. The plot that it sets up is very promising, and even the very next scene to greet us seemingly begins to live up to that promise. Protagonist Atsushi, feeling he has nothing to lose, intends to live recklessly and get the most out of what he has at his disposal; given the crash course background we get to kick off the story and what we know to expect from filmmaker Nagisa Oshima (that is, anything at all), the possibilities are as assuredly endless as they are probably seedy. Unfortunately, I'm at best unsure if this actually lives up to the potential of its own premise. 'Etsuraku,' or 'Pleasures of the flesh,' starts with a good idea, but never gets as interesting as it could be and sometimes can't even seem to make up its mind.

That sequencing, coming across as scattered and unconvincing not just in terms of fundamental editing but also of narrative development, never particularly improves from those first ten minutes. The picture can't decide if our protagonist is a naive child of a man who is flailing with unfocused, impotent emotions and intellect, or a determined, coldly furious, somewhat self-destructive wrecking ball. True, I suppose he could be both in turn, but to me it feels like the screenplay isn't discernibly credible about either notion, and it's hard to tell which facet of the character it approaches more weakly. Despite the title, the premise, the portent of the earliest minutes, and our assumptions of Oshima, the feature actually rather declines major tawdriness. In fact, 'Etsuraku' quite seems to split the difference between romantic drama, character study, and possibly tinges of film noir, yet mostly with the generalized film-making and storytelling sensibilities of 1940s Hollywood - declining explicit depiction, and doling out emphatic story beats without specifically fleshing out the tale otherwise.

Frankly, I'm not entirely sold. The writing seems uncertain of itself - perhaps the dialogue above all. It's only within the last minutes that this seems to meaningfully find its feet, but by then it's too little, too late, and the vibrancy of the final notes are diminished for prior lack and unevenness. Oshima's direction elsewhere has impressed me; here, he doesn't make much of a mark at all. Other folks behind the scenes turned in good work, sure, as did the cast, but nothing here is especially remarkable. The movie just kind of coasts along. And with all this having been said, as it periodically tries to weave in a psychological element, it lacks the measured, delicate hand to do so effectively. There are terrific ideas underlying the screenplay, and I simply don't believe they've been realized in a way that really makes any of them count. None of this is to say that 'Etsuraku' is altogether bad, because I don't think that's true, but it's only part of the picture it could have been. None of what is most important about this film comes out quite right. It's still decent enough to watch if you happen to come across it, but one way or another, I think it only earns a soft recommendation.

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.