Yuriko no aroma

Needless to say that I had actually never heard about the 2010 Japanese romantic drama "Yuriko No Aroma" (aka "Yuriko's Aroma") prior to stumbling upon it by random chance here in 2023. And with it being a Japanese movie that I hadn't already seen, of course I had to watch it.

Writer and director Kota Yoshida delivered a very unique movie here, if nothing else. The storyline and narrative in "Yuriko No Aroma" is pretty strange, bizarre and unique, and I dare something you would definitely expect to come out of Japan of all places. While the story deals with some odd fetishism, then it was also a sort of coming of age story, mixed with a relationship story. And it actually played out alright in a greater viewing experience.

I was actually genuinely entertained by the story here, not the strange fetishism that the movie dealt with. And the good performances by leading actress Noriko Eguchi (playing Yuriko) and leading actor Shota Sometani (playing Tetsuya) really helped to make it a watchable and enjoyable movie.

Given the strange focal point of the storyline then "Yuriko No Aroma" is not a movie that will make for an easy or enjoyable viewing by the general audience. This is somewhat of a niche movie, and I believe something reserved for fans of the Japanese cinema. However, I would suggest you sit down and watch "Yuriko No Aroma", should you have the chance, because it is such a unique movie experience.

My rating of "Yuriko No Aroma" lands on a six out of ten stars.

Oh, the expectations. Noriko Eguchi stars as an aromatherapist, Yuriko, who finds herself uncontrollably aroused by the sweaty scent of a seventeen year old boy. Oh, the possibilities. The boy happens to be the niece of the woman who owns the salon where Yuriko works. That's the story and pretty much the whole plot.

The film gives itself away early, letting on that it's going to be safe and good-humored. Oh, the let down. The moment things hint towards any tension, or that things might get sexy or erotic, the soundtrack rears its ugly head and plays goofy and light-hearted. And then the scene cuts away. The technique of cutting a scene before it finishes can be effective in moderation but here it's so overused it seems to reinforce a suspicion that the director doesn't know how to let a scene form its own conclusion. The film is sprinkled with innumerable scenes that have no beginning nor end, just a shallow, usually brief, middle period. Most of them add nothing and could have just been eliminated.

The film's runtime is only 79 minutes and it could have easily been shorter. It doesn't explore anything in any depth and there are a whole lot of scenes of "opening the door slowly, inch by inch" that could have been tightened up to make room for something else except there's nothing here. A couple off camera hand-jobs and an embarrassingly out of place scene with a topless air-head girl giving Yuriko a massage don't add any adult or erotic content.

I love Noriko Eguchi so I'm going to write off her Quaalude inspired performance as the result of bad direction. It's a gutsy role, in theory anyway, which calls for her to do a lot of aroused sniffing of a young boy's body and licking of his head. She does those parts very well. Few people could. Too bad they are the only interesting moments in the film.