Tokio Decadence

In Tokyo, the hooker Ai (Miho Nikaido) works in an escort agency specialized in perversions and kinky sex. Ai is submissive to her clients and accepts to be humiliated, to perform sadomasochism and bondage and threesome. However she is unhappy with her life for some reason.

The Brazilian VHS of "Topâzu", a.k.a. "Tokyo Decadence" is a soft-porn labeled Erotic-Thriller. There are many scenes of Miho Nikaido performing kinky sex with her clients and basically that is all. Her unrequited love was edited from this 92 minutes version where the fortuneteller instructions are senseless. It is hard to understand why the producers allow this procedure. My vote is three.

Title (Brazil): "Tokio em Decadência" ("Tokyo in Decadence")

This review is for the 1:49 (109 minute) version of the film in Japanese with English subtitles. I believe this is the 'uncut' version. I was quite worried before watching this film about what I was letting myself in for after having read some of the reviews. I feared it might be something like some of Pasolini's films. I needn't have worried. Admittedly you might not want to show it to your maiden aunt.

It's a sort of art house version of Showgirls (1995). The hallucination scenes reminds me a bit of the Mandrax infused scenes in Celine and Julie go boating (1974). So as a bit of trivia I'm guessing that is the drug Ai takes.

It's supposedly a warts and all look at the life of a Tokyo prostitute, Ai, who specialises in S & M set at the time of the economic bubble. Obviously this could just be a flimsy excuse for a lot of gratuitous footage under the guise of Art. I'm inclined to give it the benefit of the doubt. It's never going to be a great film, but at least it does pass the Bechdel test.

Films with a similar idea that spring to mind are Klute (1971) and Strella (2009). Both of which seemed like a more realistic portrayal, particularly Strella.I may be being a little unfair since some of it could have got lost in translation.

A shimmering brightness infuses "Tokyo Decadence". The neon-blasted streets, the eerie, artificial glow of offices and hotel rooms, even the translucent glow of daylight insinuates under the skin of the film.

The antiheroine of the film passes through a sexual Seven-Circles-of-Hell in Tokyo, used and battered by clients, gangsters and even friends who ply her with drugs and subversive sex. None of the sexuality is erotic, but it's also not presented as obscene or tragic. The spare, minimal approach to the dialogue heightens the tension and sense of dislocation. The film presents sex as a matter-of-fact commodity, flesh as spiritual bargaining tool in return for a temporary escape from alienation and fear.

It's an intriguing film, difficult to watch but rich in visual beauty and its subtextual dimensions are quite rewarding. The film fetishizes everything to the point of abstraction. The city of Tokyo becomes a gleaming morass of lights, skyscrapers and soullessness.

A brutal and delicate work of art.

Murakakmi's Tokyo Decadence starts out powerfully with an unflinching look at the shifts put in as a 'Delivery Health' (as these women get called in 21s century Japan) by hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold, Miho Nikaido. The crisp colours, seductive light and slowly dollying camera give a high productive sheen to the mesmerising scenes of Nikaido being humiliated by a Yakuza couple, then assisting a dominatrix in the wished-for degradation of one of her regular johns.

Murakami seems to be highlighting the amorality of Bubble-rich Japan, his characters speechifying against the 'real' whores in the corporate and government fields. The sexual and comedy elements are well-balanced, the highlight being the lost dildo in the toilet scene. Nikaido shows an impressive range, both vulnerable in and enraptured by her line of work. She also enlivens a long walk with a wild-eyed look she achieves in the film's final third.

However, her performance cannot rescue the meandering, insipid final episode when Nikaido goes in search of her true love. The introduction of a 'courage' pill is a clumsy plot device. The final section lacks clarity, and even continuity seems to be a minor concern. It is as if Murakami, having established his world so finely in the first half, is now at a loss regarding what he wants to say about it. A series of episodic and uninspiring tableaux plays out, the slightly surreal elements being the only thing that stops it from descending into an old-fashioned morality tale.

Tokyo Decadence is a film of two halves, with the director only trying in the first.

If you enjoy seeing BDSM films, this should be on your list of must-sees.

The film deteriorates, however, and carries on aimlessly for some time before its ungraceful end. I rate it a 6: 9 for the S&M and a 3 for the rest.