Tokio Decadence

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.

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.

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.

Very erotic and sick at the same time. This movie leads you down the dark allies of human sexuality. But it touches more than the loins. This is mostly because of the innocence of the Ai, the main character. Her quest for true love and happiness stands in a deep contrast with the dark nighttime of Tokyo, ridden with perverse sex and cocaine.

This movie is a must for people interested in culture, sexuality and gender roles. It gives perfect examples of how power play somehow gets us excited, but mainly rests upon images of gender and sex we have invented inside our culture. It's a little Foucault, it's a little de Sade, it's just very interesting.

In view of this film our society seems to be frozen, cold as ice! The glittering world is only a facade above all soulish depths and perversions that lie beneath! "Tokyo Decadence" tells the story about a sensitive young girl who decides to serve the desires of the decadent Japanese high society! Day in, day out she has to do with cocaine sniffing pervs and guys with the sickest sexual phantasies. Slowly, but surely she becomes the ball of their obsessions, but at the end she breaks from the unbearable pressure... Like so many other Asians films from the 1990s "Tokyo Decadence" combines its gross story with elegant pictures. This flick also contains some real explicit scenes of S&M or sexual role play, so people with a too conservative mind will certainly be offended! However, those who can bear some explicit representations of erotic beyond normal will make another fine experience of 1990´s great Asian cinema!