Hana to hebi

I first saw FLOWER AND SERPENT in the eighties at the Thalia. It was part of a wonderful film series on Japanese B-movies—movies regular Japanese folks see, not artsy Kurosawa flicks. Several audience members walked out in disgust within the first few minutes, but I stayed, fascinated. It was the first—and still only—Japanese bondage comedy I had ever seen.

A young, sexually impotent salaryman lives at home with his dominating—literally— mother. She produces "kinbaku" (bondage) movies in the basement to make ends meet. When the salaryman's boss discovers stills from the mother's work in the salaryman's desk, the boss mistakenly assumes the salaryman is a "nawashi" (bondage master) and orders him to kidnap and train the boss's sexually unresponsive wife. Complications ensue when the wife and salaryman fall in love with each other.

This movie is frankly not for everyone. It depends on how comfortable you are, for example, with a running subplot involving enemas. Can screwball romantic comedy and hardcore bondage scenes peacefully coexist? Imagine THE STORY OF O as written/directed by Preston Sturges and you'll have some idea. (The closest modern, Western equivalent is SECRETARY.) I recently stumbled across a DVD of FLOWER AND SERPENT at Kim's under the title FLOWER AND SERPENT '74. Apparently, the movie has been remade several times, and there have been numerous sequels. It was every bit as bizarre as I remembered it. If you want to see a truly unusual movie, and get some insight into the dark underbelly of Japanese culture, this is a good place to start.

Having just seen and enjoyed Takashi Ishii's outrageously raunchy 2005 Flower and Snake 2, based on a cult S&M novel by Oniroku Dan, I was quite keen to watch the film that preceded it, primarily to see some more of gorgeous star Aya Sugimoto; however, being rather confused about the whole history of the Flower and Snake series, I ended up watching this 70s Nikkatsu film instead. As it happens, I wasn't too disappointed with my mistake: not only is this one an impressively jaw-dropping piece of classic Japanese sleaze, but it also introduced me to the delightful Naomi Tani, who is every bit as stunning as Sugimoto.

Tani plays Shizuko, the beautiful wife of ageing businessman Senzô Tôyama (Nagatoshi Sakamoto), who is reluctant to satisfy her perverted spouse's sexual demands, having been sold to him by her lover. Disatisfied with Shizuko's behaviour, Senzô convinces one of his employees, Makoto Katagiri (Yasuhiko Ishizu) to abduct his wife, break her pride, and train her to become an obedient sex slave. Makoto is only too happy to oblige—even more-so when he discovers that the lovely lady is able to cure his impotence, which was caused by a disturbing childhood incidence involving his mother and a big, black G.I.

Whereas Ishii's film was purely designed to be as erotic as possible, this earlier version of Oniroku Dan's novel is just as much about delivering the utterly depraved as it is intended to arouse. Amongst all of the S&M rope-trickery that is standard for such fare, this one also offers up such eye-opening stuff as a fumble in a flower bed involving the use of caterpillars, an incredibly tasteless forced enema (the effluence captured in a plastic bag), some strangeness involving a foul muck designed to irritate Shizuko's snatch, and Makoto's mad mother reenacting the traumatic event from his childhood so as to once again make her son impotent.

This movie along with Wife to Be Sacrificed were the standard for almost every Roman Porno film that came after. Based on the Oniroku Dan S&M novel, Flower and Snake. This was the first Roman Porno to have an S&M theme.

The story is a 30 year old man, still living with his mother who operates an adult novelty (magazines, photos & toys) store. The man's boss asks him to kidnap and train his wife who has been denying him during their marriage. While the man is inexperienced except for seeing his mother taking photo shoots obliges.

Keep in mind that although this film falls under the Nikkatsu studio's Roman Porno, that means romantic porno (not the western definition of porno), falls under the Pink Eiga movie category and only softcore at that. And in the 1970's Japanese film censorship was very strict. This film does have rope bondage and it is very real including suspension. There is also enemas and other things but is never shown on camera. All including sex scenes are strictly simulated.

The film itself often is rebuked by a western audience. But it had its place within Japanese (not mainstream) culture of the time. The bondage, sex scenes and fetishes are definitely part of the story. The characters and their development would make no sense without it.

The acting by the entire cast is first-rate. Naomi Tani, who was known as the "Queen Of S&M" is exceptional as usual. She would famously only appear in films with an S&M theme. The story moves along and nothing is just filler. I still think Wife to Be Sacrificed which was later the same year to be a better film. Still, this is outstanding.

This is one of five films I recommend to people that want to be introduced to Roman Porno or Pink Eiga films. I highly recommend it.

Trying to sort out just which of this series in which is quite a task with three versions made in the 80s and then two remakes in this decade by Takashi Ishii, also under the title of Flower and Snake. I remember having a video with the title Flower and Snake 4 and believe that must have been the first Ishii film with the numbering ignoring the very first film. And after that preamble, on to the original 1974 Flower and Snake ( the box of which incorrectly credits Ishii with the direction!). Unlike the Ishii films which have all the tight bondage scenes but are a bit, sexed up, shall we say, this is very grim indeed at times. Having said that, one of the more gruelling scenes involving an extensive forced enema, the sequence is ultimately played for laughs! But then the first bondage rape scene ends up being played as romantic, so be prepared for anything and never imagine you will be able to anticipate a good Japanese film maker. Devastating and philosophical, horrifying and whimsical by turns, this outrageous and stupendous piece of film making ultimately presents us with the most controversial of images as the bound slave visibly controls her 'masters' and as the film closes on a freeze frame as cynical as any Bunuel, she recruits another.