Kanzen-naru shiiku: Ai no 40-nichi

This is disturbing stuff indeed but remains, as was the first movie, extremely well made. This does deal with justification of rape, whether a kidnap victim needs the captor and worse that the need turns to love. Questions of arranged marriages, relationships between younger girls and older men and other difficult moral and social questions criss cross this this movie as we are mesmerised by the beauty and near perfect logic of the proceedings. Dangerous too because we are forced to question the basic freedom of choice we take for granted and hold so dear and also have to question the very basis of true love and happiness. Does fate deal the cards as we reach the crossroads or is it all just a state of mind? This film challenges almost everything we believe about normal human relationships except makes perfect sense psychologically. Brave film making.

The perverted old guy who kidnaps the girl is actually the only realistic person in this whole movie. The whole kidnapping/training scheme would only work if you had a real-life girl who was as braindead as the one in this movie. Besides that, the sex sucks.

I was apparently wrong informed that `Perfect Education 2 ` was written by Miike Takeshi so I immediately get a DVD copy of the movie. But as oriental cinema is barely released in the USA, the only available copy was the Hong Kong made, who has English titles, but is mostly in Chinese (the movie is from Japan).

However, even for a tale several times told, this movie is able to get under your skin in quasi subliminal way.

Haruka is a lonely 17 years old girl. His father has died, his mother works till very late so she spend most of her time alone, even if she has some friends, she has not really a family to count on. She is so depressed that his only wish is for an UFO to take her out of this world. Sounds familiar, well is probably the same though of every adolescent girl in actual society.

Sumikawa is 42 years old man whose mother just passed away leaving him alone after dedicating his life to her care. The typical movie rapist or nut case. One day, Sumikawa kidnap Haruka and after a failed rape intent, decide to keep her prisoner as his companion forever; `There is nothing you can do, its just your fate' explain to Haruka.

He is really a tender guy and tries to please her as much as he can, but also request some sexual act or threaten her. Anyway, the relation gradually moves to feelings and consented sex and may be LOVE.

There are a few more disturbing things here. The action takes place mostly in a very small room; so small that there is only a single bed and Sumikawa must sleep on the floor. In the middle of the movie, he ask her to call him PAPA, something she will do till the logical dramatic end.

Sold as an erotic movie, it will probably be deceptive to those looking for hardcore sex. The sexual tension is high, but the scenes are very restrained and sometimes without any real erotism.

However, acting is so good that you are able to feel their fear and loneliness and excitement all over. And by the end feel pity for them. Yes, he is a psycho and a potential rapist, but in this everyday colder society, he is probably her only escape. Let's think about what would happen to Haruka in a middle of the depression without any adult advise. It could be nothing or she could fall under drugs, prostitution, an adult lover or just suicide. Read the papers, this happens everyday.

It is not an excellent movie, but it is worth a try.

This is the second in a 7 movie series using a similar theme. A middle-aged man kidnaps a 17 year old (as in the first movie, played by an actress in her 20's) to make his lover and companion. This has the lead actress telling her story after the fact to a therapist. I found this one much more disturbing than the first.

This has a much more somber mood. The acting performances were not nearly as strong as those in the first and lacked the same chemistry. They didn't show much emotion even when you would expect it.

I will say there was a better sense of realism than seen in similar Hollywood movies. Small details like wrist abrasions from handcuffs and using the bathroom. A stark contrast between Japanese & western films.

The story and characters I did find very engaging. Even tho very disturbing I felt drawn in to how the relationship develops. Disturbing but very interesting film.