Hana to hebi

Superb, brutal, erotic, handsomely produced sado-masochistic masterpiece from director Takeshi Ishii. It could have been titled "Wife To Be Sacrificed" because Shizuko (Aya Sugimoto), the wife of a wealthy businessman, is sacrificed in order to pay off her husband's debts.

Everything "Eyes Wide Shut" pretended to be this is. It does not cower from its powerful subject matter or merely titillate. It is the work of an incendiary artist with a firm grip on the material and the material's ability to emotionally resonate.

Sugimto, who is one of the strongest, most stunning, most beautiful creatures ever to ignite the cinema screen, is totally convincing as a woman plunged into a cruel, nihilistic, carnal hell referred to only as The Coliseum. It is a stadium-like space where the rich and powerful get their kicks watching beautiful women raped, beaten, bound and, in some cases, murdered, in a pretentious, circus-style setting.

This is a big budget extravaganza of ravishing perversion and beauty mixed with a violent white collar crime plot. Ishii's direction of both the violent confrontations and sado-masochistic set pieces is stunning. His camera dives, swirls, caresses and illuminates the provocative tableaux.

Goro Yasukawa's score is beautiful, and artfully enriches every aspect of this sensational production. It took three cinematographers to fully realize the striking visual style that brings Ishii's original vision to life.

The Oniroku Dan novel, 'Flower and Snake', has been filmed before, but this is the definitive version and the most sincere, a hardcore smack to the chops of conservative culture.

The ultimate focus of this film is Aya Sugimoto, who've grown up from a graphic idol of the'80s into an entrepreneur and an actress amongst other things. She's really matured from the beautiful young girl into a nice multi-talented lady. A rarity in a field where new comers fade away just as quickly as they appear.

If you look at the combination of Dan Oniroku, and Takashi Ishii, you can bet that this is going to be a hard core movie in many ways (and it is).

A husband in debt is asked to submit his wife to a 95 year old man's pleasure item. He has little choice but to submit. The wife (Aya Sugimoto) who doesn't know anything about the deal becomes the unwitting sacrifice in the game of sadistic sexual display.

I actually haven't seen Aya Sugimoto for almost 20 years, and had to do a double take to make sure that she was the same Aya Sugimoto that I've seen in the '80s. She's changed, but into a respectable lady.

I'm not a big fan of Dan Oniroku or Takashi Ishii, but this movie was of good quality mainly due to the performance of Aya Sugimoto.

The first of director Takashi Ishii's own versions of this tale of BDSM and honour, following the very first in 1974. Here we have a much more sexy tale, a lot of the edge has been smoothed away. We still have an enema scene of sorts here but it is by no means as central to the lead character's degradation as it was in the first films. So, whilst this film will appear totally unacceptable to the average film-goer, it is much easier and less uncomfortable to fans of extreme Japanese cinema. In some ways this may be a more transgressive movie because we do come extremely close here to an acceptance, possibly an enjoyment and even an empowerment as a result of the pain, suffering and ultimate 'showing of the real face'. Having said all that for those partial to the sight of female bodies in exquisite bondage, this is the movie for you. Pubic hair is also, unusually, on view and this is certainly the greatest film ever made featuring extreme bondage and ballroom dancing. The men come off very badly, as usual, spending all their time in power games whilst they hand the power straight to the ladies.

This is what Eyes Wide Shut should have been. This is Zalman King eroticism with a sharp story line and excellent acting. Super erotic without blatant pornography; that would seem to be the test of great acting/directing/storytelling. I'd give it 10 but the ending seems subject to much interpretation. Although much of the movie is involved in bondage and forms of S&M, I get easily bored if THAT'S all that is going on. There's much more to this, the sequences do not feel contrived, and the reaction of the actors seems very genuine. This is not a slasher/blood splatter flick. In many respects, this is more erotic than what an actual porn flick would be. Overall, a very well done movie!

I don't know who writes these parents guides but they must have seen a different movie than I did! Mostly breasts are just shown and a few shots of thick pubic hair. No genitals ever shown, which is ok, just really tired of the morons who write the parents guide. They will write an entire essay describing every kiss or low cut dress! They even include when a guy is shirtless now!! It is however a torture/bondage film and not too bad in that respect.