XX: Utsukushiki emono

I will not pretend to understand the world of S&M. I did see a bit of it on a couple of CSI episodes, but this film was fascinating in showing people who get sexual pleasure from being tortured. I cannot imagine hot having hot wax poured upon is sexual pleasure, but apparently it is.

It is a crime drama with sex, much like Zero Woman. A naive young policewoman delves into this world to catch a rapist/murderer.

I must say there are certainly some great fringe benefits for Japanese police.

Sexually charged crime drama.

Cult Japanese director Ikeda's take on the Basic Instinct premise: a cop investigating a seductive woman is drawn into a dark world of sexual role playing.

Most wannabe erotic thrillers fail to be much of either, but Ikeda manages through excellent use of his angular glass and steel sets to create a cinematic landscape of voyeurism and entrapment. Characters are either watching each other through glass like zoo animals or seeing themselves in mirrors wondering how others see them. Mirrors become symbolic of public opinion and especially censure, and the geometric boxes people live in become cages to entrap their individuality without protecting them from dangers without or within themselves. Very watchable.

"Beautiful Prey" is the first DVD in a LONG time that I immediately threw away right after watching it, feeling that it did not need to (dis)grace my collection. Just to prevent the same thing from happening to any of you, I'll just mention that:

• There is almost no action in the entire movie

• It is slow, dry and cheap in the style of the "Zero Woman" series, but without its redeeming elements

• About an hour in, the heroine, a cop, goes alone, in the middle of the night, WITHOUT HER GUN, to catch a sadist that she suspects is responsible for at least 2 murders. She is captured more easily than a civilian would, and doesn't even try to kick her attacker in the balls or something. For the next 10 minutes, she is raped, abused, and tortured. If this sounds "cool" or "challenging" to you, you'll probably love this film. If it sounds sick or disgusting, you'll probably hate it.

To be fair, in its first half "Beautiful Prey" does raise some interesting points, especially about who is the controlling half in a sadomasochistic relationship. However, the moment it switches from the kinky to the sick, its fate (ie. the trash can) was sealed for me. (*)

Fantastic S&M orientated thriller with a marvellous central performance from the most sultry, Kei Marimura, apparently a real life jazz singer, who plays a masochist, rape victim, who seems not entirely sure whether she is or isn't. A victim that is, and things get more complicated when she begins killing people close to her to feel the sense of loss and young policewoman, Noriko, played by, Makiko Watanabe, is brought in to really complicate things. Superb cinematography throughout and lovely swirling and assured direction from Toshiharu Ikeda. Probably the best of the series, I have so far only seen this in Japanese without subtitles, so maybe another point when I've watched it with the benefit of titles. Not always the case of course. Some stylish, bravura film-making like this is better without less than perfect dialogue. We shall see.

This movie begins with a beautiful woman named "Yu Makimura" (Kei Maramura) being brutally raped in her apartment while her husband is out of town on business. While being treated at the hospital the accompanying female police officer by the name of "Noriko Katase" (Makiko Watanabe) notices that Yu has a long welt across her breast which appears to be a couple of days old. Since it wasn't obtained during the rape it is then surmised by her boss "Inspector Tagami" (Ren Osuga) that Yu might have masochistic tendencies which might then shed some light on the perpetrator. However, the deeper Tagami and Noriko delve the more confusing and dangerous it gets for both of them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a film that may have had potential if it hadn't gotten so bizarre and illogical toward the end. Additionally, although there were several scenes of a sexual nature, most of them completely lacked eroticism which certainly didn't help either. Again, this movie could have been better but apparently the director (Toshiharu Ikeda) was more concerned with stretching certain boundaries than producing a worthy product. Because of that I have rated the movie accordingly. Slightly below average.