Rafureshia

Convinced that there must be more to life than satisfying her obsessive father's incestuous urges, pretty Alisa (Kinako) leaves their island and swims for the mainland; meanwhile, housewife Harumi (Yumi Yoshiyuki) is being badgered by her mother-in-law (Kiyomi Ito) to get pregnant, but is receiving such little attention in the bedroom from her husband Yoshio (Kouichi Imaizumi) that she seeks her thrills elsewhere. As the womens' search for happiness progresses, their lives gradually become inextricably entwined.

Although lighter in tone than many a Pinku movie, and just a little more surreal, Hisayasu Sato's Rafureshia is still extremely twisted stuff, chock full of sexual deviancy—in other words, perfect entertainment for those who enjoy their viewing material both arousing and amazingly weird; the fact that this film was likely the inspiration for Takashi Miike's equally perverse Visitor Q only qualifies it further as an essential slice of Japanese craziness.

From its opening scene, in which dear old daddy does Alisa on the dining room table, to the rather amusing ending, this unbelievable Pinku treat delivers the kind of outrageous naughtiness that could only come from Japan. The demented action includes such jaw dropping sights as Yoshio being pleasured by his mother while Harumi sees to herself, a trio of sex-mad down and outs getting extremely lucky, a chainsaw wielding Alisa chasing an adult baby (in the brothel run by Harumi's mother-in-law!!!), some hot 'scissor-sister' action, and a tranny hooker accosting Yoshio in a park. As is customary with such fare, there's loads of female nudity, the occasional instance of optical fogging, and loads of frantic close-up frottaging over silky white pantie gussets.

Following my week-long Hisayasu Sato film festival, I landed on Rafureshia aka Sukebe-zuma: Otto no rusu ni, a flick that, for a second, made me think the dude was chillin' out. It's a jarring entry in his world where the usual nihilistic despair gets replaced by this bizarre, sun-drenched nightmare. It's an absurd road trip flick about two women escaping their mundane, mind-bending lives. There's Alisa, who's booking it from her creep-show incest dad, and Harumi, a housewife who's had enough of her husband and invasive mom. Their paths cross, and then it's a full-on descent into an urban underworld packed with oddballs, from homeless gang rapists to a diaper-wearing baby fetishist. It's a trip.

Despite it supposedly being "toned down," this thing is still unsettling. All the signature Sato madness is there, just filtered through a strange, almost whimsical lens. The sexual violence is present, but it's got this surreal, almost slapstick absurdity that makes it even more disquieting. One of the women ends up swinging a chainsaw over a dude in a diaper, which is honestly the perfect image for this whole mess. It's not a plot, but a series of vignettes, with each encounter pushing the women further from their past and closer to some bizarre, new kind of freedom.

The film's title, and its central metaphor, comes from a monologue: "Do you know the flower called rafureshia? It's the biggest flower in the world... but you can only find it in the jungle. It's a flower of illusion." It's the perfect key to the movie's vibe-like a forgotten dream that only reappears when you're at your most desperate.

Rafureshia proves that Sato can be both depraved and weirdly playful. The score is all quirky synth melodies, and the fast-forwarded scenes give it a frantic, dream-like quality. While it's not as brutally visceral as his other stuff, its oddball sensibility and dark humor are a whole different kind of unnerving. The ending is a rare break from his usual inevitable doom, offering an ambiguous sense of freedom that feels totally new. It's a gateway drug to Sato's universe, a surreal fairy tale for anyone brave enough to just roll with the absurdity.

I loved this. Of course it is quite bizarre as one would expect and has lots of sex but it is also always good to look at and if not laugh out loud funny does have a really good feel to it that brings more than a smile or two. Some very erotic scenes early on as a girl's mother in law talks dirty and the pair get into a right steamed up sexy state while the husband, bulged crotch in the hand's of his mother, just carries on eating. He even breaks off and decides to go to bed early whilst the two girls are gasping in their mutual wetness. There is much more of this, including cross dressing, adult baby (chased by chainsaw wielding lovely) a gang bang, incest, girl on girl and probably more that have slipped my mind. Hard to believe that this is all done in such a charming way but then when wasn't there something hard to believe in a good old Japanese pink?

Alisa escapes her obsessed and incestuous father by jumping into the sea and washing up on the beach and heads into the city to start her life from the beginning.Harumi lives with her uncaring husband and perverse mother-in-law but leaves to find the love and affection she isn't getting at home.By fate-and some bizarre events-the two ladies meet and hope to find what they are looking for together."Rafureisha" is a more light-hearted pinku flick from the director of "Hitozuma Collector","Lolita Vibrator Torture" and "Naked Blood".There is rape,incest and plenty of sex and nudity plus some truly surreal moments including an adult baby being attacked with a chainsaw.Overall if you are a fan of clinical works of Sato give this one a look-I prefer more darker and disturbing movies by this infamous Japanese Cronenberg.7 out of 10.