Hana to hebi 3

Flower and Snake is a novel that Dan Onuroku wrote in his 30s, so there's quite a bit of history to it. Dan started writing novels to pay back the debt the Shogi (Japanese chess) magazine had where he was the editor. But his style was very much ahead of time, and he became the preeminent S&M writer of his days.

This is the 3rd installment of the Flower and Snake series that started with Aya Sugimoto's version in 2004. Minako Komukai replaced Sugimoto in this version. Dan himself recommended S&M movies as a career path to Komukai.

This is based on a novel that were written in the '60s, and it's somewhat tame by today's standard. I think Yusuke Narita has better visuals than Takashi Ishii who directed the previous two versions, but the story just meanders and lacks delivery. This was very much Dan's own early writing style as well, so I'm not sure who gets the blame.

In any case, Komukai does a very good job as Sugimoto's replacement, and this is one of the last movie that Dan himself was involved in the making, so if you've been following Oniroku Dan's movies, this is one that you wouldn't want to miss.

A businessman is ruthless with his competitors, and in response his competitors after being driven out of business kidnap aforementioned business man's wife and start training her to be a porn star, particularly of the S&M/bondage variety, in order to blackmail the business man into paying them not to release the porn film that they're creating...starring his wife. (Yeah, the plot doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, but it doesn't really need to, I guess.) There's not really much to say about this movie. If you're interested in softcore pinky bondage films like the previous Flower & Snake movies, Wife to be Sacrificied, etc. then I'd check it out. There's some debauchery/humiliation and what have you (someone urinates in someone else's face, sexual intercourse with a meat product of some kind, some girl-on-girl) but all in all it's just skullnumbingly boring. But, y'know, like I said, if you like the older Japanese bondage productions, then your mileage may vary (despite being released in 2010, the production has an intentionally created older look to it). I just went into it with a (probably misguided) expectation for Japanese exploitation OTT madness, and in that sense was disappointed.