A Snake of June
Japanese Cinema
•
Drama, UR
Rinko (Asuka Kurosawa) and Shigehiko (Yuji Kotari) are a strange couple, whose physical mismatch (she a lithe beauty, he an overweight, balding, obsessive-compulsive neurotic) is reflected in the complete lack of intimacy between them. They connect as human beings, but they live more like friends than as lovers and lead nearly independent lives. Both seem comfortable with this coexistence, but the desires that lurk beneath its surface are brought out with the introduction of a third element into the equation. When Rinko receives a package of candid photographs of herself masturbating and the sender (played by Tsukamoto himself) contacts her with the threat of exposing them to her husband, she submits herself to the anonymous voyeur’s sexual games. If she wishes to get hold of all the negatives and prints, Rinko is to comply with a set of assignments that place her constantly on the borderline between humiliation and pleasure – the voyeur knows exactly what Rinko’s personal erotic fantasies are and makes her act them out one by one.
Up Next in Japanese Cinema
-
Ring [Ringu]
A group of teenage friends are found dead, their bodies grotesquely contorted, their faces twisted in terror.
-
Ran
Akira Kurosawa’s visually spectacular epic transplants Shakespeare’s King Lear from Celtic Britain to feudal Japan. In its epic scope and expert execution, Ran can be seen as a culmination of the great Japanese director’s filmmaking career; a late triumph which he planned and refined over several...
-
Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
Yosuke, a recently unemployed Tokyo businessman, estranged from his wife travels to a remote fishing village after hearing rumours of hidden treasure. Instead, he meets Saeko, a mysterious woman who gushes water when sexually aroused. Enamoured, Yosuke decides to start a new life as a local fishe...