Torture as an art He seems to know exactly what women want, for they fall one by one at His feet—a wife, a mistress. And they want, or rather, She, His passionate passion, the former mistress of the drinking establishment, and now His main muse and model, one – humiliation, pain, suffering. And she can't get enough.
The final part of the trilogy Noboru Tanaki, dedicated to the fateful women of the Showa era performed by Junko Miyashita, continues the theme of excruciating passion and death, started in “A Woman named Sada Abe” (another interpretation of the tragic story of a mad woman who did not want to let her lover go, which was also shown in the infamous “Passion Empire” by Nagisa Oshima). Unlike “Steps in the Attic”, the second film of the trilogy, when the director turned to a literary source, a novel by the Japanese master of detectives and thrillers Edogawa Rampo, in “Torture” he again takes up the film adaptation of the life and passions of real people, in his own way interpreting the work and sources of inspiration of Seiyu Ito, who became famous for his paintings and photographs that captured the art of shibari. This artist preaches the beauty of tying and hanging naked women, revelling in the tortures of the victim, begging with a glance to stop his sophisticated, exquisite torture. But Tae is not so, she does not ask for mercy, and her tormentor is only inflamed more and more in vain desire to catch, capture on film this look, saying “enough”, shouting that the will of a woman is broken. Tae’s patience is explained simply, but it is no less terrible, and Seiyu’s creative path turns into an attempt to give something that can calm the restless soul of a dying mistress.
Of course, the accusations of excessive naturalism and cruelty that have fallen on the picture are quite justified, but it is not for nothing that the film was called an “immoral masterpiece”, because rarely in what cinematic creation erotic sensuality and revelry in cruelty are so successfully combined, the dimensionality of what is happening on the screen and the boiling passions in the souls of the heroes and, more importantly, the audience. Truly, the director managed to create such memorable visual images that they are replayed again and again with pictures in memory, whether it is static shots of suspended beauties or verbose, atmospheric scenes of cold torture in a snowy forest. Slow, but expressive exotic dance of the Japanese beauty Junko Miyashita in the best traditions of pinku eiga will surely be remembered by you, and therefore receives a special gift.
10 out of 10