Flower and Snake

REVIEW
An opulent example of Japanese S&M sexploitation at its most politically incorrect, this story of a woman’s abduction and sexual slavery is the Danger After Dark film most likely to appall. If you know the world of Japanese sado-masochistic sexploitation films, you’ve already bought your ticket. If you don’t think you want to see this sort of thing – you’re probably right, so don’t attend or you’re bound to be extremely offended. But if you are curious about this genre, come with an open mind and a strong constitution, and prepare to have your buttons pushed – for better or worse. Director Takashi Ishii (whose previous film Freeze Me inaugurated the Danger After Dark series in 2001) has taken the oft-filmed classic S&M novel by Oniroku Dan and delivered a slickly stylish – and very perverse and explicit – sexual shocker that towers above other “pink” or “Roman Porno” films (the Japanese sex film): Flower and Snake truly is, as the Vancouver film festival labeled it, “the Titanic of sado-masochist exploitation movies.” Shizuko (Aya Sugimoto) is the bored, unfulfilled tango-dancer trophy wife of a wealthy businessman. When her husband is embroiled in a yakuza scandal, Shizuko is sold to the 95-year-old Tashiro, who places Shizuko in an ongoing private S&M show in order to uncover her true sexual identity. After a series of violations presented in a public circus atmosphere (flagellation, bondage, suspension, hot candle wax torture, water sports, etc.), Shizuko confronts Tashiro with her new sexuality. While the constant nudity and sex is likely to please, the brutality, rape fantasies and general misogyny may prove to be rough going for those who are unaccustomed to Japanese S&M films.