moments of genuine suspense and tension, but one realizes all too soon that even if one is tempted to root for the victims, there’s scarcely any point in doing so. In the end, the film simply fails to satisfy.
Reviewed here is the director’s cut: the Blu-ray also includes the theatrical version (as released on two screens by IFC and approxi- mately 5m longer due mainly to additional introductory material), a making-of short and the theat- rical trailer. The 1.78:1 wide- screen image and the Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack are pitch- perfect. Also available on DVD for $24.98.
DEBAUCHERY Ryoshoku
1983, Impulse Pictures, $24.98, 70m 5s, DVD By Tim Lucas
The first in a numbered se- ries of Impulse Pictures releases collected under the banner “The Nikkatsu Erotic Films Series,” DEBAUCHERY establishes the
playing field for what the Japa- nese know as “eroductions” or “roman [meaning romantic] porno.” As such films go, this is not an outstanding example, but it is acceptable, dark B-erotica though, running barely over 70m, it feels more like a co-feature than stand-alone entertainment. Taking the lead from Luís
Buñuel’s BELLE DE JOUR (1967), it’s the story of Ami (Ryoko Watanabe), a doctor’s wife in her early 30s, whose do- mestically tamed sexual nature is jump-started by an offhand re- mark from her husband, Dr. Fujina, that their somewhat sin- ister dinner guest Dr. Kohsaka has probably been secretly in love with her for years. Later, while lunching with a girlfriend and gossiping about a rumored call girl service known as Madam Machiko Society, Kohsaka ap- pears, having overheard every- thing, and offers the women his help in contacting the Madam. Ami secretly arranges to be in- terviewed, but agrees to work only twice per week; Madam
Machiko accepts her anyway, as the odds are in favor of Ami be- coming addicted to her work and soon accepting all she can get. Once Ami is “broken in” by a particularly rough, Oddjob sort of client, she admits to never be- fore knowing such extremes of physical pleasure. She contin- ues to work with more fre- quency out of a red boudoir, decked-out with whips and chains and other accessories, reminiscent of VIDEODROME, made the year before. But Ami doesn’t know the full extent of sexual sadism till Kohsaka him- self appears as her client, deter- mined to torment her for the years she has neglected his de- sire for her in the private sector. Subtract the sometimes ex- treme, if softcore, kinkiness, its optical fogging of genitals and its faked couplings, and you’re left with fairly standard soap opera, scored with wishy-washy synthe- sizer, as well as some occasional insect-like buzzing to indicate what Ami describes as “the throb- bing of my body.” Watanabe
A Japanese housewife is drawn into a masochistic relationship with one of her husband’s colleagues in Hidehiro Ito’s DEBAUCHERY.
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