Kitami (Muscle)
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キタミ starring director producer rating running time year produced |
sinopsis
Ryuzaki, a quiet editor of a Japanese physique magazine "Muscle", finds himself attracted to one of the models, Kitami. They have sex, dance semi-nakedly, yada yada, you know, fun. But gradually Ryuzaki finds that Kitami is quite into S&M, cutting and deliberately inflicting pain with butter knife/sword/teeth/ramming... use your imagination. (No whip/cuffs or any fancy gadgets though.) Once, unable to control his reaction during one of their sex, Ryuzaki accidentally cuts off Kitami's arm with the sword Kitami was using to wound Ryuzaki.
Kitami is sent to prison. The moment he's released, he searches for Kitami, seemingly to grow even more obsessed by him. He will sleep dreaming of having painful sex with Kitami, and wake up caressing a jar containing Kitami's severed arm in formaldehyde.
Ryuzaki's search though, isn't easy--none of the people he asks for help seems to be willing to give him info about Kitami ("one-armed man"), while all of his friends tell him to forget about it, often ending up in seedy location (gay brothel, I think? Not so sure about this).
In the end Kitami accepts Ryuzaki back, but not without a price. And what is the price? See the film for yourself, it's too good to be spoiled here, really :P
opini
Despite the R18+ rating, I personally think that the sex/violence scenes are not high--they are quite subtle in a way, no genitals, minimum blood shown--nothing gory, really. The sight of a preserved severed hand being hugged like some kind of teddy bear might be a bit off-putting for some people, but otherwise, the cinematography employed is pretty much subtle, and, true to the characteristics of pinku eiga, the sex scenes are rather murky. Despite implied S&M tendency, the act itself is never the focus.
The video that Ryuzaki tries very hard to get, Salo o le 120 giornate di Sodoma (Salo or the Hundred and Twenty Days of Sodom) (1975), is the last film by Pier Paolo Pasolini, a post-war Italian intellectual provocateur (intellettuale scomodo), released a few weeks after Pasolini's brutal murder (and immediately withdrawn for its radical values). It is based on Marquis de Sade's novel The 120 Days of Sodom, and Dante's Inferno. Although he's also made various well-acclaimed theatrical works and various works of writings (poetry, novels, journals) and arts (paintings), and was one of the major dissenting voice in political and social debate, Pasolini is most famous for his notorious and distinctive films, dealing with the themes of underworld, sexuality and religion in Italy. (Ryuzaki said that he was in jail when the movie is released, by the way.)
Film ini juga termasuk genre pinku eiga (pink film), a genre yang dimulai oleh Nikkatsu studio sekitar tahun 1963. Initially, pinku eiga refers to an artsy kind of sadomasochistic pornography. Biasanya low budget, mudah diproduksi, dengan running time sekitar 1 jam, sering feature lesbian yang ditujukan pada penonton pria straight. Ada pula beberapa yang ditujukan pada audiens homoseksual: Nakamura Genji's Beautiful Mystery (1983), Shimada Koshi's More Love (1984); and Oki Hiroyuki's Melody for Buddy Matsumae (1992) and I Like You, I Like You Very Much (1994). However, selain Oki Hiroyuki dan Hashiguchi Ryosuke (Like Grains of Sand (1995) - a more mainstream film about coming out), kebanyakan director Jepang dari film gay sendirinya tidak beridentifikasi homoseksual.
Reviewed by kat
