Tokyo decadence
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Tokyo decadence |
| Original title | ト パ ー ズ Topāzu |
| Country of production | Japan |
| Publishing year | 1992 |
| length | orig. 135 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 18 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Ryu Murakami |
| script | Ryū Murakami (also lit. |
| production |
Chosei Funahara Tadanobu Hirao Yōsuke Nagata Akiuh Suzuki |
| music | Ryuichi Sakamoto |
| camera | Tadashi Aoki |
| cut | Kazuki Katashima |
| occupation | |
| |
Tokyo Decadence ( Japanese ト パ ー ズ , Topāzu , German Topaz ) is probably the most famous film by the Japanese writer and director Ryū Murakami . To the music of Ryūichi Sakamoto, he describes the reality of life of a prostitute who specializes as a call girl on sadomasochistic customers.
content
The shy Japanese student Ai ( 愛 , literally "love") earns a living as a call girl specializing in BDSM in the glittering world of Tokyo's penthouses.
The structure of the film is carried by four sexual encounters, with dildos , mirrors and the reversal of the maledom - femdom constellation playing a role in the first and fourth . In the second and third scenes there is also a corresponding change and actions related to asphyxia .
The ostensible basic motif of the story is the unrequited romantic love that Ai has for a married former customer and gallery owner. At the beginning of the film, a mysterious fortune teller advises her to buy a pink topaz , wear it as a piece of jewelry, avoid a museum in the east and put two telephone books under her television. Ai later loses the stone at a customer's, finds it again and finally goes to the artist's house. The police that were summoned are held back by a neighbor who also loves the artist, but is also rejected.
The film depicts the sterility and coldness of modern life and the widespread inability to enter into deep interpersonal relationships.
Reviews
“Murakami's film consistently uses the sadomasochistic scenario as a metaphor for a thoroughly materialized society whose first victim is the dignity and individuality of its residents. Topâzu therefore uses the sadomasochistic topic to expose the life of contemporary Japanese society and the materialistic consumer society as a creeping mechanism of destruction. "
"A cinematic odyssey through a perverse" wonderland "of secret instincts that find their hidden niches in a cold Japanese reality. Emphasized "artistic" and ambitious, the film can not hide its mental shortness of breath behind the drastically played out sex scenes in the long run. "
Awards
- In 1992 Murakami received the Best Director Award for the film at the Taormina Film Festival .
background
- In 1992 the film was shown at the Berlinale under the title Tokyo Decadence Topaz , but it did not take part in the competition.
- The film has already been shown several times in an edited version on German television, repeatedly in the night program on SAT.1 . For the first time completely uncut it was shown on arte ( OmU ) on June 27, 2008 .
- The film is banned in Australia and South Korea .
Spin-offs
The film Nightlife in Tokyo by Banmei Takahashi was re-released in 2008 in Germany in an uncut version as Tokyo Decadence 2 . The 2007 film New Tokyo Decadence - The Slave (Japanese original title: Dorei ) by Osamu Satō with Rinako Hirasawa as the leading actress alludes to Tokyo decadence with its English title. However, these are titles chosen for purely marketing reasons. Apart from the fact that the films focus on the city of Tokyo and the sexual practice of BDSM , they have nothing in common with the film Tokyo Decadence, which is discussed here .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Marcus Stiglegger: Sexuality and Power - Sadomasochism in Film , at ikonen-magazin.de
- ^ Tokyo decadence. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
Web links
- Tokyo Decadence in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Tokyo Decadence at Rotten Tomatoes (English)