A waste of 90 minutes of my life

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Aya Sugimoto is one of the most beautiful Japanese actresses I have laid eyes on. And, she gives a daring and courageous performance, prepared to do whatever her director, Takashi Ishii, desires to bring an authenticity and dramatic depth towards a female character treated with the utmost hostility, sexual degradation, rape and bonafide humiliation through some shocking acts of indecent behavior towards her by a powerful 95 year old Yakuza king whose stoic, deeply serious lieutenant assists in continuing the success of a underground establishment, known as The Coliseum, where they service a secret society of the most wealthy and elite with sex & torture shows. Sugimoto portrays a popular tango dancer, Shizuko Tôyama, whose weak, alcoholic husband, a president of a business going under, has sold her to the elderly Yakuza boss to pay off serious debts. Her husband regrets this decision and plans to bring her home, but discovers that Shizuko seems to be enjoying the depraved and violently sexual conduct performed in front of a costumed crowd. The film before Shizuko is kidnapped, displays how her marriage is quietly dying and that she has been having recurring S&M fantasies. So, in a dark sense of irony, what she had often dreamed is coming true. Her kickboxing female bodyguard, Kyôko Nojima(Misaki), is also kidnapped and sexually molested and mistreated. While the old man and his lieutenant look on from a room through a wide screen at the shows presented for their "entertainment", Shizuko is put through a rigorous and highly exhausting series of "performances", her life in possible danger if she doesn't cooperate. Any attempts to escape seem futile. The ending opens a possibility that the torture shows and those behind them may not be what they seem.The film seems built to shock, but is incredibly well made and probably the most artistic representation of S&M mistreatment ever made. Or, one of the best. While Ishii doesn't exactly wallow in the fine details, there's enough indecency and deviant behavior to satisfy the kind of crowd yearning for so. The acting by the cast, especially from Sugimoto who is superb, is quite good. But, prepare for a lot of startlingly unpleasant sequences involving Shizuko, including a disturbing "reinactment" of Christ's crucifixion between two thieves, and our heroine's decision to make love with the very old Yakuza sleaze bag who uses his tongue to caress throughout her rope-bound body. A definite signature of torture in this film is how Shizuko, and Nojima, are often bound tightly to wood by rope...you can actually hear the sound and see the expressions of pain which really sell these scenes which are certain to make a few wary viewers squirm. There is a LOT of nudity, and Sugimoto often is featured naked, her fantastic physique put to the test often. It takes a committed performer to put herself through what this role demands.

The first of director Takashi Ishii's own versions of this tale of BDSM and honour, following the very first in 1974. Here we have a much more sexy tale, a lot of the edge has been smoothed away. We still have an enema scene of sorts here but it is by no means as central to the lead character's degradation as it was in the first films. So, whilst this film will appear totally unacceptable to the average film-goer, it is much easier and less uncomfortable to fans of extreme Japanese cinema. In some ways this may be a more transgressive movie because we do come extremely close here to an acceptance, possibly an enjoyment and even an empowerment as a result of the pain, suffering and ultimate 'showing of the real face'. Having said all that for those partial to the sight of female bodies in exquisite bondage, this is the movie for you. Pubic hair is also, unusually, on view and this is certainly the greatest film ever made featuring extreme bondage and ballroom dancing. The men come off very badly, as usual, spending all their time in power games whilst they hand the power straight to the ladies.

Superb, brutal, erotic, handsomely produced sado-masochistic masterpiece from director Takeshi Ishii. It could have been titled "Wife To Be Sacrificed" because Shizuko (Aya Sugimoto), the wife of a wealthy businessman, is sacrificed in order to pay off her husband's debts.Everything "Eyes Wide Shut" pretended to be this is. It does not cower from its powerful subject matter or merely titillate. It is the work of an incendiary artist with a firm grip on the material and the material's ability to emotionally resonate.Sugimto, who is one of the strongest, most stunning, most beautiful creatures ever to ignite the cinema screen, is totally convincing as a woman plunged into a cruel, nihilistic, carnal hell referred to only as The Coliseum. It is a stadium-like space where the rich and powerful get their kicks watching beautiful women raped, beaten, bound and, in some cases, murdered, in a pretentious, circus-style setting.This is a big budget extravaganza of ravishing perversion and beauty mixed with a violent white collar crime plot. Ishii's direction of both the violent confrontations and sado-masochistic set pieces is stunning. His camera dives, swirls, caresses and illuminates the provocative tableaux.Goro Yasukawa's score is beautiful, and artfully enriches every aspect of this sensational production. It took three cinematographers to fully realize the striking visual style that brings Ishii's original vision to life.The Oniroku Dan novel, 'Flower and Snake', has been filmed before, but this is the definitive version and the most sincere, a hardcore smack to the chops of conservative culture.

Remind me of Nicholas Cage's 8mm about smurf films and Stanley Kubrik's wild and last Eyes Wide Shut(mind my spelling if some are wrong). Other than that, too complicated and obsessed for sex, nude, violence, to comprehend what it's trying to say, like many other Japanese flicks. Maybe it's not about understanding what the movie is trying to say, but just movie as it is. Well, at least the actress is pretty, seems a little old for all that bold numerous nude shots. I wonder how much she, the character, suffered 'and' enjoyed the whole ordeal. She DID enjoyed it, I think!!! I probably will not watch it again nor buy a DVD. But, it was good strange flick. I enjoy change of scenery time to time. Ciao^^