Even
though filming is not even wrapped on the questionable movie adaptation of Shades of Grey, Hitoshi Matsumoto has
already mashed-up the S&M melodrama genre beyond human recognition. From Japan, we have a cautionary, surreal
meta-meta postmodern bondage conspiracy tale, while Hollywood is banking on a
dude who wears grey ties. How
quaint. In the mean time, Matsumoto
subverts perversion throughout R100 (trailer here), which screens
during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival.
Takafumi
Katayama is a drab and depressed working drone who needs to unwind a
little. He thinks he has found just the
ticket when he joins a mysterious club for submissive men. At first, he gets the release he is seeking
when the black-clad women meet him at their scheduled rendezvouses to beat him
about and smash his sushi rolls (that’s not a euphemism). However, when they start showing up at his
home and work, matters turn a distinctly charcoal shade of grey.
As
each dominatrix escalates their encounters, Katayama starts to fear for his
life and the safety of his young son and father-in-law. Then things get really weird, but not do
bother complaining about logical inconsistencies. The film will provide that commentary itself.
Strictly
speaking, there is no nudity or sex in R100,
but it is absolutely, positively not for kids.
The title is a play on the Japanese motion picture rating system that
could be roughly translated as NC-100 for American audiences—and not for
nothing. Yet, the film definitely seems to suggest you are begging for trouble
if you go out looking for something on the deviant side of life.
Regardless,
R100 careens so defiantly over the top,
parsing its symbolic layers and potential take-away teachings becomes a
head-spinning endeavor. If any of this
film sounds problematic, then you should probably avoid R100 because there is way more of whatever it is that troubles you than
we’ve covered so far. On the other hand,
cult cinema connoisseurs looking for a new and distinctive head trip will find
it here. Imagine Eyes Wide Shut transported to the world of Quentin Dupieux’s Rubber and you will start to get the
idea.
Nao
Omori perfectly anchors the film as the existentially put-upon Katayama. Just looking at him sort of makes you want to
smack him alongside the head. However,
he handles the character’s strange evolution with understated power. As his son Arashi, Haruki Nishimoto
distinguishes himself as an unusually engaging young actor. Fortunately, his classmates will not be able
to see R100 for a while and hopefully
he will not have to take much taunting over it in later years.
