Follows three call-girls and their intertwining lives inside the Castle Love Hotel ------------ A bored housewife decides to live life on the wild side .. She's introduced to the sex world through nude modeling , and after a scary encounter in the Love Hotel District she becomes attracted to a bold proud call-girl who takes her under her wing . She teaches the housewife to cherish her body as a play-toy , and charge every man when there's sex involved not out of love .. The housewife's life slowly degenerates until she and call-girl pasts come colliding together ..A police detective (who's also call-girl on side), investigates the murder of one of the women , as the case sheds some insight on the life she's living aswell ---------------- NC-21 :: Highly adult , Highly perverse .. Do not watch around children or elders8.5/10

From Nikkatsu company came yet another title that fills the genre quota for the past year (thriller / erotica). Unfortunately, the only mystical thing about this piece is rumor that there are two versions, one of 144 minutes for Japanese market, and less than 2 hours version for the rest of the world (I cannot find longer version myself). For agitated fans, Sono stated that non of them is directors cut, but he just loves both versions...There are three intertwined stories of a female characters, one of a housewife, other of a cop and third of professor which all come together in the end. While professor is not as intense as the housewife, cop is barely important and poorly presented. Professor (by day and prostitute by night) is responsible for the awakening of main character.Housewife Izumi, whose roll in society is masochistic by itself (many would agree) is slave of her cold husbands habits (lining up the slippers, making tea with a hourglass). Izumi is sexually unsatisfied and unfulfilled, and he is asexual (at first sight) and famous for writing and publicly reading his erotic novels. As soon as Izumi gets her first chance for sexual blooming and upheaval – she does it by the book: naked photos, sex on video, prostitution... Her sexuality, thus, rises from housewife, who wants to be pleased, to prostitute who wants to please. House perversions of Izumis's husband culminates with sexual perversions which are far more appropriate than those that were happening in the house. Izumi, with her newly gained sexual freedoms, wants to start working. She finds a job as sausage salesgirl and in time, even sausages get bigger as her sexual appetite grows. While Izumi worked only for her husband (as housewife) she was completely deprived of pleasure (and romance), but together with first money came first 'sausage' of pleasure.Tokyo and explosions of colors (and balloons) in combination with intense classical music is, in a way, a reason why you should see this film. Twice. And Izumi's balloons, of course. In the end, I could say that many are guilty of something here, including the director, but they are definitely 'not guilty of romance'.

What's striking about the movie is the murder at the opening scene. A woman's body was found that was cut in half, and decapitated. The missing parts were arranged with parts from a mannequin. Then the story shifts to the life of Izumi (Megumi Kagurazaka) who's a new house wife of a novel writer. Her husband is a perfectionist, and demands her to be so as well. But when she finds a part time job at the super market, things starts to change in her life.Story is an adaptation of murder of Yasuko Watanabe (description in Wikipedia) by director, and screen writer Shion Sono that occurred in 1997. The movie to me had two phases. First half was about Izumi, and the way she gets duped into the shady side of society. The second part is the horrible truth about Mitsuko (Makoto Togashi), and the truth about who's body it was that was found at the beginning of the movie.The first part of the movie was beautiful, but the second part of the movie was gruesome. First part was well made, but I couldn't get into the second part. Mitsuko's character lacked authenticity, and her social background improbable. So otherwise it was a fine movie, but there was no story towards the end (Mitsuko's life seemed forced, just to justify the plot). I wish the quality was consistent throughout the entire movie.

After really enjoying Cold Fish at this years Melbourne International Film Festival, I went ahead and got a ticket to a screening of Guilty of Romance.The only thing that really held my interest (and stopped me from walking out of the cinema) was the gorgeous Megumi Kagurazaka. Outside of this, I found GOR to be underwritten and pretentious. Didn't care about any of the characters and the stories of three Japanese women quickly became laboured. Overly long scenes, characters shouting at each other, ridiculous literary quotes, a half baked attempt to add a crime caper twist, some kind of messages about modern feminism in Japan? Everything becomes muddled and there is simply no emotion here. Granted I am an Anglo Aussie so I can only assume I am missing much by not being Japanese and understanding their culture. As a film, Cold Fish was in another league compared to this sorry, overblown mess.