Film Review: "Tokyo Decadence" (1992) - Director Ryû Murakami, who also researched the decisive lifestyle of upscale Japanese prostitutes within the metropolitan city of Tokyo, creates a screen-story of an single no-talent yet cute doll looking girl falling into the hands of the most dangerous people at a skyscraping downtown area. She learns devote ways of fulfilling their customers most pervert fantasies from being no-stop under pressure to deliver a masochistic performance in lavish hotel rooms before getting penetrated in mind, body and spirit.Nevertheless the director manages to prepare actress Miho Nikaido in such specific method ways that the illusion of a treated life towards death wish from shattering princess dreams that a knight in shining armor comes along to save her from this ultimate dark version of "Alice in Wonderland", where power over the human spirit and so following action means the world in an only to be considered, necessarily imported uncut 130+ Minutes version, where Goethe's eternal feminine gets twisted into masculine degrading states of restoring balance to Planet Earth and their top managing elite.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

I checked this film out because I discovered it was written by one of Japan's most controversial writers, Ryu Murakami, who wrote the novel that Takashi Miike's AUDITION was based on. Murakami not only wrote the book of TOKYO DECADENCE, but he also adapted it for the screen and directed this adaptation to boot.Unfortunately, this turns out to be a near unwatchable bore, a film I could barely stand to sit through thanks to the subject matter. TOKYO DECADENCE explores the world of S&M and in particular the life of a submissive prostitute who's treated cruelly by her clients. Sadly, the experiences she undergoes sees her gradually losing her mind, building to a narrative climax of sorts.95% of this film is made up of near-pornographic fetish scenes of women being forced to undergo weird and humiliating sexual experiences. The acting is non-existent and the characterisation barely there; instead, Murakami seems to enjoy just wallowing in the sleaze and the degradation of women. Not my cup of tea at all, I'm afraid; a few atmospheric shots of the Tokyo skyline and the occasional scene of plotting fail to make this anywhere close to becoming a 'proper' film.

I saw the extremely edited version of this film for USA release and was completely disgusted. Not by the story or "sex" but by the absolute lack of discernible plot or point. The first half of the movie was intriguing and interesting, but at some point our heroine meets up with a stranger colleague who talks with her about her love problems (?) with someone (?) and gives her the sage advice to go to him and tell him her feelings. (feelings? love interest? wha? who's he?) then the strange lady gives our heroine a pill, telling her it will give her courage. She takes the pill and then goes on a long, bizarre journey that makes no sense and ends up somewhere, meanwhile the strange woman dies of an overdose of something. Wha? Huh? Apparently the lost 23 minutes are the joining parts of the story. The movie ultimately made NO sense whatsoever. I'm guessing that all the glowing reviews are from the people who were blessed with those 23 minutes that I did not see.If the copy you are looking at is timed at under 130 minutes, don't waste your time.

Very erotic and sick at the same time. This movie leads you down the dark allies of human sexuality. But it touches more than the loins. This is mostly because of the innocence of the Ai, the main character. Her quest for true love and happiness stands in a deep contrast with the dark nighttime of Tokyo, ridden with perverse sex and cocaine.This movie is a must for people interested in culture, sexuality and gender roles. It gives perfect examples of how power play somehow gets us excited, but mainly rests upon images of gender and sex we have invented inside our culture. It's a little Foucault, it's a little de Sade, it's just very interesting.