R100 (2013)

Sometimes it's nice to watch a movie for its mere shock value. R100 is exactly one of those. On the other hand it never was able to transcend the provocative imagery and content like Fight Club or Luis Buñuel (with which the film was compared) did in their time. Director Hitoshi Matsumoto tells the tale of a masochistic man who experiences supernatural orgasms by being extremely humiliated. After a while reality and fiction begin to merge and the man starts to discover his sadistic side. Luckily this isn't a pretext to make a softcore SM movie, but it also doesn't surpass the level of a superficial b-production. The final twenty minutes are a bit too ridiculous for my taste (because they're so out of sync with the rest of the movie), that I can't say I've enjoyed R100 that much. Nevertheless it had some great moments because of the dark humor, meta-jokes and entertaining twists.

I've seen some bizarre films in my time, but the Japanese meta-comedy, R100 has to be one of the most bizarre. It opens with a young lady kicking the hell out of a man for no apparent reason in a restaurant. She leaves, but for some reason he goes after her and she turns around to beat him up some more and throws him down stairs. She then removes her clothes to reveal a highly skimpy leather fetish outfit underneath whilst the man looks up and his face disturbingly distorts into a manic grin with some atrocious Moviemaker ripple effects. That's when you realise that this film is going to be weird. However, it only gets weirder!In a plot similar to David Fincher's The Game, R100 centres on the idea of a family man joining a club which promises euphoric pleasure by hiring attractive young women to beat the crap out of you at any random moment. The catch is that membership lasts a year and you can't cancel. You also can't touch or hurt any of the girls. That's the intriguing premise of this delightfully wacky film. Anyone expecting a clear narrative can leave now. The less you know the better, I knew virtually nothing about this film and came out feeling highly amused and bemused in equal measure.Not everything in R100 does work. I found it a tad too sentimental at times with the relationship between the dad and son being rubbed in our faces. The whole wife in a coma thing was also over-played to get a heart-warming reaction from the audience. A lot of things in the first hour also start to feel a little repetitive with the same jokes being played again and again. However, things take an interesting turn when events turn darker by involving the innocent family. I also really liked the postmodern aspect by showing that this is just a film directed by a 100 year-old man who says that no one will understand the film unless they're 100, hence the film's title!Things turn seriously koo-koo in the last 30 minutes and the film completely rips up the film school rulebook in an infectiously anarchic manner. All kinds of loopy ideas are thrown at the screen and we're left with a big puddle-like mess on the floor, however it's a mess that's hard to shake out your head. I'm not going to forget the dominatrix army marching to Beethoven for quite a while! It's surreal to say the least and lacks any kind of explanation, although I'm pretty sure that there is some kind of hidden political message in there somewhere. Trying to find it is high-on impossible though!R100 won't be everyone's cup of tea. The best thing to do is to leave your brain outside the door and just go along for the big barmy ride! It turns out to be quite an ambitious little number, however not all of its ideas are effective or explored enough. One thing's for sure though, you won't forget it in a hurry! I for one would much rather see a film I'm going to remember the next day than some throwaway action film that will be forgotten in minutes. I admired R100 quite a bit.Read more weird and wacky reviews at: www.asdaman.wordpress.com

The thing that has always bugged me with regards to films about sadomasochism pertains as to how those primarily interested in such things are depicted, that is to say as unbalanced; deranged and generally mentally ill. Filmmakers often see things such as sadomasochism, I think, as outsiders to the pursuit, and thus deem it detached from the mainstream, which in mainstream language means that it is strange and perverted. Away from this, S&M is often the butt of a joke; rendered a 'go to' event for cheap laughs and engaged in by cartoon characters as well as those out for cheap kicks by writers. This is no better evident than in 2004's Eurotrip. The fact is, I am yet to see a film which accurately puts across the sense that the people depicted have genuinely reached a decision to undertake this activity. The characters are often skittish or disturbed. This is in ways that those very much into pulling members of the opposite sex in a loud, rowdy bar for one night gratification never are.R100 seems to fall somewhere smack bang in the middle of all this – it does nothing to deconstruct the head of an S&M enthusiast, yet resists the easily obtained own goals upon which a director can doom his work. In a sense, it has nothing to do with S&M – this is in spite of its promotional material and the fact after seeing it, critics could talk of nothing else BUT its S&M content. In actuality, the film is a well-meaning and ambitious piece which aims, although fails, to deliver the sort of controversial avant-garde punch a Gaspar Noé film might otherwise succeed in doing. Instead, it comes off as a blend of "Being John Malkovich" and "The Player" with bits and pieces of famous Japanese auteur Ozu thrown in for good measure. Nao Ōmori plays Katayama, a low level department store salesman with a routine existence in a standard Japanese suburban town which he shares with his young son and elderly father, who comes around to visit every so often. This is punctured by the fact his wife is dying in a coma and he is on the brink of losing his job, although this second pointer is not explored later on as much as the film has you think it might.For reasons that remain unclear, indeed so hazy that we must question as to whether they even happen, Katayama visits an underground club known as "Bondage" (an English word in a Japanese film, no doubt designed to distort the viewing experience for native viewers) where a deal is forged whereby various dominatrices of varying ages and sizes, but all with unworldly abilities, will randomly visit him for flash-sessions. Thereafter, the women will appear and disappear; they will beat him up in the street with nobody batting an eyelid; they will be there, wherever he may be, waiting for a spot-session. Do the patrons of a sushi bar look on in disgust at the fact a dominatrix smashes up Katayama's food with her bare hands prior to him eating it? Or is it Katayama's own grotesque eating habits which infuriate them, and the woman isn't even there. I notice a heavy insistence for the film to have us focus on the pills the Bondage club owner has in his possession when first visited. Was he just a drug dealer the whole time? But none of this really tells you all of it. There are several ideas and films going on here at once: the fourth-wall breaking narrative about the producers who don't like the veteran director doing what he wants in his final film (which, it seems, doubles up as the film WE'RE watching); the tale of a middle aged man losing his mind through what appears to be an ecstasy addition and a bog-standard kitchen sink drama about a man and his son soldiering on through domestic strife. Try to imagine Ozu's "Good Morning" propped up by "My Neighbour Totoro", as imaginary friends and blurred lines between escapism and realism take centre stage. In ways that do not entirely make sense, Katayama ends up falling afoul of this organisation, whose earlier eerie ability to see people on the other sides of doors without the aid of CCTV lives up to its promise as his family become wrapped up in a postmodern series of life threatening games.Why it is that this organisation goes from operating out of a grotty, pokey headquarters in a dilapidated apartment blocks to being able to boast CEO's flying in on private jets from abroad, is never explained. Nor too is as to why this indomitable "Hostel"-like underground gang do not merely hit the switch on his wife's life support machine as she lies there defenceless in a hospital. As it wears on, deliberately I'm sure, the piece falls apart at the seams; becoming stranger and stranger although maintain the ability to make total sense.The ultimate problem with the film lies with the fact it doesn't have enough of a leash on it. I like the idea of there never being any mistresses in the first place, and that the women are essentially a metaphor for how drug addiction at a time of domestic angst can lead on to very bad things: hallucinations and the neglect of one's loved ones. There is a scene with a police man about half way through, where he outlines nothing can be done for the fact adults beating on adults in controlled environments is something they must get on with. He compares the relationship between master and slave as being akin to pro-wrestler and pro-wrestler: when one hurts the other, they do not sue for assault. I looked up the actress who played the aforementioned CEO: the leanest, meanest dominatrix-cum-brothel running yuppy type in history. It turns out she has a wrestling credit to her name. Is there something wrapped up in that?

This movie was weird, even by Japanese standards.I enjoy Asian cinema, and it is only rare that a movie turns out to be not worth really spending time on watching. And I must admit that "R100" turned out to be one such movie. I managed to get through two-thirds of the movie before I had to give up out of sheer boredom.The storyline was unfathomably lacking appeal and anything interesting. It is about a man who join an exclusive club in which he is committed for one year, without the chance of breaking his contract during that time. The club, which is a gentleman's club, provides bondage services, and the dominatrix women start showing up at odd places, abusing the man.And that was basically it. It was just one step away from being softcore pornography. Sure, there is an audience for this particular movie, but wow was I bored.The above-mentioned storyline was just ridiculous and unappealing. As you sit there and watch the movie, you can't help but think "what is the purpose of this movie?".The scene with the Queen of Saliva is without a doubt one of the most disturbing filmed sequences I have seen in a long, long time. Not that it was bizarre or horrific in any real sense, but the way that it was shot, the contents of the scene, and the use of repetitive shots, it just culminated in something really, really out of the ordinary."R100" is not one of the brightest moments in Japanese cinema history. I didn't even make it to the end of this movie, and I can honestly say that I will not attempt to give this movie a second chance and try to make it to the end. Watched, bagged and tagged...