Director: Shozin Fukui
Screenplay: Shozin Fukui
Cast: Nao as Kiku; Norimizu Ameya
as Hitotsubashi; Yôta Kawase as Shimika; Mika Kunihiro as Akari; Sosuke Saito
as Motomiya
Re-Review
[Review contains some plot spoilers]
Set in the claustrophobic world
of an unknown urban Japanese city, between the back alleys there is an
underground basement accessed by a massive industrial lift, where experiments
are transpiring that cross the line to violent scientific malpractice. Rubber's Lover follows alongside 964 Pinocchio (1991) as one of two of Shozin
Fukui's films that may be known about in the West, entirely due to Unearthed
Films releasing them in the United States in the DVD days. They are an
interesting company in that their stock in trade in very transgressive cinema,
be it releasing the notorious Japanese Guinea
Pig films or something as notorious as Philosophy
of the Knife (2008), only that among some odd curveballs* they also
released these films, very much in the transgressive side of cinema but also
very alien to it at the same time. That alienness comes from the fact that Shozin
Fukui, working as an assistant director on Tetsuo:
The Iron Man (1989), he is less fixated on the transgressive but a kinetic
intensity in these films.
Rubber's Lover is meant to be a prequel to 964 Pinocchio (1991), though it is best to imagine that co-existing
in the same world, the future of that earlier film (of a brainwashed male sex
toy who gains his consciousness again) is built from the fall out to this, Motomiya
(Sosuke Saito) and Shimika (Yôta Kawase) two male scientists who are being
backed in experiments to use psychic powers, having progressed to human test
subjects. Their tools are "ether", not the gas used in early surgery as
an anaesthetic (but an apt choice of name for symbolism) but a drug that is
highly addicted, alongside the "Direct Digital Drive" technology. Motomiya
has become a body building sociopath which has not helped matters, with Shimika
easy to manipulate into this work, between them having a habit of killing their
test subjects with their nurse assistant Akari (Mika Kunihiro). Their breaking point comes when an
about-to-be-wedded secretary to their benefactor Kiku (Nao) comes to them informing the pair the project is going to be
shut down. Things do not turn out that way as Motomiya snaps and she is held
hostage.
Both films for Shozin Fukui transpire on the idea of
the extremity of physical and mental agony eventually leading to a transcendental,
and usually violent, power. The experiments here also involve the titular
rubber, BDSM full rubber costumes which block out external stimuli as subjects
wear them, are injected with ether and have their minds blasted out with noise
until psychic power is induced. The film originates from both Fukui's fascination and research into
psychic powers, having met people claiming such powers, and the connections he
found when he also started talking to people in the burgeoning BDSM scene in
his homeland1. Among his research, including trying one for himself1,
was the use of rubber outfits and the fact that, yes, the material blocks the
ability of the skin to sweat and breath, making them both dangerous to wear as
a costume for a long period of time, and in context to this film the costume is
used by the scientists to induce a further state of mental agony.
With one of their last subjects
being a potential success, Hitotsubashi (Norimizu
Ameya), the pair has made the unfortunate decision to use someone who was
researching this subject matter and they stole his work from, all alongside
erased memories proving an ill advised idea especially as he has nothing for contempt
for the scientists. That Kiku is an open conduit for his mind as two people
glad to take revenge on their torment, set up in hints early on, proves where
this will lead to. The latter plot point is of note as, whilst I am an admirer
of the film, I confess that there is at least one moment of extremity which has
dated even if it is treated as the uncomfortable scene it should be, named that
the kick off for Motomiya snapping and holding Kiku captive is the evil
scientist committing sexual assault, uncomfortable to witness though it fits
the darkness of the premise.
I will, having been an admirer of
the film, confess that there is a least one moment which does not hold up as a
good choice even for a film which is dealing with extremity, namely that the
kick off for Motomiya snapping and holding Kiku captive is the evil scientist
committing sexual assault, uncomfortable to witness though it fits the darkness
of the premise. It is the one moment in a film, which does deal with explicit
kink and titillation, which does jar in the modern day. Thankfully, it is
depicted as horrifying, as it should be, and doesn't mar what Rubber's Lover escalates to in terms of
a visual and audio assault worthy of being seen. That Kiku does have that plot point,
which in this world where people have some semblance of confirmed psychic
power, helps soothe the scene. It at least means, whilst it could have been
done differently, there is a sense that it will be building to something of
worth, she connecting literally to a male test subject who has been left a drug
addict and tortured for a prolonged amount of time, Hitotsubashi once a
talented chemical scientist reduced to this, and thus two damaged figures
getting their revenge in a literal devastating power.
Shot in extreme monochrome, this
is not a "pleasant" film but it is a thing of a vile beauty,
compelling from the get-go in its deep black and white visuals. You can feel
the dankness of the environments, even in a DVD standard release, just for the grain
in the scenes. It was, humorously, due to it being perceived that the rubber
suit would look terrible in colour1, but that little change helps
the film have a distinctive style which adds to it. One scene later on, which
actively hurts the eyes as Hitotsubashi awakens with his new powers and lashes
out, has flashing imagery and turns into a combination of Peter Kubelka's notorious advert for a beer Schwechater (1958), of black and white figures in flashing
edits, and Paul Sharits' short film T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G.
(1968).
For the most part, this is a
kinetic mood piece, which as a result means that any theme for the film, as
talked of, is told through the action. The effect, the experience, of the film
is through pulp storytelling where the atmosphere takes you in and pummels the
viewer. Even when the film returns back to society, Shozin Fukui likes to depict an urban reality through grime and the
lived in environments he probably lived in himself, particularly as between
this and 964 Pinocchio he has an
obsession with Japanese supermarkets and their septic white decor, a location
with their paths and shelves which is very cinematic in its own way.
Rubber's Lover is a great example of how, for me, Japanese
locations in their genre cinema, from wasteland behind wire fences to ordinary
stores, have an inherently unique mood that is inherently cinematic, even if
you do not take into consideration the distinct cultural aesthetic behind their
public environments like their pedestrian utility signs to crossing light
systems having a specific sound when people can cross that have poor eyesight. This
could all stem merely from watching so many films from Japanese that had to
shot on existing locations, but never was there an environment usually ignored
in cinema, ordinary public environments, which even in their animation (as
replicating real locations is common) Japanese film and television filmmakers
have breathed a life into. In other country's cinema, like mind, there was
always a danger of it coming off cheap; probably because films like this use
them in resourceful ways, one back alley could lead to such peculiar sights
like those you witness in Rubber's Lover.
The film also manages to carve
its own distinction in the tiny subgenre of Japanese cyberpunk, creating its
own startling imagery. The full rubber suit, with a head set obscuring the
entire area above the neck and two cameras on each hip showing the wearer's
eyes, is startling, and once the physical and metaphysical nature of the piece
comes about, the style of the film which was already extreme even becomes
poetic in its extremity, when such incidents like it "snowing" inside
an apartment transpires. Tragically, Fukui's
career whilst continuing onwards became obscure in terms of access. This is a shame as, together with 964 Pinocchio, they are very idiosyncratic
films by themselves, worthy of rediscovery and startling experiences separately.
Abstract Spectrum: Atmospheric/Intense
Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): Medium
=======
1) The Unearthed Films release offers a small interview with the
director-writer which provides these interesting titbits.
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