Rubber's Lover (1996)

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

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1) The Unearthed Films release offers a small interview with the director-writer which provides these interesting titbits.

Gerorisuto (1986)

Director: Shozin Fukui

Cast: Chiemi Endô as Gerorisuto

Gerorisuto is merely a fragment, and should be treated as such, part of the rewarding (and sometimes neglected) side of following an artistic creator through all their tiniest notes as much as their biggest works, creating a single work as a whole when combined as well as separately. It is difficult at times when a director is prolific or when even know filmmakers have work that is difficult to see, but in Gerorisuto's favour was that it was an extra for an American DVD release of Rubber's Lover (1996) and available.

The short begins with a young woman who is happy to be chased by the camera. She is energetic, in the prime of her life, wandering the Japanese subway cars as if the camera is gazing at her and her to it as lovers.

Things turn sour in a scene where she starts vomiting on her knees outside. Vomit happens in Shozin Fukui's films a bit, and is as here usually a sign of a significant change in events and in a character's state of mind.

The film takes a sour turn as she feels threatened now by the camera, on the same subway train fleeing from it and even cowering in the corner in its gaze as it looms over her. This is not a slasher film however with a killer's POV (point of view) which leads to a kill, and the subway is packed with bystanders. Instead, you can make a comparison to Samuel Beckett's Film (1965). The Irish playright and author only entered cinema directly once, penning the script for a one-off avant-garde short in which an older Buster Keaton was cast but you only see his fact in at the end. The point was, obscuring his face to all, that the context leads to him hiding from being perceived, including by the camera itself which stalked him at points in the film.

Where this differs is when you get to the denouement, effectively a public art performance at night in an urban entertainment district, where she goes to buy an ice cream only to let it fall to the floor as she finally snaps. It is a waste of a good ice cream, but at the point the camera, close up to her, is closer to an ex-partner in a relationship stalking her now than the camera of before. When she snaps, now it is not against the camera, but the large crowd of bystanders she charges through until eventually she starts shouting at them all in the middle of the street.

Fukui's career would lead to him, a few years later, on the production of Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989). Tsukamoto before put on theatre pieces, and befittingly  Shozin Fukui would explore on performing in crowds who are not part of the production for here and later 964 Pinocchio (1991), where famously (in an incredible set piece in Japanese cult cinema) the lead actor is dragging a pyramid on a chain at full pelt down crowded streets of a Japanese metropolis, the crowds parting like the Red Sea as a man in white face makeup and dishevelled clothes drags a giant object like a conceptual piece at fast speed between them.

Here, the lead actress starts screaming at the crowd, even harassing a fresh faced salaryman, but members of it actually find this amusing to witness. Even more isolated from the world, our protagonist is left in this destructive state. As a fragment, closer to a memory than a story, we can only ask what happened to her, not able to see where she would be.

Abstract Spectrum: Grotesque

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

964 Pinocchio (1991)

From http://www.strangevice.co.uk/img/products/
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Dir: Shozin Fukui

Screenplay: Shozin Fukui, Makoto Hamaguchi and Naoshi Gôda

Cast: Haji Suzuki, Onn-chan, Kôji Ôtsubo, Kyoko Hara, Rakumaro San'yûtei

97 mins

Synopsis: A brain washed "sex doll" (Haji Suzuki) tattooed with the code "964 Pinocchio" on his shoulder is tossed out into the streets by his owners for being dysfunctional in his assigned purpose, left to wander the urban environment as a disorientated baby-like figure with a tiny stub of hair stood tall in his forehead and dressed in medical garb. By coincidence he falls into the lap (literally) of a homeless woman Himiko (Onn-chan) who takes him in. Dubbing him Pinocchio from the branded tattoo, the two bond while she teaches him to talk and looks after him. When he regains his awareness however a horrible transformation occurs to both of them, he physically, Himiko losing her sanity, and desiring then on to harm him, when she regains suppressed memories connected to his past purpose. At the same time the secret company that "made" Pinocchio, ran by an eccentric megalomaniac, is horrified to learn their (illegal) sex slave is in the open free, sending lackeys out to drag him back for reprogramming and to snuff anyone out who knows his existence. Anarchy ensures.

The synopsis above is an attempt to clear up the establishing plot to 964 Pinocchio. While in the same category of Japanese cyberpunk films like Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), there are differences as there are similarities, fitting as Shozin Fukui worked on Tetsuo in the production crew. Like Tetsuo, it is a pulpy, transgressive sci-fi story which has extensive use of abrasive editing and practical effects. Tetsuo is in the same camp as 964 Pinocchio, with extra leanings into old kaiju films and avant-garde gruel, but it proves to be an apt start to its director Tsukamoto's career as, while its more about the visceral nature of the content, it has hints of Tsukamoto's obsessions with human emotions by way of extreme body changes. 964 Pinocchio is more about the upfront effect of the transgressive content on its characters and is significantly more heightened in tone in comparison. It is closer to Andrzej Zulawski's Possession (1981) in terms of a spiritual sibling.

From http://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/1081162/
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964 Pinocchio could come off as more cartoonish and weird, even more a living manga than Tetsuo, despite the strong connections Tsukamoto's has to them, because of the passionate, hyperactive tone which you find in a bit of manga (and anime). Very exaggerated performances, swear words in the Japanese language track bleeped, (probably for effect), and violence that is abrupt and visibly abrasive when it takes place. There's also a lot of running and shouting. As with Tetsuo, the environments used are far removed from those one would presume to be in a cartoon, urban and industrial realism from a supermarket interior to wasteland. The film adds to this verité with its rough aesthetic, shot in colour, contradicting the content of the film and creating a greater intensity as a result. Like Possession, there's a tightrope walk between intensity and the silly that 964 Pinocchio takes a risk walking on. From the beginning you have a level of absurdity that is clearly meant to be funny or at least silly, starting with a villain who raves about his plans to control sex and eating from a bowl of cherries he willingly lets his beautiful, bespectacled secretary drool un-human amounts of water from her mouth into first.  This with the moments of realism or brutality, including an un-concluded subplot about a lackey wanting to adopt a child, creates a stew of emotional states that whips you around in various directions you don't find in many others films.

From http://www.eibonvale.co.uk/strangereviews/asia/pinocchio/cap070.jpg

Pinocchio is depicted as a literal child, wandering around in immense confusion muttering incoherently. A prolonged scene at the supermarket, with a continuous moving camera, shows him being dragged by his hand as he paws at food to eat indiscriminately with no control like a young child. Shozin Fukui, like in his short film Gerorisuto (1990), takes advantage of shooting with real bystanders on location rather than extras, the guerrilla style of capturing the scenes emphasising the chaos of the narrative when the bystanders react and look on at what is taking place. The most extreme of these moments, the bravado moment of the whole film, involves Haji Suzuki as Pinocchio when his character is chained to a metal square pyramid^* by his neck and hands dragging the prop behind him as he runs through a large and crowded metropolitan area, a sea of people splitting in half as he cuts through them for the scene.

From http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/images/964pinocchio06.jpg

The performances are completely selfless from the cast for their willingness to push themselves to extremes, more so the most with Onn-chan as Himiko, who steals the film with a level of insanity to the performance, after the character starts off as a quiet, good natured person in the first act, that delivers a level of elastic facial expressions and nakedness that very few actors would be brave to act out on camera. Full of manic shapes and fits of deranged noises, from skipping and weaving between pillars in an underground corridor to almost changing her facial features into a different person's when she bugs out, it does evoke the Possession comparisons the most in lieu of Isabella Adjani in Zulawski's film. The infamous subway sequence from Possession is evoked, as well as a key sequence from Gerorisuto^** being reinterpreted, when Himiko is involved with one of the longest puking sequences I have seen in cinema which leads to the character rolling in an amount, possibly done with rice, that is inhumanly impossible for any person to project out from their body.

From http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/images/964pinocchio09.jpg

Technical Details:

The skill in which the use of tracking camera shots are used in the film stand out for the movie's willingness, on a low budget, to push the level of kineticism possible despite the production limitations. Inventive use of camera shots and framing, more so in places than even the more famous Tetsuo: The Iron Man, litter the movie and the moments of heavy editing do cause the recommended effect of battering the viewer's senses in. The film is intentionally subjective in what its plot is about - why the synopsis I've written is as detailed as it is - and uses quick-frame editing techniques for background content and memories characters rediscover to add to the confusion they feel. Also adding to this these moments are either in monochrome or in heavily saturated colour lighting.

The pulpy, transgressive content will sate a cult movie fan as well. Knowing of old Japanese sci-fi films from studios like Toho will actually make the film, like Tetsuo, even more entertaining in this area because the clear influence is there, from the eccentric costume designs to plot devices like the gas gun the size of a bazooka being giving to one character for clean-up of anyone who gets in the way. Far from tacky it adds to the energy of the film when its content is as exaggerated.

From http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/images/964pinocchio14.jpg

Abstract Spectrum: Psychotronic

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): Medium

In terms of what the plot of 964 Pinocchio is actually about, I personally prefer to see it as a moody genre piece than try to give it a philosophical slant. For both this film and Rubber's Lover (1996) though, Fukui does have a theme for them of catharsis through physical pain, and while it is the later film took this idea to its fullest extent, it is visible here too but in an embryo form. It is not hard to see the story of a sex doll developing his cognisance through this concept. The ending, which involves a face being pulled off and a ridiculous mushroom head that reminded me of the floating stone head from Zardoz (1974), not to mention a cameo from the Eifel Tower, does show two characters after their traumatic experiences becoming one entity and finding peace^***. The coda, out of context of the film's plot with the two main actors being filmed at a concert, adds a sense of cathartic release linked to a snapshot of people dancing to a noisy, electronically backed rock music in a dance club.

Rubber's Lover is a much more polished and consistently toned film, which streamlines the eccentric humour in favour of more intensity and dreamlike content. The black-and-white look instead of colour adds to its mood. Said to be a prequel to 964 Pinocchio, if there is a linking back-story between them it's that, after the disastrous experiments in that film involving psychic power, it would be that someone cleaned up the bloodbath that took place and, instead of trying to unlock ESP abilities, found it better to lobotomise people and turn them into sex dolls to sell to bisexual, tattooed women who want a third wheel to enjoy with her diminutive girlfriend who dresses as a maid. Both films are in the high range of "abstract" cult movies, Rubber's Lover for its atmosphere, 964 Pinocchio for its energy and sentences like the former one I've just written based on scenes as strange as they sound.

From http://www.cca.org/blog/images/p964/eating-cherries.png

Personal Opinion:

Finding Shozin Fukui's first two films, still sadly obscure in cult cinema as a director, was a revelation. While it is difficult to pinpoint exact reasons why this is very different from Tetsuo: The Iron Man, the films are very different in mood and tone even though they have clear similarities and connections. It does emphasis the richness of this type of cinema when I've barely scrapped through the many Japanese cyberpunk films that exist, and can still claim to have seen how the medium technically and content can be pushed in innovative ways. Rubber's Lover is my preferred of the two, Fukui's career still productive in the 2000s but sadly not as large or accessible as Shinya Tsukamoto's, but 964 Pinocchio is no slouch in quality either.

From http://366weirdmovies.com/wp-content/uploads/
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^* A literal square pyramid made from metal found in a landfill. It makes no sense where it came from, but considering the prelude of Himiko looking so happy in her derangement running around a DIY store with a shopping trolley and a welder's helmet on, I won't complain about the absurdity of the object's shape.

^** Gerorisuto is a series of events involving a young woman losing her sanity. Scenes in the short include a prolonged moment of vomiting and an extended one on a crowded street at night time when she interacts with (real) bystanders who step away when she grabs or clings to them. I wouldn't be surprised if this short became a test run, even if in hindsight, and was cannibalised for key moments in the director's debut feature.

^*** Strangely that also evokes Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995-1996), thus invoking the Third Impact and Synchronisation with Sean Connery in a nappy in one sentence. Whether any other films I cover can top that juxtaposition is up in the air.

Rubber's Lover (1996)

From http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4e/Rubber's_Lover_FilmPoster.jpeg/220px-Rubber's_Lover_FilmPoster.jpeg

Dir. Shozin Fukui

With the sense of having to blink, slumped back at the end credits, trying to get my senses back together, a secondary viewing doesn't detract from the sensitory barrage of Rubber's Lover, only add to it. Is it all brute sound and violent content only? Probably, but you can become very complacent if one merely goes about believing any art that is lurid and outright hostile is unacceptable. Sometimes you need to shoot up the experimental drug rectally, get the rubber gimp suit on and let your mind be expanded by the pulsating, audible noise being played through the speakers, as crafted as the sound torture a character in the film creates on magnetic tape for a project to expand human consciousness. To actually have an effect on a viewer, it's better to go to the extent Shozin Fukui does in audio assault then be sedate. And what a film, cyberpunk cinema, based on stories around dehumanising industry, slum based fiction whose name evokes punk rock and its D.I.Y ethics. Here, Fukui wanted to depict a theme of his of catharsis through physical pain, and it appears here in the submerged underground laboratory the film is mostly set in, depicted in stark ink black and burnt-out white monochrome photography.

From http://horrorhappyhour.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/1538997732_d2a1ac3e96.jpg

This is a prequel of sorts to his previous film 964 Pinocchio (1991), his debut, not in the same subject, but of the same vibe of psychic power and transgressions with bodily and sexual undercurrents. I would like to imagine too, if one attempted to make a giant narrative encompassing both, that film started some time before its narrative when someone found out about the aftermath of this film and cut their losses by going into the living sex cyborg business that makes part of 964 Pinocchio's story. Better to try and salvage the remnants of the scientific experiment that failed messily here and try a different area with more chance of financial reward. Here, two scientists, and a comely nurse (Mika Kunihiro) in Lolita Goth costume who molests the human guinea pigs, are attempting to bring mankind to psychic abilities like many films before it, but with two potential options for doing so of their own design, the Digital Direct Drive, a piece of technology for monitor and enhance one's mind, and a drug called Ether. The two scientists, Motomiya (Sosuke Saito) and Hitosubashi (Norimizu Ameya),  are butting heads about which is the superior method for doing so. One thing they can agree upon is that, in the final stages, their test subjects are wrapped up in an all-rubber body suit, and not just because everyone is exceptionally kinky, but for a practical reason. The rubber suffocates the skin, preventing it from breathing, causing an insulating affect that, with noise blasting your mind away and the Ether drug in your system, will make your everyday senses mindless allowing psychic powers to come to the surface. Thus the title is explained and the S&M aspect of the film is shown. And its based on real research by Fukui before preparing this film, including contacting S&M practitioners, that is explained in a filmed interview that was included with the film's US DVD release. I don't recommend the reader try any of this in an attempt at expanding the mind. The amount of finance and underground space required is steep, and as this film suggests, it would lead to someone being a mess of organs on the floor by the end.

From http://www.honekoubou.jp/en/filmo/rubbers_2.gif

The psychic project is a failure. They're wasting money and killing human test subjects, and not producing the results their benefactors want. And they're clearly going insane, Motomiya, spearheading it, is a "muscle monster", as their nurse calls him, with the muscles of a body builder, who mostly wears only a thong and a see-through raincoat, so on edge and psychopathic I'm not surprised any one would like to close his projects. That or his tendency to rape people which rightly would prevent anyone wanting to assist him in continue said project. Members have gotten addicted to the Ether drug, and the last test subject unfortunately disintegrates on the operating table in splatter fashion when their nurse puts too much Ether into their veins. A female employee of the higher ups Kiku (Nao) is sent to tell them the project is to be closed within a week, but the three remaining members of the staff refuse to finish. The fourth Shimika (Yôta Kawase), an addict to Ether, is planned to be the next test subject in a last ditch attempt to prove to themselves they can succeed, and if Kiku tries to intervene, or accidentally cause the power to go off briefly trying to use an elevator during their experiment, Motomiya has no issues with sticking her between two speakers as a test subject too and blasting her ears with mind shredding noises.

From http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y121/
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Rubber's Lover is a claustrophobic film. You are grateful it eventually gets out into the real world, to see some neon signs of Japanese streets of the time, or inside a supermarket briefly, trapped in the stark and choked world of the test labs for the most part. The actors were told not to talk to each other during takes, which would've added to the tension onscreen. Unlike the expansive, delirious tone of 964 Pinocchio, with its Andrzej Zulawski inspired moving cameras and hyper active acting, this is a complete 180 degree turn. A refined, subtler form of the hyper violent, assaulting content as Shimika ,during the experiment, does develop psychic powers but still has the will to take his revenge on his former co-workers. Not through the conventions though, blowing someone's head off Scanners-like, but with Kiku the catalyst he is linked to now, through destroying someone's brain, disintegrating their body, or flat-out cannibalism whilst in an entire different body. Add to this a moment of blistering strobe effect that distorts your retinas, and it's an intense experience, but the quietness of most of the film baring the electronic trance score that occasionally is heard creates an interesting mix. Its oppressive even before the fake gore effects are seen, or the sexual aspects seep into front of your eyes, already unnerving in its rundown, industrial locations.

Don't worry, nothing bad happens to the bunny.
(From http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JIUmad51doo/UoGNg-lekVI/AAAAAAAAdcg/
Jy2I6Om1kJ4/s1600/Rubbers+Lover_001.jpg)

The director's theme in both films is that transition and transformation is possible through agony, the film structured around effecting the viewer where you feel like you've gone through the same procedures until a waking sensation by the ending. The monochrome images. The sound design and disturbing content, including prolonged repetition of dialogue samples in scenes of pronounced psychokinetic events taking place. It's not surprising Fukui worked on Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), the most significant film in the Japanese cyberpunk subgenre. In fact, of immense interest, you can see three trajectories' come out from that film. That of its director Shinja Tsukamoto, who would continue with the theme of the body and then develop more and more emotion to his work. Co-cinematographer and main actress Kei Fujiwara would unfortunately only make two features as a director herself, the most well known one Organ (1996) I've also reviewed online before [Viewable here], but developed her own unique spin on body horror that would baffle and alarm anyone who went into them expecting a Sushi Typhoon fest of cheesy gore. Fukui decided to concentrate on the mind and the transformation of it. Of course the three of them would have themes that would blur into each other's work, but they took their own inspirations alongside what happened in Tetsuo: The Iron Man.

From http://s3.amazonaws.com/quietus_production/images
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In contrast to the first film, Rubber's Lover has a darker conclusion as the dependency on the Ether drug and lost memories leads to an end. The climax involving a discovery of a dark past continually referenced to including a film, on celluloid, in Motomiya's collection. It also involves the sudden appearance of snow falling inside a room, a moment of elegant grace before the closest moment to a Scanners scene taking place. The end is tragic but continues with someone sat against a pillar inside a subway. They have been through torture, until becoming more then they were, leaving them drastically changed. Fukui would not make another feature film for over ten years after Rubber's Lover, returning back with films and shorts that look impossible to see. If it was the last time he made a film, it certainly ends with the right statement, leaving this viewer fried mentally gripping with the content again. The beginning of something new, back to the idea of catharsis through physical violence.

From http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5KMMfm12ybQ/UoGNlplyXyI/
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Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None) - High

There's an entire wing of this site that's going to be devoted to Japanese cinema let alone their cyberpunk movies, such imaginative but also stark work. The borderline between alternative, underground art - theatre, punk and experimental music etc. - matched by giant drill penises, pig people and in this film's case leather frog man suit fetish and a prolonged scene of the two actresses writhing in a white lit elevator being pleasured by a pocket machine that blatantly stimulates your orgamically. A person's torso being ripped open while they're still awake and a very muscled man, able to make sound with them just through flexing, wearing only a transparent raincoat, repeated again in this review by how bizarre that particular image is to me. In fact you can add the almost nude muscle men in Tsukamoto's Tetsuo II: Body Hammer (1992) and paint this image of large biceped men in underground lairs involved in evolving mankind that's impossible to shake out of your head. But Rubber's Lover isn't pointlessly lurid. Disturbing, yes, and definitely a film that has divided people, but one that at least contains a distinct and provocative point of view. Rubber's Lover is merciless in its abrasive content but for the means for what is felt rather than direct ideas. It is worth mentioning Fukui's background in noise rock about now, the sense of the embracing of the messiness and oppressiveness of noise fitting the style of the content in this film. The result, like a Tetsuo: The Iron Man is completely unique and unrelenting.

Personal Opinion:

It's difficult to choose between this and 964 Pinocchio in which is the best film. Fukui's other work, barring two shorts that came with each film on US DVD, are to my knowledge unavailable to see. Here you get a very idiosyncratic style of filmmaking that feels like putting your head in a vice, not necessarily a horrible situation to be in when the calm final shot is shown and the whole viewing was worth it. They are part of a filmmaking style, like Tsukamoto's work or Organ, which is unconventional even for the extremes of all the violent Japanese cinema I've viewed, and not just because their created worked together, but also in an area of underground filmmaking which is willing to step outside of good taste but also have a clear idea for something a lot deeper. Maybe represented in brutality and fake gore being splattered about, but still an idea or mood. Like a pressure cooker, Rubber's Lover keeps going from one extreme to the next one, tightening and becoming more disturbing as it goes along. The result is impossible not to feel a reaction to.