Movie Digest
This movie intertwines the concept of food and erotica into a triptych. The director of ‘Torture club’ and ’Love disease’ is back this time diving into the concept of Attraction, sensual, Japanese Kinks about Food. Food is often used as a metaphor for displaying sensual instances. The film drives through the concept of kinks through food. The stories are in three parts. Each part is named after Food traditional to Japanese cuisine. So, we have names like Natto, Mapo Tofu, and Ramen with extra back fat. A common instigator Kurita is present in all three stories, we get to see how relationships dwell on the satisfaction of desires, particularly shown through the lens of food in this triptych. It brings forth all these in a manner of sensuality, food consumption, and humiliation.
The Feel-Good Part
This movie is directed by Kota Yoshida. Presented at international film fests, Sexual drive is about an omniscient instigator Kurita as we know, who gets involved with women sexually, however, also prides on telling their spouses about what he did with their wives just to humiliate them. It is very titillating but no explicit scenes are shown. There are close-ups of food and almost ASMR-like sounds of chewing but make it erotic. the DoP did an amazing job in this film with the visuals of food. The closeups and the foley were perfectly arranged, it brought the depth into a script that would have otherwise become sleazy. A dynamic plot, driven by skilled storytelling and humorous aspects makes it a good film to watch.
The Disappointing Factor
For some people, the topic of erotic makes an uncomfortable to watch even without any explicit scenes involved. This movie has a lot of sexual innuendos in terms of its visualization of the food. This could be difficult to sit through for someone with an aversion to sexual topics. If you are someone who feels queasy about digesting something similar or along the lines of sexual topics you may want to avoid this film. It is still recommended to watch as it puts into perspective the aspects of filmmaking, we as viewers rarely focus on elements like DoP, and the arrangement of scenes, and how important they are in the long run for a film. To get a perspective on that please take a look at this film.
In-Depth Analysis
This film aimed to connect food to sex and make it entertaining for the viewers. In the first part, we see Kurita, talk with Enatsu about his wife Dr. Megumi. The perverse inclination while describing Megumi’s love for Natto a fermented soy dish from Japan. We see Kurita in the second part as well revealing a very masochistic method to his description of Mapo Tofu that our second female protagonist Akane wishes to eat. Akane and her cooking are also presented in a very sexual manner. The entire conversation with Kurita reveals a part of herself that she was previously blinded to. Kurita steps into the role of a narrator in the third sequence of this film wherein the customers have to eat the ramen making as much slurpy noises as possible but they are not allowed to talk. The not allowed to talk part in the third sequence was almost comical in its presentation but therein we see the director’s storytelling skills weave a sexual innuendo into the visuals. We get through all three parts of the film with visuals of food being stirred or chewed sensually, tying the whole film up to sexual activities.
Star Power
Female protagonists in this film have presented their roles very eloquently, actors cast in the roles were: Ryo Ikeda, Shogen, Honami Sato, Makau Nakamura, etc.
Overall Opinion
Watch this film only if you can appreciate metaphorical elements in storytelling. For this film, food is the metaphor used to relate to sexual activities. Skip it if the topics discussed are triggering or not comfortable to you. But rest assured no explicit scenes are present in the movie. The plot id=s entirely driven by dynamism and humor that one would not expect this film to turn out to be like. The performances by the cast were top-notch and had good chemistry with each other.
