Director: Hitoshi Matsumoto
Stars: Nao Omiri, Mao Daichi, Lindsay Kay Hayward, Katagiri Hairi, Shinobu Terajima
Takafumi Katayama is a man suffering because his wife is in a coma. He ends up joining a strange bondage club where the membership lasts for one year and he can’t cancel it at any point. He also has to be submissive at all times, but when the dominatrixes started to invade into his personal life he feels threatened and tries to take action.
R100 is one of the most bizarre films I have ever seen. It starts off strangely, with a man being attacked by a dominatrix, and then strange ripples emanate from his head. It took me a while before I realised these were signalling orgasms. We then see the club and we get some Beethoven music, and the story unfolds. But there are more twists as well, which I’ll try not to spoil. Suffice to say it becomes more surreal and yet somehow it still manages to make sense.
I have to say that I loved it. I think there’s a clear point where you either buy into the film or you just hold your hands up and walk away. I found it to be hilarious but I certainly don’t think it’s going to be for everyone. Parts of it just don’t make sense, and there’s a lot to think about, like which parts are real and which could have been delusions. I think it’s quite clear that a great portion of the film is due to some kind of addiction or something, but I liked how it all came back to being linked with Beethoven and orgasms. There are bondage ninjas as well, I mean, what other film can you say that about?
On a serious note, I don’t think this is flattering to the S&M community. it still treats bondage as being a deviant act and I don’t think it captures the level of trust that exists between dominators and the submissives. It begins to get out of hand and becomes abusive, and I don’t believe that this is representative of what S&M represents.
But yes, it’s gloriously odd and if you buy into it then you’ll like it. i found it utterly hilarious and I loved it but if it gets to around the halfway point and you don’t like it then it might be best to leave it because it only gets weirder.
