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Review

Another fascinating exploration of modern society from the director of Tetsuo and Tokyo Fist. Tsukamoto’s implication is that beneath our seemingly well ordered lives is a nagging desperation waiting to be expressed. Here he adds a cool blue tint to his traditional black & white imagery, but the message that color is being suppressed is sustained; we get along with each other by keeping certain urges and desires secret.

In the role of the suicide hotline staffer, Kurosawa hears a lot of people driven to the edge by their secrets. Her husband Kohtari is an obsessive clean freak. In the role of photographer, Tsukamoto threatens to expose everything in order to force his savior to enrich her own life — or to simply enjoy the control he’s exerting over them. The challenge posed is: are we keeping secrets to protect others or ourselves? In Tsukamoto’s world, the only way to find out may be to enter the domain of hallucination and violence.

 -- Brian Thomas