Beautiful Mystery

By:
In-House Review - Sep 02 2009

Another in the independently made soft-core art films from Japan grouped under the title "Pink Films," Beautiful Mystery is a pleasant surprise because it is both funny and erotic. A teenage boy joins a bodybuilding and paramilitary clique run by a Mishima-like man who builds a private army around himself. Within this all-male domain, a routine develops -- strenuous exercise by day and plenty of homo sex at night. The youth falls in love, and he and his lover leave the compound only to become drag queens and eventually prostitutes. Some good jokes are the result of a rigid censorship that forbids the presentation of male genitalia, and absurd camera angles are chosen and strange objects are placed in front of the lens to obscure private parts. A visually striking satire that also depicts male bonding in the most homoerotic light. A film Yukio Mishima would have loved. (Japanese with subtitles)