Tokyo Erotica

1995: Kenji dies in a gas attack on the streets of Tokyo. 1997: The time after his death. Kenji's former girlfriend Haruka is killed in a motel by a man in a giant rabbit costume. 1995: The time when both were still alive. Toshiro visits Machiko. After they have violent sex he leaves her again to return to his wife. 1989: The time of people neither he nor she knows. Two young men and their girlfriends come together after the funeral of a former member of their rock-band. They stay the night together and switch partners. Next morning one of the men will shoot one of the women. 2002, in the near future. The time after both deaths. Kenji and Haruka meet again and a new story begins. After making two regular feature films, HYSTERIC and RUSH!, Zeze Takahisa returned to the pink film genre from which he emerged as one of Japan's most important contemporary filmmakers. TOKYO EROTICA starts with a question: What is longer, the time before birth or the time after death? In five episodes the film reviews the themes most central to Zeze: life, death and rebirth. The film comes to the conclusion that what matters most is how one spends the time inbetween birth and death. Interspersed with black-and-white docu-footage of interviews with victims of the 1995 Tokyo subway gas attack, Zeze creates five interwoven stories that each culminates in a very irritating embrace with the God of Death. The restlessness of Saito Koichi's camera corresponds with the abstruseness of the narrative that is as disturbing as it is captivating. TOKYO EROTICA is a study of storytelling in the 21st century with Zeze at the height of his power. The entire film was shot on digital video and transferred to film. TOKYO EROTICA won the P-1 Grand Prix 2001 in Tokyo.