JAPANESE FILM

Restrictions on sexual expression in Japan are matchless



'Restrictions on sexual expression in Japan are matchless.' How are the themes of sexual transgression and sexual difference explored within A Snake of June (Tsukamoto, 2002)?

The definition of sexual transgression is a violation of bounds or limits within society that is abnormal and frowned upon. Sexual difference can refer to both the biological differences between a man and woman such as the genital and also the emotional traits that a society assigns as masculine and feminine. Both themes are explored within Tsukamoto's A Snake of June (2002, Tsukamoto) through the elements of narrative, characters, cultural setting and camera work, all of which I will be analyzing in the content of this essay.

Director Tsukamoto's breakthrough came in 1989 with his body horror/cyber punk themed Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Tsukamoto, 1989) which winning both the Grand prize at the Fanta festival (Italy) and Audience award at the Sweden Fantastic film festival, gained him an international status. While Tetsuo: The Iron Man (Tsukamoto, 1989) included erotic elements though 'disguised as flesh violated by metal.'(Tom Mes, 2005, pg. 9)Tsukamoto wasn't able to direct his first fully erotic laden feature until A Snake of June (2002, Tsukamoto) that was inspired by the rainy season of Japan.

A Snake of June (2002, Tsukamoto) tells the story of Rinko (Asuka Kurosawa) a suicide hotline assistant who is blackmailed by an ex client Iguchi (played by Shin'ya Tsukamoto himself) into performing acts of sexual humiliation. Though Rinko loves her husband Shigehiko (Yuji Kotari) a businessman, their marriage is a sexually unfulfilled one. Shigehiko doesn't physically interact with his wife, preferring to sleep on the couch and spend his home hours obsessively cleaning. One daring and rainy day Rinko climbs onto the rooftop to masturbate, unaware that Iguchi is watching and photographing her. These photographs along with others of Rinko in various compromising situations arrive in an envelope marked 'Your Husband's Secrets'. Inside the envelope a cell phone rings, it is Iguchi who says he will exchange the negatives if Rinko co-operates with his demands. He remarks “Why don't you do what you really want, walk in the street, dressed in the mini skirt”. With the exception of the remote-vibrator situation, which I will discuss later, Rinko's body is never psychically exploited by Iguchi, as he says, “I'm not asking for sex.” Instead his motivation is, as much to liberate Rinko's desires as well as indulge his own. This is the same within Tsukamoto's filming, Rinko's body is never shot pornographically rather the purpose of her body shots is 'to transcend the difference between the male and female body.' (Tom Mes, 2005, pg.167).

'When it gets humid and hot in Japan a lot of girls start wearing miniskirts, which provokes some men to start stalking them. There is this kind of erotic atmosphere in the air around that time of year.' (Tom Mes, 2005, pg.168). In setting A Snake of June (2002, Tsukamoto) during the rainy season, Tsukamoto is conveying what contemporary ...