Flower and Snake (1974)
花と蛇
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
The first film of Dan Oniroku's saga, which made 谷ナオミ the queen of Roman Porno SM.
Makoto Katagiri is thirty and still lives with his mother, Miyo, who sold herself to American soldiers after the war to raise him and now runs an adult toy shop and a bondage photography business from their home. As a boy, Makoto believes, he shot dead a Black American soldier he found in bed with his mother. He has been impotent ever since, and consoles himself with photographs of women in ropes.
Makoto's company is owned by Senzo Toyama, an older man who shares his tastes, but whose young wife, Shizuko, will not let him tie her up or even watch her bathe. Senzo has looked into Makoto and his mother, and he summons Makoto with an order: abduct Shizuko and 'train' her until she submits to what her husband wants. Makoto carries her, drugged, to his room and ties her to the bed. When she wakes and protests, she learns that her husband arranged it. Egged on by his mother, and with Miyo listening at the door, Makoto rapes her. His impotence is gone.
He sends Senzo reports but keeps Shizuko, and begins to fall for her; when his mother and her staff torment Shizuko in his absence, he orders them off. Miyo, jealous, stages a scene with a man who looks like the dead soldier, and Makoto's impotence returns. Then, at a film Shizuko wants to see, he remembers the day clearly: it was his mother who fired the shot and let him carry the blame. He breaks with her and tells Shizuko he wants to marry her.
When Senzo comes for his wife, Shizuko goes to him willingly. She belongs to her husband, she tells Makoto, but he may come too. Makoto leaves with the couple while Miyo runs after the car in tears. At the Toyama house the three end up in bed together, and when the maid, Haru, mutters that men are filthy to treat her mistress so, Shizuko smiles, smells a flower and says that men are sweet little things.
Starring
Naomi Tanias Shizuko Toyama
A company president's young wife who refuses his tastes and is handed by him to a subordinate to be abducted and 'trained'.
Shizuko Toyama’s story
Shizuko will not let her husband, Senzo, tie her up or even watch her bathe. He drugs her tea, and she wakes tied to a bed in Makoto's room and learns her husband arranged it. Egged on by his mother, who listens at the door, Makoto rapes her; the mother and her staff torment her while he is at work, until he stops them. Shizuko asks him whether he will protect her, and when he unties her to use the lavatory, she comes back. When Senzo comes for her, she goes to his side and turns down Makoto's proposal: she belongs to her husband, but Makoto may come too. At the Toyama house, after the three have been in bed together, the maid mutters that men are filthy. Shizuko smells a flower and smiles: men are sweet little things.
Yasuhiko Ishizuas Makoto Katagiri
A thirty-year-old employee, impotent since a childhood killing he believes he committed, who carries out his boss's order.
Makoto Katagiri’s story
Makoto lives with his mother, Miyo, whose staff treat him like a child. When his boss, Senzo, finds bondage pictures in his desk, he orders Makoto to abduct his wife, Shizuko, and 'train' her. Makoto hesitates, then obeys. Egged on by his mother, and with her listening at the door, he rapes Shizuko, and his impotence is gone. He sends Senzo reports but begins to fall for Shizuko, orders his mother's staff away from her and says he wants to spend his life with her. Miyo stages a scene with a man who looks like the dead soldier, and his impotence returns. Then, at a film, he remembers that it was his mother who fired the shot. When Senzo comes and Shizuko refuses to marry him, Makoto leaves with the couple, and his mother runs after the car in tears.
Nagatoshi Sakamotoas Senzo Toyama
The ageing company president who orders his own wife's abduction so that she will submit to him.
Hiroko Fujias Miyo Katagiri
Makoto's mother, who runs an adult shop from home and will go to any length to keep her son to herself.
Miyo Katagiri’s story
Miyo raised her son, Makoto, after the war by selling herself to American soldiers, and now runs an adult toy shop and a bondage photography business from their home. When he brings home his boss's drugged wife, Shizuko, Miyo is pleased: she urges him to rape her and listens at the door, and while he is at work she and her staff torment Shizuko. When Makoto falls for Shizuko and calls his mother an old hag, Miyo hires a man who looks like the soldier Makoto believes he killed and stages a scene that leaves him impotent again. But Makoto remembers what she has hidden for years: it was Miyo who fired the shot and let him carry the blame. He breaks with her. When he leaves with Shizuko and her husband, she runs after the car in tears.
Why it matters
Flower and Snake was the first Nikkatsu Roman Porno built around sadomasochism, and with Wife to Be Sacrificed, made the same year with the same two leads, it started the S&M line that helped keep the studio afloat through the 1970s. Its central fantasy is the one the genre rests on: a woman abducted, bound and raped until she is said to want it. The film complicates rather than questions that fantasy. Shizuko's husband hands her over; the man who takes her has been crippled by his mother's lie; and at the end the woman everyone has used claims, smiling, to have had the upper hand all along. Oniroku Dan, whose novel it adapts, was unhappy with it. What it leaves in front of an audience is how easily a story of coercion can be told as a story of a woman's freedom, and how hard it can be to tell which one is on the screen.