Flower and Snake II: Paris/Shizuko
花と蛇2 パリ／静子
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
An elderly art critic who longs to see the passion he believes his young wife hides sends her to Paris to judge a painter he supports.
The names return from the first film, but the story is new. Takayoshi Toyama is a renowned art critic, old now, and devoted to his wife, Shizuko, thirty-five years younger, whom he can no longer satisfy. He is shown erotic pictures that a dead elder of the art world secretly drew on a computer, every one of them an imagined Shizuko in bondage, and he is seized by the wish to see the passion he believes is hidden in her. He sends her to Paris to judge whether he should go on supporting Ryosuke Ikegami, a gifted young painter who is getting nowhere there.
In Ikegami's flat she is asked to model for him, then to undress, then to hold humiliating poses, and little by little she is absorbed by it. The finished oil painting shows her bound. Shizuko wants to take it home; Ikegami insists on testing its worth on the black market, and with his sister Sayoko she goes to an auction held in an old château. There she finds erotic pictures of herself for sale, one almost identical to Ikegami's. She tries to prove his is genuine by putting herself on show, but the auction's presiding priest rules it a forgery, and as punishment she is made to hold the painted pose in front of the buyers.
Then she learns that her husband arranged everything. Aged and impotent, he had asked Ikegami to train her in bondage, to draw out a Shizuko he had never seen. She accepts this as his love, and resolves to make love to him with the help of a drug. His heart is weak, and he dies while they are together. Afterwards Shizuko arranges for Ikegami's paintings to be shown in Japan, where they are praised. Once she has seen his success, she takes a whip to herself in penance, thinking of her dead husband.
Starring
Aya Sugimotoas Shizuko Toyama
An art critic's much younger wife, sent to Paris to judge a painter's talent and drawn into posing for him.
Shizuko Toyama’s story
In Ikegami's Paris flat, Shizuko agrees to model, then to undress and hold humiliating poses, and is slowly absorbed by it. Believing in his talent, she takes his painting of her bound to a black-market auction in a château, finds pictures of herself already for sale there, and offers her own body as proof that his is genuine. The painting is ruled a forgery, and she is made to hold its pose before the buyers. Learning that her husband arranged everything, she takes it as his love and gives herself to him with the help of a drug; he dies while they are together. She has Ikegami's paintings shown in Japan and, once she has seen his success, punishes herself in penance, thinking of her dead husband.
Kenichi Endoas Ryosuke Ikegami
A gifted, struggling painter in Paris who paints Shizuko in bondage, secretly at her husband's request.
Jo Shishidoas Takayoshi Toyama
An ageing, renowned art critic who cannot satisfy his wife and secretly arranges her sexual awakening.
Takayoshi Toyama’s story
Toyama is a renowned art critic, old now, devoted to his wife, Shizuko, thirty-five years younger, whom he can no longer satisfy. The secret computer drawings of a dead elder of the art world, every one an imagined Shizuko in bondage, stir in him the wish to see a passion in her he has never seen. So he sends her to Paris, telling her to judge whether his support for the young painter Ikegami should go on, and secretly asks Ikegami to train her in bondage. The painting, the auction and her humiliation there all follow from his plan. When she learns of it, she takes it as his love and decides to give herself to him with the help of a drug. His heart is weak, and he dies while they are together.
Fujikoas Sayoko Ikegami
Ikegami's sister, who takes Shizuko to the auction held in an old château.
Why it matters
The second Flower and Snake keeps the rope and the auction room, but its real subject is an old man's fear of his own ageing body. Toyama cannot give his wife what he imagines she wants, so he arranges for another man to draw it out of her, and treats the result as a work of art. Everything Shizuko learns about her own desire, she learns inside a plan she did not know existed, and because she accepts it as love, the film asks its audience to accept it too. That is the issue it raises most sharply: whether a pleasure someone else has engineered for a woman, without her knowledge, can ever be her own. The paintings and the Paris auction add a second question, about who owns the image of a woman's body once it has been made and put up for sale.