Flower and Snake (2004)
花と蛇
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A tango dancer is delivered by her husband to a yakuza patriarch's circus of bondage — Sugimoto Aya's career-defining performance.
Shizuko Toyama is a celebrated tango dancer, married to Takayoshi, a young businessman who heads the Toyama Building company. She is troubled by masochistic dreams and feels nothing when her husband touches her. Ippei Tashiro, an underworld patriarch past ninety-five and confined to a wheelchair, sees her dancing on a screen and wants her. His man, the yakuza boss Kanzo Morita, confronts Takayoshi with a video of him paying a bribe to a minister, supplied by the employee he blamed for it and fired, and tells him the only way out is to hand over his wife. Learning how old and frail Tashiro is, Takayoshi persuades himself she will come to no harm, and takes her to what he tells her is a masked ball.
Shizuko wakes on a stage in front of a masked audience, at a secret club where a clown is master of ceremonies. Her driver is murdered in front of her. Her bodyguard, Kyoko Nojima, is taken too, and raped and tortured, and to save her Shizuko submits. She is stripped, bound in rope and raped before the watching crowd, and she learns that her husband sold her. Kyoko seizes a chance to run with her and is killed. Takayoshi, repentant, finally reaches her and tells her, weeping, that he has bought her back and they can start again. Barely conscious, she answers, “Do me.”
The show ends with Tashiro himself. Ninety-five years old, he is brought in to rape her, and dies during the assault. Shizuko gets hold of a gun and breaks free, running through the building in search of a way out, and when Takayoshi comes for her, he is shot. The last scene wakes her in a white room, and whether the ordeal happened, or was one more of her masochistic dreams, is never settled.
Starring
Aya Sugimotoas Shizuko Toyama
A celebrated tango dancer with masochistic dreams, handed over by her husband to an underworld patriarch.
Shizuko Toyama’s story
Shizuko has kept clear of scandal and feels nothing when her husband touches her. Sold by him to save himself, she wakes on a stage before a masked audience. At first she holds out; when her bodyguard, Kyoko, is tortured, she submits to save her, and when she is told that her husband sold her, she gives up. She is stripped, bound and raped before the crowd, and Kyoko is killed when the two try to run. When Takayoshi reaches her in tears, she answers, barely conscious, “Do me.” Tashiro dies during his assault on her. She gets hold of a gun and runs through the building, and when her husband comes for her, he is shot. She wakes in a white room, and whether any of it happened is never settled.
Hironobu Nomuraas Takayoshi Toyama
Shizuko's husband, a young businessman blackmailed over a bribe, who gives up his wife to save himself.
Takayoshi Toyama’s story
Takayoshi heads the Toyama Building company but cannot reach his wife in bed, and drinks in the morning to steady his hands. When the yakuza Kanzo Morita shows him a video of himself handing a minister company money and demands his wife as the price of silence, he stalls and has Morita looked into. Learning that the man behind him is frail and past ninety-five, he tells himself she will come to no harm, and takes her to a masked ball where she is carried off. Waking at home, he sees what he has done. Brought blindfolded into the club, he finds her being raped on the stage, drags the man away and tells her, weeping, that he has bought her back. At the end, when he comes for her, he is shot.
Renji Ishibashias Ippei Tashiro
An underworld patriarch past ninety-five, confined to a wheelchair, who wants Shizuko for himself.
Kenichi Endoas Kanzo Morita
The yakuza boss who serves Tashiro and blackmails Takayoshi into handing over his wife.
Misakias Kyoko Nojima
Shizuko's bodyguard and manager, abducted with her and abused so that Shizuko will obey.
Why it matters
Flower and Snake remakes a 1974 Nikkatsu Roman Porno film of Oniroku Dan's novel, was released by Toei, and has been described as a watershed moment in the history of Japanese film censorship, for scenes of sexual cruelty and nudity rarely passed as mainstream entertainment anywhere. Its star, Aya Sugimoto, worked with the rope artist Go Arisue, and the year before had spoken publicly about ending her marriage for lack of sex. The film sets side by side two things that are easily confused: a woman's private fantasies of submission, which are hers, and a husband who hands her to strangers to save himself, which is a crime against her. Almost nothing done to her on screen has her consent. The dream-or-not ending lets the film have it both ways, and never asks whether the fantasy was hers at all.