M
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A housewife with a secret life as a prostitute is pursued by a client who wants to own her.
Satoko, twenty-eight, lives comfortably with her salaryman husband, Hideyuki, and their six-year-old son, Masato, in a marriage that has gone sexless. Bored, she posts on a dating site and begins meeting men she does not know, and taking their money. Then she meets Tawara, well dressed and kind until they are alone: he is a yakuza, and he forces her to sell sex for him. In the fear that he will kill her, she feels pleasure for the first time. After that, whenever he calls, she goes, frightened.
Hideyuki notices that his wife has grown beautiful again. A junior colleague gives him a disc of nude photographs of amateur women with their eyes hidden, and in one of them he thinks he sees his wife's mouth. He cannot bring himself to ask her. His fantasies grow, and he takes his frustration to women at a sex club.
Minoru delivers newspapers. As a boy he stabbed his father to death to stop him beating his mother, and for that his mother abandoned him. On his round he plays catch with a little boy waiting on his own, until the boy's mother, Satoko, comes and walks him home by the hand. Something frightened in her eyes stays with Minoru. When a co-worker shows him erotic pictures of women with their eyes hidden, he thinks one is her. He follows her, sees her meet a rough-looking man and go into a love hotel, and then goes to her house to beg her to stop. Instead she gives herself to him and asks his forgiveness; he pushes her away and runs out. When he learns that Tawara is threatening her, he sets out to rescue her.
Minoru books Satoko himself, as a client, and at the love hotel he kills Tawara. Satoko and Minoru drive off together, with nowhere to go. The last scene is on the riverbank: Satoko watches Hideyuki play catch with their son, a calm family picture, as if nothing had happened.
Starring
Miwonas Satoko Ogawa
A 28-year-old housewife in a sexless marriage who starts meeting men through a dating site and is forced into prostitution by a yakuza.
Satoko Ogawa’s story
Satoko spends her days with her small son and her nights beside a husband who works all hours and no longer touches her. Bored, she posts on a mobile dating site, asking whether twenty-eight is old, and begins meeting men for money. Tawara, gentle at first, turns out to be a yakuza who threatens her into selling sex for him; after that she shivers whenever her phone rings, and in that fear finds a pleasure she has never known. When Minoru, a young newspaper deliveryman, comes to her home to beg her to stop, she gives herself to him and asks his forgiveness. He books her as a client and kills Tawara, and the two drive off with nowhere to go. In the last scene she is on the riverbank, calmly watching her husband play catch with their son.
Kengo Koraas Minoru Masaki
A young newspaper deliveryman who killed his violent father as a boy, was abandoned by his mother, and sees her in Satoko.
Minoru Masaki’s story
Minoru stabbed his father to death as a boy to stop him beating his mother, went through reform school, and was abandoned by the mother he saved. Now he lives in at a newspaper office. On his round he plays catch with a small boy until the boy's mother, Satoko, comes to walk him home, and the fear in her eyes stays with him. He recognises her in a co-worker's pictures of women with their eyes hidden, follows her to a love hotel, and goes to her house to beg her to stop; when she gives herself to him instead, he pushes her away and runs out. Learning that a yakuza, Tawara, is forcing her, he books her as a client and kills Tawara at the love hotel. He drives off with Satoko, with nowhere to go.
Nao Omorias Hideyuki Ogawa
Satoko's husband, a salaryman who thinks he sees his wife in a set of nude photographs and cannot bring himself to ask her.
Hideyuki Ogawa’s story
Hideyuki is a salaryman who lives for his work and no longer sleeps with his wife. He notices that Satoko is growing beautiful again, and when she comes home late from a class reunion saying she was chatted up, he does not know what to make of it. A junior colleague hands him a disc of nude photographs of amateur women with their eyes hidden, and in one of them he thinks he sees her mouth. He cannot bring himself to ask. His imagination runs on, and he takes his frustration to women at a sex club instead of to his wife. In the last scene, as if nothing had happened, he plays catch with their son on the riverbank while Satoko watches.
Tomorowo Taguchias Tawara
A well-dressed yakuza who meets Satoko as a client and then forces her to sell sex for him.
Why it matters
M sets two kinds of harm side by side. Satoko, bored in a sexless marriage, begins selling sex to strangers from a dating site, until one of them, a yakuza, forces her to go on doing it for him, and the film shows her finding pleasure inside that fear. That touches the oldest fantasy about women and coercion, and it has to be held carefully: pleasure found inside coercion does not make it consent. Beside her is Minoru, who killed his father to stop the beatings and was abandoned by his mother for it, and who reads Satoko's fear through his mother's face. Between them stands a husband who finds what may be his wife's photograph and says nothing. Japan Society in New York called it a Belle de Jour for the post-postmodern age. It is less about the sale of sex than about people who cannot say what they want.