Flower and Snake: Zero
花と蛇 ZERO
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
The fourth Toei entry in Dan Oniroku's saga, now a police procedural with S&M.
Detective Misaki Amamiya is part of a police team hunting Babylon, an illegal website that streams women held captive and tortured in sadomasochistic 'training'. Raiding one of its sets, the team rescues a girl, and Misaki finds that one of the girl's torturers is her runaway younger sister, Mifuyu. She lets her go. From then on a disguised voice calling itself Joseph has a hold over her, trading information about the site for her obedience to humiliating sexual orders.
Babylon's new captive is Shizuko Toyama, a wife who offered herself to clear her husband's huge debts after the site's enforcer, Kurokawa, threatened his life. Her trainer, a young man called Eddie, cannot bring himself to hurt her enough and is beaten for it; she tells him she is glad it is him. At home Ruri, a bored housewife whose husband is always busy, finds the site, discovers a taste for bondage and becomes a paying member. Misaki learns that every captive's ordeal has ended in a murder streamed live, and that Babylon answers to Makimura, an art dealer with influence in politics and business. Her boss, Inspector Baba, shuts the case down. Mifuyu tries to kill the rescued girl in the police hospital, and both of them die.
For Shizuko's final show Misaki enters Babylon as a volunteer slave. Ruri buys a seat, volunteers to torment the two women on stage and is bound herself. Eddie and Shizuko have sex before the audience, and then Kurokawa tells it what it has just watched: Shizuko was raped as a high-school girl and gave the baby up, and the boy was raised to be a trainer: Eddie. As the show turns to Misaki's execution, she frees herself and kills her executioner. Baba bursts in and kills Kurokawa, who with his last words says the real Makimura died long ago, and points at the viewers on the screens. Baba was Joseph all along. Eddie dies there too.
Afterwards Shizuko, pregnant, sews baby clothes. Ruri tells her unemployed husband to go and look for work; he is Baba. Misaki is promoted, and her phone rings again: Joseph. Among the viewers watching her face on countless screens is Ruri.
Starring
Maiko Amanoas Misaki Amamiya
A police detective hunting the streaming site Babylon, who is blackmailed after she lets her runaway sister escape.
Misaki Amamiya’s story
Misaki pays for letting her sister, Mifuyu, escape a raid: a disguised voice calling itself Joseph trades leads on Babylon for her obedience to humiliating sexual orders. She follows his clues to Shizuko's husband and learns that the site's captives have been killed on its streams. Her boss, Baba, shuts the case down, and Mifuyu dies at the police hospital, trying to kill the rescued girl. Through Joseph, Misaki enters Babylon as a volunteer slave for Shizuko's final show. When the show turns to her own execution, she frees herself and kills her executioner. Baba bursts in and kills Kurokawa, and she realises that Baba was Joseph all along. Afterwards she is promoted. Then her phone rings again, and the voice calling itself Joseph is back.
Noriko Hamadaas Shizuko Toyama
A wife who gives herself up to Babylon to pay off her husband's debts, and is held and abused on its streams.
Shizuko Toyama’s story
Shizuko gave herself to Babylon to pay off her husband's debts after Kurokawa threatened his life, and at first will not say why she is there. When her trainer, Eddie, is beaten for failing to hurt her enough, she tends his wounds, tells him about the debts and says she is glad it is him. At the final show, which is to settle what she owes, she and Eddie have sex before the audience. Then Kurokawa tells the room that she was raped as a high-school girl and gave up the baby, and that the boy was raised to be a trainer: Eddie. Eddie dies there that night. Afterwards Shizuko, pregnant, sews baby clothes.
Rina Sakuragias Ruri
A bored housewife who finds Babylon through an online friend and becomes one of its paying viewers.
Ruri’s story
Ruri is a housewife whose husband is always busy. When an online friend sends her a link to Babylon, she knows it must be a crime and still cannot look away. She discovers a taste for bondage, tries it on herself and in public, and becomes a paying member. When the site sells seats for Shizuko's final show, she applies at once; on the night she volunteers to torment the two women on stage and is bound herself. After the shooting her life goes on as before, in front of the screen. She tells her unemployed husband, lying about at home in the daytime, to go to the job centre, and he is Baba. In the last image, among the viewers watching Misaki's startled face on countless screens, Ruri sits at her computer.
Yuki Tsujimotoas Eddie
The young man assigned to bind and train Shizuko, who cannot bring himself to hurt her.
Yuichi Kimuraas Yoshihiko Baba
Misaki's boss, the police inspector who shuts down the Babylon investigation.
Why it matters
Flower and Snake: Zero moves Dan Oniroku's decades-old tale of a captive wife into the age of the live stream, and for the first time in the series it has three heroines: the woman held, the woman hunting her captors and the woman watching at home. Its sharpest idea concerns the third. Babylon's captives are volunteers only in the way debt makes a volunteer, and its power comes from the people who pay to watch; asked who Makimura really is, the dying villain points at the screens. The film cannot step outside its own charge, since it is built from the spectacle it condemns, and its twists pile cruelty on cruelty, from a captive's lost son raised to torment women to a detective blackmailed by her own boss. What it leaves is an uncomfortable question about where watching ends and taking part begins.