Aroused by Gymnopedies
ジムノペディに乱れる
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A washed-up director drifts through women's beds — Yukisada's entry in the 2016 Roman Porno Reboot.
Shinji Furuya was once a director whose films were praised at festivals abroad. Now in his fifties, limping and broke, he takes whatever low-budget work he can get, and the latest job is a sex film. On set his lead actress, Anri, balks at a love scene and complains about her co-star; he tries to bully her through it, she walks out, and the production is cancelled. For the rest of the week he does not go home. He drifts around Tokyo in search of money and a warm body, to the sound of Satie's Gymnopédies.
A former film-school student, Yuka, spots him at a station and takes him to the house she lives in alone on her rich family's money; when her boyfriend, Araki, turns up, Furuya runs, taking her piggy bank with him. At a party of young actors he meets Anri again. She hears about the car crash that left him with his limp, follows him out, and they have sex in an abandoned building site. At a sparsely attended retrospective of his films, Araki accuses him before the audience of sleeping with Yuka, Anri slaps him, and the evening ends in a brawl.
The hospital calls about unpaid bills. Furuya asks his ex-wife, Rinko, who works in a film studio's art department and is raising their child alone, for money, and she gets it by sleeping with a colleague, Honma, who wants her. In the hospital lies his wife, Yukiko, in a coma. A young nurse he has slept with confronts him in the room, and he pushes her into sex there, beside the bed, half-hoping that jealousy will wake his wife. Staff burst in. He sees Yukiko's hand move, grips it and weeps.
At home Yuka is waiting at his door. She sits at the piano and plays, and he sees Yukiko playing the Gymnopédie she used to play. Yuka says she has seen his wife. At the hospital Yukiko's condition suddenly turns critical, and Furuya runs for the hospital, screaming.
Starring
Itsuji Itaoas Shinji Furuya
A once-celebrated art-house director reduced to hired work, who spends a week drifting between women and debts.
Shinji Furuya’s story
Furuya's job on a sex film collapses when he tries to bully his lead, Anri, through a love scene and she walks out. For a week he does not go home. He sleeps with a former student, Yuka, and steals her piggy bank; he sleeps with Anri; his retrospective ends in a brawl. He asks his ex-wife, Rinko, for money for the hospital bills, and she raises it by sleeping with a colleague. In the room where his wife, Yukiko, lies in a coma, a nurse he has slept with confronts him; he forces her into sex beside the bed, half-hoping that jealousy will wake Yukiko, and weeps when her hand moves. At home Yuka plays the piano, and he sees Yukiko playing the Gymnopédie. Yukiko's condition turns critical, and he runs for the hospital, screaming.
Sumire Ashinaas Yuka Yamaguchi
His former film-school student, from a wealthy family, who takes him home and keeps coming back to him.
Yuka Yamaguchi’s story
Yuka studied under Furuya at film school, and when she spots him outside a station she takes him home and tells him she needs him. He sleeps with her there, in the house her family pays for. When her boyfriend, Araki, turns up, Furuya runs, taking her piggy bank. She and Araki go to the retrospective of his films, where Araki accuses him before a handful of people of sleeping with his student, and the evening ends in a brawl. At the end of Furuya's week she is waiting at his door. He lets her in, and she sits down at the piano and plays; he sees his wife, Yukiko, playing in her place. Yuka tells him she has seen his wife. Meanwhile Yukiko's condition in hospital turns critical, and Furuya runs for the hospital.
Izumi Okamuraas Anri
The headstrong lead actress who walks off his film, then follows him out of a party.
Mayumi Tajimaas Rinko
His ex-wife, who works in a film studio's art department and is raising their child alone.
Yuko Miyamotoas Yukiko Furuya
His wife, lying in a coma in an expensive hospital, who once played Satie's Gymnopédies.
Why it matters
Aroused by Gymnopedies was the first release in Nikkatsu's 2016 revival of Roman Porno, whose formula asked for a small budget, a week's shoot and a sex scene roughly every ten minutes, and Isao Yukisada used the formula to follow a man coming apart. Each encounter is filmed as desire and turns out to be a transaction: a bed for the night, a stolen piggy bank, money his ex-wife raises by selling herself so that he can pay for a wife who is dying. The women who help him are left poorer, humiliated or forgotten, and the film knows it. The question it leaves is harder than whether he deserves sympathy. It is whether grief that cannot be spoken turns into a hunger that uses everyone within reach, and whether knowing that explains a man or only describes him.