Love's Whirlpool
愛の渦
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Eight strangers and a late-arriving couple pay for one night at a Roppongi swingers' apartment; awkward, funny, and unexpectedly tender.
Late one night a jobless young man withdraws twenty thousand yen, all he has, and follows telephone directions to a flat in Roppongi. It is an underground sex club: for one night, strangers pay to meet in a living room in bath towels and take whoever is willing downstairs, to a room of four beds with nothing between them. Earlier a silent university student in glasses answered an advert, asked the manager whether she could refuse anyone she disliked, and was told she could, though then why come. Eight guests sit in awkward silence: a blond part-timer, a married office worker, a heavy factory worker, a nursery teacher, a young woman from an office, a brash woman who comes every time, the young man and the student.
Small talk about diets gives way to the first pairings. The young man and the student are the last to move, until she pushes him onto the sofa, and downstairs she turns out to be the least guarded person in the room. Between rounds the guests trade jobs and life stories, then gossip about one another's bodies and noises, and quarrels break out over who is desirable and who should never have been let in. A couple arrive late. The woman takes the young man downstairs and the man takes the student; then the couple start fighting, he accuses her of enjoying it for real, and she walks out. The young man apologises to the student and they go back to bed. The office worker phones his wife with excuses, and when the factory worker, exposed as a virgin, finally succeeds with the regular, everyone applauds.
When the night ends, the regular leaves with the manager; they are a couple. The student has lost her phone, and the clerk rings it from the young man's, so she learns his number, although swapping numbers is forbidden. Days later she calls him out to meet. He is delighted, but she has come only to ask him to delete her number. The woman in that room was not her, she says. He answers that the man in that room was the real him, and she walks away.
Starring
Sosuke Ikematsuas Neet
A jobless young man who spends his last twenty thousand yen on a night at the club and falls for the student.
Neet’s story
The Neet sits silent until the student pushes him onto the sofa, and he asks her to go downstairs with him. Between rounds he admits that, though it may not look it, he is enjoying himself. When the blond part-timer leads the student away, he stands up and stops them, and is told not to go falling for her. A late-arriving couple swap partners, and he watches her with the other man; when the couple start fighting, he apologises to her and they go back to bed. Days later she calls him out to meet, and he is delighted, but she has come only to ask him to delete her number. The woman in that room was not her, she says. He answers that the man in that room was the real him, and she walks away.
Mugi Kadowakias University Student
A silent student in glasses who answered an advert and turns out to be the most unguarded person there.
University Student’s story
Before the night, the student asks the manager whether she can refuse anyone she dislikes; she can, he says, but then why come. In the living room she suddenly pushes the Neet onto the sofa, and they go downstairs. Between rounds she admits that, strangely even to herself, she is having a very good time, while others mock how loud she is. She goes downstairs with the man from a late-arriving couple; when the couple quarrel, the Neet apologises and she goes back to bed with him. At dawn the clerk rings her lost phone from the Neet's, so she learns his number. Days later she calls him out only to ask him to delete hers. The woman in that room was not her, she says. He says the man there was the real him, and she walks away.
Hirofumi Araias Freeter
A blond part-timer who pairs off first and later turns on the others.
Kenichi Takitoas Salaryman
A married office worker who gossips between rounds and phones his wife with excuses.
Yosuke Kubozukaas Clerk
The staff member who minds the room through the night and enforces its rules.
Tetsushi Tanakaas Shop Manager
The man who runs the club, interviews newcomers and leaves at dawn with the regular.
Why it matters
Love's Whirlpool puts desire in a room with no walls and watches what people do once the one thing they came for has been agreed. Daisuke Miura adapted and directed his own play, which won the Kishida Prize for drama, and the film is less about sex than about the society that springs up around it within hours: flirting, rankings, gossip about bodies, jealousy, a couple undone because one of them enjoyed it too much. The paid night promises sex without consequences, and the film shows how quickly feeling seeps back in. Sosuke Ikematsu and Mugi Kadowaki each won a Kinema Junpo award for this and other roles that year. The ending hands its question to the student and the young man: whether the self that appears in a room like that is a lapse to be deleted or the most honest self there is.