Very unusual and intriguing. Starts off incredibly well - edgy, very interesting, and doesn't give much away. The transformation of the author's wife is captivating, and has many lessons in liberty, self-will, individualism and their consequences. However, the second act is confusing, drags on a bit and the plot is not entirely water-tight. Some things just seem added in for shock or weirdness value.The conclusion is good and closes the loop well, though leaving room for a continuing moral. Solid performances all round.

A female detective arrives straight from indulging her extra-marital affair to a crime scene where the mutilated sexual organs of a female victim have been re-combined with a mannequin. We then follow three female protagonists in an ostensible exploration of female sexuality. Sex and murder in the first sixty seconds, part of an impressive sequence that presents bold, dark colours and incessant rain, and promises to analyse the margins of the human psyche in the vein of Seven.Sion, unfortunately, fails to deliver on the promise, instead indulging his juvenile penchant for sexual humiliation and big sausage jokes. One character drones on endlessly in pseudo-philosophical terms about female sexuality, dressed up for intellectual effect by lacing in Kafka, the females all the while slipping over to the 'dark' side. However, the sex scenes go on too long and are very stagey. The paint balls and asphyxiophilia don't seem to comment on anything except Sono's immaturity. The criminal investigation is non-existent as the detective visits crime scenes, has phone sex, then has the murderer handed to her on a plate. Two of the three females are both indulgent of and ashamed of their sexuality, while the third has an implausible double life as university professor and prostitute. (Coincidentally, the true story that this character is based on is a much more prosaic and toned-down affair). Sono sets out an interesting stall and there are some juicy dark themes to be explored here, but his writing is not up to the task. He is both fascinated and appalled by female sexuality, and ends up fetishizing it. The camera's gaze on the women is prurient and voyeuristic. Contrast this with the representation of the men who populate the film; servicing the adult films, pimping the women, paying to be johns... They sit on the margins of the frame, their behaviour taken for granted and natural. Only female sexuality is in any way problematized. Where Sono does excel is in the performances he gleans from his leads. Miki Mizuno as detective Kazuko Yoshida is a charismatic presence who deserved more screen time. Makoto Togashi puts in a kinetic shift as the disturbed Mitsuko Ozawa, managing to carry a role that is punctuated by risible scripted moments, such as a professor soliciting a male student on her own campus. The scene where Mitsuko sits down with guests for tea with her mother is very funny, darkly so, and manages to hit a high spot the rest of the film does not quite achieve. Megumi Kagurazaka, who Sono apparently married recently, also has some sharp comic moments in the early scenes of her buttoned-up marriage. Highly stylized, these moments nonetheless poke a stick at patriarchal attitudes still far too prevalent in 21st century Japan. Kanji Tsuda is impressive as the narcissistic husband. The one letdown is Ryuju Kobayashi, who in no way carries the malevolence his character is meant to convey. The wardrobe department clearly would like him to reference 'A Clockwork Orange', but he looks like an interloper from a boy band who stole a big boy's clothes.'Cold Fish' shows Sono has talent and for the sake of Japanese cinema I'd love to see him stretch himself and break out from the niche genre - somewhere between Pink and Torture Porn - where he has set up camp. A more disciplined script, tighter running time, and more mature engagement with story might make that happen.

From Nikkatsu company came yet another title that fills the genre quota for the past year (thriller / erotica). Unfortunately, the only mystical thing about this piece is rumor that there are two versions, one of 144 minutes for Japanese market, and less than 2 hours version for the rest of the world (I cannot find longer version myself). For agitated fans, Sono stated that non of them is directors cut, but he just loves both versions...There are three intertwined stories of a female characters, one of a housewife, other of a cop and third of professor which all come together in the end. While professor is not as intense as the housewife, cop is barely important and poorly presented. Professor (by day and prostitute by night) is responsible for the awakening of main character.Housewife Izumi, whose roll in society is masochistic by itself (many would agree) is slave of her cold husbands habits (lining up the slippers, making tea with a hourglass). Izumi is sexually unsatisfied and unfulfilled, and he is asexual (at first sight) and famous for writing and publicly reading his erotic novels. As soon as Izumi gets her first chance for sexual blooming and upheaval – she does it by the book: naked photos, sex on video, prostitution... Her sexuality, thus, rises from housewife, who wants to be pleased, to prostitute who wants to please. House perversions of Izumis's husband culminates with sexual perversions which are far more appropriate than those that were happening in the house. Izumi, with her newly gained sexual freedoms, wants to start working. She finds a job as sausage salesgirl and in time, even sausages get bigger as her sexual appetite grows. While Izumi worked only for her husband (as housewife) she was completely deprived of pleasure (and romance), but together with first money came first 'sausage' of pleasure.Tokyo and explosions of colors (and balloons) in combination with intense classical music is, in a way, a reason why you should see this film. Twice. And Izumi's balloons, of course. In the end, I could say that many are guilty of something here, including the director, but they are definitely 'not guilty of romance'.

An excellent film, beautifully filmed and acted, reminiscent in many ways of Bunuel's Belle de Jour and Godard's Vivre Sa Vie.It's quite difficult to write more than this without including spoilers, but I'll try. The initial plot's very simple: we have a very subservient wife of a famous but somewhat trashy novelist living a very affluent life but not giving her any attention, sexually or in any other way with the possible exception of being extremely demanding of precision domesticity. Naturally this woman, about to turn 30 is frustrated (or rather, very confused by her situation) and when the offer of glamour modelling and a couple of sexually aggressive men come her way, things start to change.