Really I can appreciate an artistic movie, especially if its Japanese but it still needs to serve a clear purpose or point all in order for me to fully appreciate and enjoy.And no, "Rubber's Lover" doesn't really seem to have a clear point about what it is trying to do or say. It's like a psychedelic trip, that isn't even necessarily surreal. It doesn't really feature a clear storyline in it and I won't pretend as if I understood everything about this movie. Honestly, more than half of the time I had no idea what I was watching and what was going on all.But this is OK really. I can also like and enjoy a movie for other reasons, when it's trying to be more of an artistic one. And from an artistic viewpoint this movie does definitely has its qualities. But still I can only take so much of it. Turning this into an 90 minutes just probably wasn't a very good idea, since the movie is just not an easy one to watch and follow. I'm sure I would had really liked this movie so much better if it got done as an 30 minutes short.But still I didn't regret watching this movie and it wasn't an horrible waste of time or anything like that. It still was a nice visual experience to have to go through. I'm actually fond of modern movies shot in black & white, like this movie was. The movie does feature some nice looking and interesting moments in it, which makes it obvious that director Shozin Fukui felt at ease with the material and really knew what he was doing. I only wish I could understand as well though.Obviously not a movie for just everyone.6/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

From the man who made Pinocchio 984 comes another cyberpunk story filmed in black and white industrial. This is the story of the DDD which is a device which researchers hope will turn into some sort of super weapon. The test subjects are strapped to a chair and the DDD is turned on inducing a weird trance and trip. It also induces insanity and death. Chalk this up as another Japanese assault on our senses with the use of disjointed soundtracks and jarring fetishistic images. Not as lacking in story as Pinocchio, this film does have a plot, but its more an excuse to hang button pushing images together. As a collection of images or as a button pusher its gangbusters. As anything that resembles a real movie its lacking. A fine example of form over content...if you like that sort of a thing

Scientists use a brain-altering drug to conduct experiments, after one such project goes astray, they need to find another test subject in this Japanese splatter-punk film. On it's surface Rubber's Lover can be compared to Tetsuo: the Iron Man (shot in black and white, weird, kinetic, and machine driven), but it's different enough to stand on it's own merits, even if it's not nearly as good as the aforementioned film. Good for a viewing or two, but it's not one of the films that you'll return to over and over again. Still for an obviously low-budget film it IS entertaining.My Grade: C+DVD Extras: "Gerorisuto" short film; Interview with Shozin Fukui; Photo gallery; Theatrical Trailer; Trailers for "Electric Dragon 80000V", and "Junk"

This does for corporate research science what 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' does for inbred hillbillies. It is a film about psychic warfare that makes David Cronenberg's 'Scanners' seem ineffectual. Tho I don't like Rubber's Lover as much as Fukui's other feature, '964 Pinocchio,' it is certainly remarkable. What makes this film chilling to the bone is not the strange technology depicted or the spooky black & white cinematography or the creepy narrative ambiguities, tho this all adds. It is the screaming, hysterical, overblown performances by the actors which really gives the impression of terrible violence. Tho there is a decent amount of physical splatter in this film, the real gore is psychological. Try this film. you'll feel like a rhesus monkey in a head trauma experiment, and you'll like it!