Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands

The kind of title you'd think would be accompanied by the craziest, most sexual gonzo comedy but is instead a truly surreal Japanese New Wave noir film. I can't say I fully understood the narrative here (though thankfully I don't seem to be the only one) and I was concerned I'd feel similarly to how I did about Tokyo Drifter, the only Seijun Suzuki film I've seen thus far, but surprisingly the film won me over exactly when it lost me completely. The last thirty minutes or so are a real rug pull tonally from the nasty, erotic criminal film we've grown used to into a full fledged experimental nightmare that coasts more on the truly impressive filmmaking than any cognizant connection between characters and reality. I love direction that's this playful, this unafraid to really try something strange and new with a well-known genre and have it pay off. Again, I was completely blindsided by the last act and I don't know if I'll truly put all the pieces together but I was strangely entranced by how befuddled I was and ultimately I came out more positive than I expected.

The kind of title you'd think would be accompanied by the craziest, most sexual gonzo comedy but is instead a truly surreal Japanese New Wave noir film. I can't say I fully understood the narrative here (though thankfully I don't seem to be the only one) and I was concerned I'd feel similarly to how I did about Tokyo Drifter, the only Seijun Suzuki film I've seen thus far, but surprisingly the film won me over exactly when it lost me completely. The last thirty minutes or so are a real rug pull tonally from the nasty, erotic criminal film we've grown used to into a full fledged experimental nightmare that coasts more on the truly impressive filmmaking than any cognizant connection between characters and reality. I love direction that's this playful, this unafraid to really try something strange and new with a well-known genre and have it pay off. Again, I was completely blindsided by the last act and I don't know if I'll truly put all the pieces together but I was strangely entranced by how befuddled I was and ultimately I came out more positive than I expected.

yosuke yamashita's jazz carried this so hard

yosuke yamashita's jazz carried this so hard

In Mubi’s retrospective of Keiko Sato’s pinku productions, the one with the most provocative title is also the least pervy and erotic-driven one. Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands has some interesting concepts that director Atsushi Yamatoya never manages to get through. Borrowing ideas from the nouvelle vague movement, film noir and some other genres, its over stylistic direction and editing choices ultimately put the story itself aside. The camerawork produces sequences that would certainly look cool on my tumblr dashboard but also make the plot rather sloppy and unnecessarily difficult.

Contrary to standards of other Pinku Maverick titles, Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands doesn’t prioritize the audience’s ghoulish tendencies. Whereas Blue Film Woman and Gushing Prayer seem to use plot as device to make the most of nudity and sex, here it’s used as backdrop to a crime drama and actually serves a purpose to further develop—or trying to—its main character’s motivations. Sadly they were not interesting enough to keep me engrossed and at the end not even its cool and artsy shots redeemed it for me. Mercifully it’s a short one and it went by quickly.

In Mubi’s retrospective of Keiko Sato’s pinku productions, the one with the most provocative title is also the least pervy and erotic-driven one. Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands has some interesting concepts that director Atsushi Yamatoya never manages to get through. Borrowing ideas from the nouvelle vague movement, film noir and some other genres, its over stylistic direction and editing choices ultimately put the story itself aside. The camerawork produces sequences that would certainly look cool on my tumblr dashboard but also make the plot rather sloppy and unnecessarily difficult.

Contrary to standards of other Pinku Maverick titles, Inflatable Sex Doll of the Wastelands doesn’t prioritize the audience’s ghoulish tendencies. Whereas Blue Film Woman and Gushing Prayer seem to use plot as device to make the most of nudity and sex, here it’s used as backdrop to a crime drama and actually serves a purpose to further develop—or trying to—its main character’s motivations. Sadly they were not interesting enough to keep me engrossed and at the end not even its cool and artsy shots redeemed it for me. Mercifully it’s a short one and it went by quickly.

i liked the style. i liked the surrealist elements. i liked the jazz score. it’s interesting how it connects sex and violence and how it seems to be all drives the men in the film. this seems to poke fun at how any movie will sell as long as it has sex and violence. still, it was a bit too abstract and i had to read up on it just to have an idea of what the film was going for.

i liked the style. i liked the surrealist elements. i liked the jazz score. it’s interesting how it connects sex and violence and how it seems to be all drives the men in the film. this seems to poke fun at how any movie will sell as long as it has sex and violence. still, it was a bit too abstract and i had to read up on it just to have an idea of what the film was going for.

Yamatoya was certainly influenced by Suzuki’s experimentation with noir (as well as the entire genre) as well as the prominent elements of pinku which, despite criticism, has often been a form of expression due the extensive psychological state of Japanese eroticism, the incredible use of B/W cinematography that is accompanied by the noisy free jazz score but which matches the twisted nature of the characters.

Yamatoya was certainly influenced by Suzuki’s experimentation with noir (as well as the entire genre) as well as the prominent elements of pinku which, despite criticism, has often been a form of expression due the extensive psychological state of Japanese eroticism, the incredible use of B/W cinematography that is accompanied by the noisy free jazz score but which matches the twisted nature of the characters.