Pleasures of the Flesh

Director: Nagisa Oshima
Year Released: 1965
Rating: 1.5

Oooh, a tired morality tale about the dangers of blackmail and hedonism: a tutor (Katsuo Nakamura) kills a man (by pushing him off a train) who raped a girl and thinks he got away with it, until he's approached one day by a bureaucrat who saw it happen, and in exchange for his silence he entrusts the tutor with 30 million Yen he stole ... which the tutor spends on sex. As with so many of Oshima's films from this period it jumps around rather rapidly making it a bit difficult to follow, and on top of that the tutor character comes across as being obnoxiously dumb: instead of paying these (damaged) women (with histories) to stay with him, why doesn't he just stick to a steady stream of geishas (who would keep their mouths shut) and whiskey (the nectar of life)? When he runs his mouth to the woman he truly loves she stabs him right in the heart (metaphorically): you just can't trust a dame.