First shown in 1994 but only getting a formal New York release now, “A New Love in Tokyo” is filled with details on the nuts and bolts (and whips and piercings) of sex work in Japan at that time. Not your thing? While honesty dictates that this movie, directed by Banmei Takahashi, be classified first and foremost as erotica, it is erotica that finds room for real sweetness and intellectual pretensions along with its kink.
It is also a friendship movie. Early on, Rei (Sawa Suzuki), a dominatrix who works as an actress by day — the evening gig is good practice for performing — becomes pals with Ayumi (Reiko Kataoka), a call girl who plans to settle down with an aspiring doctor. (She deposits money for their marriage and claims it’s from her father.) With a leisurely pace and much more skin than is typical of films reviewed by this newspaper, “A New Love in Tokyo” follows their routines by day and by night.
You’ll learn how Ayumi handles a distress call after encountering a knife-wielding john. You’ll see just how long it takes Rei to break in a client who imagines that S&M will be philosophically enriching. The film also plays with expectations: The dominatrix service Rei works for proves safer than the theater troupe, among whom venereal disease is on the loose.
The English subtitles drifted mildly out of sync at the screening I attended. I’m told that the problem will have been corrected, which is good. This is a softcore picture for which you’ll want to understand the dialogue.
A New Love in Tokyo Not rated. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes. In theaters.
The post ‘A New Love in Tokyo’ Review: Sex in the Air appeared first on New York Times.
