Tokyo Decadence is what is referred to in Japan as a Japanese pink film which is basically a drama or an action film that contains nudity and is filled with sexual content. This erotic film was directed by Ryū Murakami who was known for surreal films about drugs, murder, and war.
The story is about a college student, Ai (Miho Nikaido, Fay Grim, Henry Fool) who has a job as a submissive hooker, who plays fantasy roles in sexual humiliating scenarios including, sadomasochism, sodomy, and bondage with rich, perverted clients. The film is loaded with all kinds of sexual acts including sexual asphyxiation. She does realize just how unhappy she is with her job and decides to find her ex-lover in the third and final act, but does he still want her?
Tokyo Decadence will certainly satisfy fans who love Japanese sexual humiliation stories and surreal filmmaking.
Unearthed Films, has ‘unearthed’ Tokyo Decadence, giving it a Region A Blu-ray release. It is uncut, with a 112-minute running time. The 1080p transfer in its 1.66:1 aspect ratio is somewhat satisfying but rather underwhelming viewing experience. The details to scenes are often soft, with a dark, murky contrast which limits shadow delineation. The transfer also suffers from occasional dirt and debris throughout the presentation. This could have used a fresh new scan, but I suppose fans might just be happy it’s on home video in North America!
The original monaural Japanese soundtrack is offered in 2.0 PCM. Dialogue and music come in clearly and is well balanced. On the flip side, there is a terrible English dub in mono 2.0 PCM is included. The English dub is significantly worse with the dialogue audio being too low at times. The musical score by Academy Award Winner Ryuichi Sakamoto (The Last Emperor) is nice and clear during the audio presentation. Action sounds come in decent enough as well. English subtitles are available for this offering.
The special features have been brought over from earlier DVD releases. This includes the Making of Featurette, stills gallery, a Japanese trailer, a German trailer, an Evil Dead Trap Trailer, The Untold story and Premutos: The Fallen Angel trailers
Fans of Tokyo Decadence will enjoy revisiting this film with all the sexual shenanigans going on. It might not be the greatest Blu-ray release in terms of audio and video that you will own, but it is an improvement over the DVD and at least the features are all ported over.
Tokyo Decadence
Director- Ryû Murakami
Cast- Miho Nikaido , Yayoi Kusama
Country of Origin- US
Distributor –Unearthed Films
Number of Discs – 1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date – 8/5/22