Synopsis
Tokyo Decadence (1992) is Ryu Murakami's bleak Japanese drama, available to watch online on iFILM. It follows a call girl nicknamed Topaz through the underside of a wealthy, hollow Tokyo, and it is not an easy sit.
Ai sells her body to repressed businessmen and yakuza clients, and barely tries to climb out. What's left inside is emptiness and a quiet ache for a lover who is gone. Miho Nikaido plays her with a raw, almost documentary candor. Novelist Ryu Murakami wrote and directed from his own fiction, with no concern for good taste.
The film was cut or restricted in several countries for how directly it talks about pain, power and isolation. Watch for a cameo from artist Yayoi Kusama. This is a cold study of a consumer society rather than entertainment, and it rewards viewers chasing radical auteur cinema over comfort. Stream Tokyo Decadence online on iFILM.
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