I saw the R18 version and I gotta agree with Guro Taku. The first 60 min somewhat kept my interest, but after that I started looking for the fast forward button. It's a lesbian love story with some soft torture/bondage, plenty of nudity, and a storyline that just goes on for too long (107 min!). The problem is that, like Guro Taku said, the lesbian melodrama isn't really going to engage anyone. In this sense the film reminded me of Noboru Iguchi, who also tends to imagine that people are interested in the serious drama that he often insers at the end of in his otherwise whacky movies. It's a shame, Kota Yoshida can actually be a masterful drama director at times (Sumida-ku Kyôjima 3-chôme, 2010) but none of that is visible here.
I gotta say though, Noriko Kijima was much cuter than I remembered. And she does full frontal nudity thoughout the film! There's also another lead girl who "gives her all", but the rest fall into the gravute idol category, meaning they find ways to be naked yet somehow cover the strategic bits.
There's quite a bit of below-the-belt nudity in the film, ranging from non-sex scenes with uncensored pubic hair galore to sex scenes with very thin mosaic (so thin that at first I thought the camera was just off-focus). Some people who saw the R15 theatrical / festival version mentioned "censorship strawberries" that appear in the image, but no such thingies are in the R18 version. In fact, there's even something that looks like a fake-pussy in a very dark shot (there's certainly some flesh between her fingers...) that they miraculously got away with uncensored.
Summary: It would be hard to argue against of you wanted to see the film just to enjoy naked Noriko Kijima, but there isn't much else to write home out. It's not a terrible movie; it's just not very interesting one. The film also looks quite digital, but at least it's high quality digital so it's not much of a problem.
Interesting note: Not a single male is ever seen in the movie, not even in the background!
Occasional stylish shot.
Nori-chan is really hot
This poor girl is mistreated throughout the film
Shower slapping
This is probably the funniest torture scene but I won't spoil it
I'm being mean here. If I posted the screencap I took a few seconds later, you could see her boobs.
That chamber is actually the "Iron Maiden"
Director Yoshida must have been proud of this shot as he put his name over it!
