There’s enough good and exciting to recommend Sexual Drive, but oh, the sweet-savory possibilities that were missed.
Sexual Drive(性的衝動)
✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
Japan · 2021
1h 10m
Director Kōta Yoshida
Starring Manami Hashimoto, Ryo Ikeda, Honami Sato, Mukau Nakamura
Genre Drama
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A triptych following the seemingly unconnected lives of three people around Japan. Designer Enatsu worries about his sexless marriage, office worker Akane is recovering from driving-induced panic attacks, and advertising agent Ikeyama wants to end his relationship. Connecting all three is a shabby man named Kurita, who presents each with a secret.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Anyone expecting a three-course meal as rich and nuanced as Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” (or even a single dish as sumptuous as Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo”) might find themselves disappointed by a quick and dirty film that only aspires to offer the satisfaction of a light dessert, but Yoshida’s giddy fetishism makes for its own simple fun.
The New York Times by Natalia Winkelman
Consistently intriguing and occasionally hilarious, the movie does not depict sex itself. Instead, the characters eat food items that become objects of titillation, lust and pleasure: the sticky goo around soybeans, chili oil sizzling in a wok.
This three-part picture is more interesting than titillating, a film best appreciated as a semi-sordid slice of interior lives in a culture that worships good manners and may or may not have invented pornography, but certainly perfected it in either case.
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