Aya Sugimoto

Where does love and lust lead you…if you never die? What destiny awaits an immortal? Is there a destination for immortal love and lust? Shigenori Takechi of IZO incorporated these philosophical questions into his screenplay. Ten Shimoyama of Shinobi turned it into stylish and punk cinematic entertainment.

Where does love and lust lead you…if you never die? What destiny awaits an immortal? Is there a destination for immortal love and lust? Shigenori Takechi of IZO incorporated these philosophical questions into his screenplay. Ten Shimoyama of Shinobi turned it into stylish and punk cinematic entertainment.

Tôyama, a weak-willed businessman, is in debt to the Yakuza; they also have a video of him bribing a government minister. To clear his debts, he agrees to let them drug and kidnap his wife Shizuko, Japan's queen of the tango, and subject her to the proclivities of a 95-year-old voyeur, who's a Yakuza boss. After a masked ball, Shizuko is taken prisoner; she fights her captors, submitting only when the life of Kyôko, her female bodyguard, is threatened. Tôyama feels regret and seeks to buy back Shizuko, but by this time, she may be enjoying her situation. Is she, or is she pretending in order to protect herself and Kyôko? Would she want a way out if there is one?

In the years following the World War Two, Japan developed one of the most insatiable, dynamic and diverse markets for jazz. For a crucial period of little over a decade - from the late 1960s to the early 1980s - Japanese jazz culture progressed at an astonishing rate, producing an extraordinary array of artists, recordings and record labels that created some of the most forward thinking and impressive jazz to be committed to tape. This amazing journey is explored on ‘J Jazz’.