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Revenge and Technology Collide in Sato's Twisted Thriller
"People who did bad things should experience bad things." That line, delivered late in the film by the protagonist, Hiromi Minami (Kasumi Yuga), defines the extent of plot in this above average Hisayasu Sato production. Hiromi is a freelance writer who visits an experimental counseling center to gather material for an article, but instead becomes a patient. The center uses "brain massage system Andromeda 001" to help her relieve overwhelming stress, guilt, and personality problems electronically. The brain massage technician's evaluation of Hiromi includes insights concerning "Her rage, suffering and hate against many things in her life." But she continues to get treated, with the side effect of a wholesale personality change. "This is the real me," she declares, as she goes on a rampage not to kill but punish people that anger her, such as a cigarette-smoking model, a married ex-boyfriend, and a few women that annoy her. The premise gives director Sato a context for extended scenes of vengeful sex and violence, in which the weapons of choice include electrocution and an assortment of sex toys put to deadly use, such as a large vibrator (apropos of the film's English title, SYMBOL OF RELEASE). The familiar theme of vigilante justice is reworked to subvert the cliches of Japanese cinema "heroes" who employ sexual assault as corrective justice. Likewise, the brain massage's technology frees Hiromi beyond the limits of sexuality and gender, which Sato overworks with scenes like sex with a hammer and Hiromi's habit of dressing as a man during the punishment sequences. The character's madness gradually leads to a satisfactory but horrifying finale.
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- jfrentzen-942-204211
- Nov 26, 2023
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