Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

TeenzTen An action-packed slog

Dynamixor The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

Brennan Camacho Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.

Claudio Carvalho In Tokyo, Rinko Tatsumi (Asuka Kurosawa) is a married woman that works in the County Mental Help Center helping needy people. Her husband Shigehiko (Yuji Koutari) is an old man obsessed with cleaning and they have a quite inexistent sexual life, sleeping in separate bed. Out of the blue, Rinko receives an envelope with erotic pictures she took once in the past while modeling and a cellular. She receives a phone call and the man blackmails her, promising to give the negatives to her if she follows his instructions. She is forced to wear miniskirt without panties; to buy a vibrator and use it, walking and exposing to costumers of a department store. The man delivers her photos and tells that he is Iguchi (Shinya Tsukamoto), who is dying of stomach cancer that was saved by her advice; in return he asks her to go to her doctor. Rinko realizes that she has breast cancer and needs to remove one breast. When she tells Shigehiko, he gives a cold reception to the idea. Then the blackmailer contacts Shigehiko, forcing him to follow his instructions. "Rokugatsu no Hebi", a.k.a. "A Snake of June", is a surrealistic erotic movie that follows the style of David Lynch, with bizarre sequences and characters. This is the first work of the director Shinya Tsukamoto that I have watched and this is the type of "love or hate" cult-movie. The stylish cinematography uses blue filter in the rainy season of Tokyo, giving the mood of sadness and nightmarish atmosphere to the weird story. Asuka Kurosawa is absolutely sexy breathing eroticism in the sequences that she follows the instructions of the blackmailer. There are many metaphoric scenes without explanation, but I believe that the major idea of the story is that life is to be lived in its plenitude since we may die on the next minute of our existence. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): Not Available

DICK STEEL Written, directed and starring Shinya Tsukamoto, A Snake in June is a strange, twisted tale of voyeurism that somehow did things correctly enough to warrant an improvement to the quality of the victims' life! You read me right there, because the turmoil experienced somehow brought about some positive change, but not before an exercise in exploitation gets its proper dues paid on screen.We're introduced to a soap operatic perfect couple, or so it seems, where they nary quarrel and go about doing their respective chores when at home, with the husband seemingly a cleanliness freak, because early in the story we always see him hovered over something to scrub. Everyone's wearing a smile, but there's something quite plasticky about the way they interact, almost devoid of genuine, sincere emotion, and definitely lacking in passion.The wife, Rinko (Asuka Kurosawa) is a short haired sassy-looking lass who works as a counsellor manning a help hotline. Talking someone out of suicide, she preaches about living life to the maximum, which somehow stinks of hypocrisy because of her acceptance of mediocrity in her own married life, which we learn she's yearning for something physical, and had to resort to pleasuring herself. And as if to teach her a lesson to walk the talk, she receives an anonymous package containing a cellphone, and photographs of her in various states of undress and compromising positions.Blackmailed, the caller's purpose became something of her awakening to the truth, as Shinya Tsukamoto puts his character through micro-mini skirts, stank toilets as well as being soaked through plenty of rain, all in all to play up the missing component of Rinko's life, where she needed probing (pardon the pun) to fully explore and understand what she was missing in having to play out her wildest fantasy for someone unknown who's watching her from some hidden angle.And when you thought that everything's fine and dandy when Rinko does to the T what she was blackmailed to do, the narrative shifted from her to her husband, and then on to a combination of the couple with the perpetrator who now seemed more like a benefactor in opening up closed doors and opportunities to their personal desires.It's a strange tale indeed lensed throughout under blue monochrome, that balanced some exploitative moments with a story set to titillate and with the realization of the missing component to the jigsaw of domestic affairs.

christopher-underwood Only after I had watched this fascinating and powerful film did I realise this was the 'Tetsuo' man. I have yet to see any of the more well known ones but will certainly now pluck up the courage to investigate. Generally considered to be atypical of his work his cinematic eye and confidence are nevertheless all too apparent. Sometimes a little confusing but always compelling. Difficult to describe in a few words and whilst I can understand it being referred to as the director's only venture into erotic cinema, that is in itself rather misleading. It is true that the, tremendously well played, leading lady's sexuality is central to the film's theme but Tsukamoto takes us well beyond this. In fact half way through the film lurches to give us a totally different angle on the main protagonist's lives and we temporarily struggle, as do they, to catch up with events. Shot in a magical, bluish black and white this is a mighty cinematic achievement that must be seen again - soon!

nebelreich Having read the review of Chris-123, I almost skipped this movie expecting something like "Monster" or "Irreversible". None of his references rang a bell so, hopefully, they give a better they give a better impression of Snake of June. Fortunately, my curiosity took over and I went ahead seeing the movie... It crackles with tension -between and within each of the three Characters. Although much of this tension is based on unfulfilled sexual desires, it does not go beyond showing flesh as in most current Hollywood mass productions. Neither did I find it repulsive or threatening. You will get involved with this movie, with the portrayed characters, with the acting, the scenes and, indeed, the rain. Although the blackmailing at start seems to be very humiliating and inhumane, it seems to fix the marriage of the victim in the end. Drastic means, no doubt but on a far lower scale than what I had expected.Go ahead, watch it. It will make you think.