Passion for perversion: Sasayaki / Moonlight Whispers (1999)

My first impression of Akihiko Shiota's Moonlight Whispers was that it was going to be a sweet, coming-of-age love story between two high school friends. (But of course, I wouldn't take the time to write this if it were simply that.) Their romance quickly turns sour once the female lead, Satsuki, played by Tsugami, opens a drawer in Hidaka's (Kenji Mizuhashi) room to discover it filled with personal paraphernalia belonging to herself: soiled underwear, discarded tissue paper, socks and a tape recording of her taking a piss. Shocked, she calls him a 'hentai' (i.e. pervert) and calls it quits.


We quickly realize that timid Hidaka is happier loving her from afar, although he is still far from happy and repeatedly confuses love, worship and suffering. At one point, he quietly confesses to her, "I am your dog" - and Satsuki takes up the challenge of being his master. Thus begins an intensily sadomasochistic and erotic relationship between the two exlovers. Hidaka is motivated the pleasure he derives from simply being near her while Satsuki is spurned on by her shock at discovering his true nature.

She begins subjecting him to intense emotional and physical torture, including kicking his genitals repeatedly, forcing him to watch her making love to another man and lick her dirty feet and sweat, and crushing his fingers under her heeled shoes. She finally makes a test of his love with his life. Satsuki realizes that she enjoys the power she has over his psyche and behaviour even if it means exercising that power to the point of hurting everyone around her. As much as Satsuki brands Hidaka a pervert, she, too, is one insofar as we consider her unablility to stop her participation in his perversity. In fact, she propels it to greater heights by giving him mini exercises in sadomasochism and in doing so encourages his idolatry for her.

On the whole, the film is mostly quiet. Kenji Mizuhashi and Tsugami deliver stunning performances but manage to do this, somehow, without raising their voices. The surface is hushed and never betrays the deep intensity of emotions that lies frothing just beyond the periphery of dialogue. The final scene is a testimony to the ambiguity of tension. As she sits on an open field, Hidaka limps over in crutches and a broken leg to deliver her requested can of ginger ale (and she flippantly rejects it for the second time). Touching, poignant and deeply aware of the many contradictions that riddle the human condition, these are the films cinema is made for.