Defenders of Oshima’s sexually explicit depiction of an obsessive relationship argue that it is a pure, uncomplicated, and therefore challenging depiction of love fully unleashed from social conformity and moral complications. The problem is that the film works only as an experiment in cinema as social rebellion; it is a perfect test case, and it bears out Oshima’s insistence on the need for taboo breaking. As a narrative, though, the film doesn’t work at all because there is none. Its momentum is driven entirely by the characters’ increasingly intense sexual experiences, which quickly become as monotonous as bluenoses accuse them of being prurient. (DVD)