One afternoon, Shiori, an attractive and promiscuous young woman working in a café, is riding her bicycle. She cuts off Kosuke who is pulling a two-wheeled cart. Once a recognised playwright, Kosuke now leads a quiet life in a mountain hut, far away from the city, in the hope of escaping his past. But after their first encounter, he will soon be caught in Shiori’s web of sexual desires.
"To shoot with freedom, it often means you have to make works at a low budget. For that to take place I often try and come up with ideas that only involve one or two characters. Another reason is that when you’re depicting human relationships you can go the emotional route, and at times when you do put into play sort of power relationships, one is an authoritative figure that’s in some way manipulative … things like S&M sort of relationships. These on the one hand are sort of personal and intimate stories between two people, but on the other hand they can sort of broaden the perspective through this microcosm to bring in societal issues. And suddenly a small story becomes something that speaks of an entire society and how it functions."
(Akihiko Shiota)
Akihiko Shiota
Born in Kyoto, Japan, Shiota Akihiko began making 8-mm films with Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Kunitoshi Manda while studying at the Rikkyo University. He then studied screenwriting under Atsushi Yamatoya and directed two features in 1999: Moonlight Whispers and Don’t Look Back that screened at major international festivals and earned their maker international recognition.