ΒιΆΉΤΌΕΔ

"An immoral tale that would make the juices flow in the mouth," was how director Shinya Tsukamoto originally conceived of "A Snake of June".

Set during Japan's rainy season, this erotic thriller has been one of the filmmaker's pet projects for over ten years. Now that he's finally made it, it's turned into a far darker, and far more disturbing, slice of fantasy-porn than anyone expected.

The life of phone counsellor Rinko (Asuka Kurosawa) is thrown into confusion after she receives a package containing photographs of herself masturbating (don't you just hate it when that happens?).

Desperate not to let her stressed-out, much older husband (Yuji Kohtari) find out about them, she's blackmailed by a mysterious stranger (director Shinya Tsukamoto himself). Before she knows what's happening, he's ordered her out into the city with a mobile phone and a remote control vibrator, on a terrifying journey of sexual discovery.

Although it's distinctly kinky, Tsukamoto's film is no cheap exploitation thriller. Filmed in electric blue-tinted monochrome and set in a rain-drenched city of subway stations and alleyways, this forms a stylish return to the filmmaker's most obsessive themes.

Focusing on the perversity - and pleasure - of the flesh, "A Snake of June" recasts the body horror of "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" and "Tetsuo: Body Hammer", with some of the sexual obsessions of Tsukamoto's last film, "Bullet Ballet". The result is a tense psychodrama.

Taking the role of Rinko's mysterious blackmailer, Tsukamoto proves not only his own investment in this tale of sexual fulfilment, but also his stunning ability to work on both sides of the camera (Japanese cinema fans may recognize him from Takashi Miike's "Ichi the Killer" and "Dead or Alive 2: Birds").

Where he really excels, though, is as cinematographer. He turns an anonymous city into a terrifying cyberpunk urban sprawl where Rinko's worst fears, and deepest desires, may yet be realized.

In Japanese with English subtitles.