Aki(Mako Midori)is a famous model for an artist who frames her in all forms of sadomasochism such as being nude within tied ropes and buckled chains. A friend of that artist actually sculpted Aki's body with which, through gossip, beckons a blind sculptor to the gallery. Aki finds this man, Michio(Eiji Funakoshi), fondling the statue with extreme delicacy, touching every part with passion and care. Later, Michio uses a false identity in getting a job as a masseuse so that he can get into Aki's apartment. As he massages her, Michio can not resist groping her private no-no areas and is told to leave. What Aki doesn't expect is Michio using a drug to knock her out as his mother assists in a kidnapping. Aki awakes inside Michio's own personal gallery where plaster casts of body parts, he has felt through various encounters with women, protrude from the walls creating a creepy surreal landscape. Aki tries desperately to escape, but the only door is locked and encased with iron. She will not be allowed to leave unless she poses for what he confirms will be his greatest sculpted work..he wishes to feel her body inch for inch and sculpt it. Aki simply wishes to leave, but even when she almost escapes his clutches, Michio's mother(Noriko Sengoku)prevents her from fleeing. Seeing very few chances for freedom besides being his model, Aki will use manipulation, through sexual advances to virginal Michio(while also tapping into the mother's obsessive love for her son, the only male she has had close contact with over the years)to separate the son from his mother. Mother loathes Aki and sees her as nothing but a slutty harlot who uses her nakedness for greedy pay-off. Aki still just wishes to leave, but Michio slowly grows more and more obsessed with her pushing away the mother who has taken care of a blind child by herself for many, many years. The shattered relationship ends in a scuffle and tragedy as the mother tries to kill Aki with Michio interfering.
The more notorious portion of the film is the last 30 minutes as Aki will be raped and sodomized by a vengeful, heartbroken Michio who realizes that his beloved model was merely deceiving him so that his relationship with mother would deteriorate offering her a possibility of escape. Not allowing Aki to leave, they slowly bond through animalistic, continual sex which descends more and more into sadomasochism and violent depravity..or as Aki put it, "..descent into a nonhuman abyss." It starts through biting into each other's skin, grows into being tied up by rope and whipped, before descending into bruising and knife-stabbing. They even drink each other's blood from the knife-wounds. But, the magic of this disturbing tale is that director Yasuzo Masumura doesn't really show you anything much..he uses the sounds of the objects hitting and penetrating the flesh creating the act in your own mind. Seeing somewhat normal people grow more and more mad(Aki even goes blind!)through the pleasures of pain as they stretch the boundaries of what the human anatomy can take is the raw power of this film. The warehouse gallery is quite a bizarre, unusual, yet poetic setting for this groundbreaking masterwork.
The more notorious portion of the film is the last 30 minutes as Aki will be raped and sodomized by a vengeful, heartbroken Michio who realizes that his beloved model was merely deceiving him so that his relationship with mother would deteriorate offering her a possibility of escape. Not allowing Aki to leave, they slowly bond through animalistic, continual sex which descends more and more into sadomasochism and violent depravity..or as Aki put it, "..descent into a nonhuman abyss." It starts through biting into each other's skin, grows into being tied up by rope and whipped, before descending into bruising and knife-stabbing. They even drink each other's blood from the knife-wounds. But, the magic of this disturbing tale is that director Yasuzo Masumura doesn't really show you anything much..he uses the sounds of the objects hitting and penetrating the flesh creating the act in your own mind. Seeing somewhat normal people grow more and more mad(Aki even goes blind!)through the pleasures of pain as they stretch the boundaries of what the human anatomy can take is the raw power of this film. The warehouse gallery is quite a bizarre, unusual, yet poetic setting for this groundbreaking masterwork.