Japan Flix: 'Shisei: The Tatooer'

Through partnerships with various Japanese distribution companies, we strive to make a wide variety of films accessible to US audiences as conveniently as possible. Each of our titles is available to rent or own through iTunes, and viewable on any iTunes-friendly device.

There are plans to expand to other platforms of digital distribution; hopefully soon enough that you will be able to play any Japan Flix film on any digital media device or straight to your television. 

Seizou, a tattoo artist, dreams of creating lasting works of art that exist long after he passes. One day, he sees the perfect canvas: the unblemished back of a female grad student. A genius in color theory, the young woman studies and experiments with block printing. Seizou kidnaps her, holding her captive in order to carve his artwork into her skin. But the allure of her prints and his enchanting ink-work slowly transform her. She begins to long for his touch. Wanting to surpass the work of his father, Seizou imprints the image of an ancient Japanese princess on her bare skin. But as the tattoo transforms their relationship, their dynamic is reversed, and they become intertwined in an shared destiny.

It is no wonder that a film made by one of the "Four Heavenly Kings of Pink", director Hisayasu Sato, feels very much like a Pinku film without the implicit sexuality. The film's amazingly short run time [72 minutes!?!] by Japanese film standards either reflects Sato's own attention span, dictated after shooting so many Pinku films - not too many of them extended beyond that 1 hour mark - or the screenwriter's acknowledgement that the film is based on a short story and it was best not to try to go beyond that narrative. The conversation between a captor and his victim can only wax philosophical for so long before the deed must be done. Shisei is almost voyeuristic and at times feels very much like a Tsukamoto film between these layers of obsession, eroticism and horror.