Page 80 - Nightmare Japan Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema

Cultural Transformation 67

hidden beneath tight undergarments, while objects ranging from spittle-
wet mouths, to a samurai swords’ handle in silhouette, to Kitami’s
severed arm, variably function as visual surrogates for those
conspicuously prohibited portions of the human anatomy. Indeed,
Muscle’s narrative repeatedly broaches concerns surrounding the politics
of film censorship. Ryuzaki’s desire to view Pasolini’s Salò, for example,
is aggravated by his having been incarcerated during the film’s brief
theatrical run that, given the work’s explicit content, is not likely to be
repeated. ‘I want to ask you something,’ Ryuzaki writes to a friend living
in Italy. ‘I want to see “Salo”, the last film Pier Paolo Pasolini made. But
it’s not showing here, and there are no plans to bring it out on video
either’. Similarly, Ryuzaki’s inability to view the videocassette of Salò
his friend subsequently mails him speaks to Eirin’s rigid guidelines and
procedures: ‘They can’t transfer uncensored films,’ Ryuzaki explains
when asked if he has been able to convert the videocassette into a
viewable format.
Additionally, Sato’s use of low key and chiaroscuro lighting
5
effects throughout Muscle adheres to traditional pinku eiga and horror
film motifs. By carefully brightening certain portions of the frame while
confining others to shadow and darkness, Sato enhances moments of
erotic tension and dread, often within the very same sequence. Consider,
for instance, not only the ‘sadistic’ sexual encounter that precedes
Ryuzaki’s severing of Kitami’s arm, but also Sato’s depiction of
Ryuzaki’s surprisingly violent assault. In the former scene, Sato
illuminates Ryuzaki and Kitami’s erotic encounter in low key lighting, a
technique frequently deployed in horror films to heighten tension, and in
conventional ‘love-making sequences’ to amplify sexual intensity while,
paradoxically, obscuring the sexual act. Thus, the dominant mise-en-
scène casts the actors’ bodies almost entirely in silhouette. With the same
graceful fluidity of motion that accompanies his practiced affectations

5
Though heterosexual sexual practices dominate much of pinku eiga, homoerotic content is by
no means implicitly or explicitly absent from the genre. Examples of such films include
Nakamura Genji's Beautiful Mystery (Kyokon densetsu: utsukushii nazo, 1983), as well as Oki
Hiroyuki's Melody for Buddy Matsumae (Matsumae-kun no senritsu 1992) and I Like You, I
Like You Very Much (Anata-ga suki desu, dai suki desu, 1994).