Skinless Night

The original Japanese poster was a minor classic: a 'model family' (husband, wife and child) poses for the camera in a Tokyo park, while three paces behind them stands a masked dominatrix in black latex and red spike heels. Skinless Night (which borrows its title from a best-selling brand of condoms) centres on the 33-year-old Kayama Mutsuro, who supports his wife, child and a small team of employees by making porn videotapes. It's a hard life. Profit margins are very low, the financier has his own troublesome ideas about the kind of tape he wants produced, the company office is not an ideal environment for child-minding, and the job constantly throws up new challenges - like shopping for bondage gear or devising the special visual effects for a 'golden shower' scene. On top of everything else, Kayama is heading for a mid-life crisis. The rediscovery of his unfinished student film crystallises his general sense of dissatisfaction, and leads him to rethink his life and work. To the dismay of his wife and crew, he takes off for a hot-spring resort to write the 'serious' script he's sure he has in him.Mochizuki's quasi-autobiographical début feature observes both the workings of the porn sub-culture and the spiritual problems of its central character with engaging insight and wry humour. The film reaches the wise conclusion that pragmatism will win out over idealism every time. (Tony Rayns)