On May 30, 2023, Shura: Rope Sisters (しゅら -縄の姉妹-), a film directed by Tohjiro, premiered at the Theater Guild Daikanyama in Tokyo, continuing his attempt to build bridges between the most extreme porn and independent auteur cinema.
The term shura (しゅら) is translated here as “drama,” in the sense of emotional conflict.
Plot
Two sisters grow up in a family devoted to bondage and SM. Their father was a rigger and their mother worked as a model; the two traveled all over the country with sadomasochistic shows.
When she was young, Hana, the elder sister, was tied by her father and they had sexual relations, while the younger sister, Aya, watched them from a distance with admiration.
The mother’s suicide was followed by the break-up of the family: the sisters drifted apart and from then on led diametrically opposed lives.
Hana chose to take on all the responsibility herself and look after her father without ever having contact with the world of bondage again. Aya, for her part, became a regular at SM clubs, where she would meet her fiancé, Satoshi. A few hours after she introduced him to Hana, Satoshi mysteriously disappeared.
The self-sacrificing elder sister and the free-spirited younger one. Like oil and water, bound together forever by the ties of rope.
Director’s comment
…in this film, Shura, I really wanted to shoot the story of a family that cannot live without sadomasochism and bondage. — Tohjiro
Review
Adapted from the review written by film critic Kiridoshi Risaku.
Before he became known for his SM-themed adult productions, Tohjiro had found international success with Gondola (ゴンドラ, 1987), a drama that follows the encounter between a city girl and a young man from the countryside, and their personal journey against the backdrop of two families.
Since then, Tohjiro has devoted himself almost exclusively to producing adult content, away from commercial distribution circuits. For some time there had been rumors that he planned to leave the adult sector, especially because of Japanese legislation, which limits the profitability and production capacity of the porn industry.
In this context, Shura is a commercial film that presents the world of SM, adult cinema and nightclubs with realism and rawness: a bid to move between both worlds.
According to the director himself, “there is no reason I should have to drop the ‘porn’ label just because it is a (commercial) film.” Kiridoshi considers this statement risky since, in his view, the genre is being persecuted by “social justice”: anything immoral, hurtful or violent is not allowed.
At this point, we should reflect on what happens to SM, then. Is it simply violence and abuse? Does consent make a difference?
With Shura, Tohjiro plunges us right into this debate. He does not shy away from physical expressions of pain, but also shows emotional violence, and forces us to consider the value of our moral limits. And he does so by showing something as everyday as the family in contrast with the most extreme sadomasochism: like oil and water.
The drift of our society, the inexorability of fate, the masks we live with and with which we try to recreate our childhood dreams… these are the themes Tohjiro tackles in this film.
The elder sister, played by Kanno Hana (神納花), has accepted her father’s karma, and her aggression is terrible. The younger sister, played by Shiomi Aya (塩見彩), has the greatness to try to embody her father’s karma in that very moment. The intensity of the different stages of its manifestation intertwines.
Visually, the film seeks symbolism and contrasts the luminosity of exposed skin with the darkness of the surroundings. The rain scene, in which both sisters seem to return to childhood and quench their inner hell, is beautiful and overwhelming.
For Kiridoshi, at a time when moralistic discourses seem to dominate the whole world, Shura is a protest against the globalist moral standard.
EN