Ayumi Yajima Movies

This unfortunately titled work is a critically acclaimed look at sexual abuse, based on the real-life experiences of comic book artist Shungiku Uchida, as told in her controversial best-seller. When the young Shizuko (Mami Nakamura) learns that she is pregnant after an encounter with a classmate, her thuggish stepfather (Michio Akiyama) rapes her as punishment. Soon such abuse becomes routine, as her mother (Kaori Momoi), a vampish club singer, roils in spite: her silence allows the atrocities to continue. Shizuko begins to retreat into her own internal world, fuelling her surreal, hallucinatory cartoons. Shizuko's stepfather is portrayed as a stereotypical chauvinist autocrat who demands that the women around him service his every whim, but who also has a freakish devotion to polishing the refrigerator into a shiny white sheen. This film was directed by first-time director and long-time independent producer Genjiro Arato. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi