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Murakakmi's Tokyo Decadence starts out powerfully with an unflinching look at the shifts put in as a 'Delivery Health' (as these women get called in 21s century Japan) by hooker-with-a-heart-of-gold, Miho Nikaido. The crisp colours, seductive light and slowly dollying camera give a high productive sheen to the mesmerising scenes of Nikaido being humiliated by a Yakuza couple, then assisting a dominatrix in the wished-for degradation of one of her regular johns.Murakami seems to be highlighting the amorality of Bubble-rich Japan, his characters speechifying against the 'real' whores in the corporate and government fields. The sexual and comedy elements are well-balanced, the highlight being the lost dildo in the toilet scene. Nikaido shows an impressive range, both vulnerable in and enraptured by her line of work. She also enlivens a long walk with a wild-eyed look she achieves in the film's final third.However, her performance cannot rescue the meandering, insipid final episode when Nikaido goes in search of her true love. The introduction of a 'courage' pill is a clumsy plot device. The final section lacks clarity, and even continuity seems to be a minor concern. It is as if Murakami, having established his world so finely in the first half, is now at a loss regarding what he wants to say about it. A series of episodic and uninspiring tableaux plays out, the slightly surreal elements being the only thing that stops it from descending into an old-fashioned morality tale.Tokyo Decadence is a film of two halves, with the director only trying in the first.
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