Ai no shinsekai

Nobuyoshi Araki is one of Japan's leading photographers. His photos woven throughout the film were a highlight to me.

Sawa Suzuki was Rei, an aspiring actress who made money as a dominatrix while she worked on getting parts. Beats waiting tables, I would imagine.

Reiko Kataoka is Ayumi, who pretends to be an underage prostitute (the middle aged men like that) to save money to get married to her boyfriend, who is trying to get into medical school (he doesn't know what she does).

Rei and Ayumi become friends, so we experience their lives outside of work. It is not a picture of Japan that is familiar. They could be girls out for a good time in any major city. In fact, you could call them BFFs and look upon this as a chick flick were it not for the sex. I would guess that females aged 18-29 would give it the highest ratings.

Not being overly familiar with domination, I found that part very interesting. That businessmen and even Yakuza could subject themselves to humiliation to reduce stress was fascinating.