(star)(star) 1/2
`Moonlight Whispers” is a Japanese film about teenage lovers that starts out engagingly and then suddenly turns so kinky you’d have to classify it as a kind of soft-core pornography. Written and directed by first-time filmmaker Akihiko Shiota, and starring the very photogenic couple Kenji Mizuhashi and Tsugumi — as bent young lovers Takuya and Satsuki — the movie is about a nice young middle-class boy who turns into a fetishist and a nice young girl who turns into a dominatrix. Does that make the film an Asian variant on “American Beauty?” Unfortunately not. These kids are so sweet looking, so seemingly empty of the dark passions that might explain their evolution into an S/M team, that the story seems lewdly contrived, like a De Sade tale of good girls despoiled.
Shiota is a natural filmmaker with a gift for atmosphere, and “Whispers” starts out very well, with quietly evocative scenes showing the pair at a kendo (martial arts) school. Shy Takuya, who adores dark-banged Satsuki, has been accumulating photos and keepsakes of her, some stolen from her locker, and — confessing his love one day as they amble home — he finds her surprisingly receptive. She consummates their first passion while he lies sick in bed with a cold (this seems a better remedy than chicken soup). But Satsuki becomes incensed when she discovers her stolen sock in his mattress and, in his locked desk, the photos, keepsakes and even audio tapes taken secretly in the girls’ restroom. “Pervert!” she yells, running out. But soon she attracts another lover, brash kendo teacher Tadashi Uematsu (Kota Kusano) and makes love to him while allowing Takuya to hide in her bedroom armoire and watch. In between, she demands doglike devotion from her groveling ex-beau. (“Fetch!” becomes their catch phrase.)
Does one punish a pervert by becoming even more perverted? “Moonlight Whispers” might have worked well if, as in Bunuel’s films, we could sense the twisted forces driving this pair. But, up to the end, they simply seem a pair of sweet, naive, pretty young Japanese teenagers, unaccountably trapped in soft-core shtick. I kept hoping this story (adapted from a Japanese comic strip) was some bizarre dream, but it stays real to the climax, which is a real howler. “Moonlight Whispers” reminds us that some Japanese filmmakers, like Nagisa Oshima (“In the Realm of the Senses”), have raised movie eroticism to the level of art. “Whispers,” though, is just a nice-looking bedroom armoire fantasy.
———-
“Moonlight Whispers” plays at Facets Multimedia, 1517 W. Fullerton Ave. For times and tickets, call 773-281-4114. Running time: 1:40. No MPAA rating (adult: sensuality).
