Luxurious Bone

Isao Yukisado is a respected indie director of moody, indie films about the human condition. Watching Luxurious Bone, I can see why his work has a fan base. There’s a lot of talent in Yukisado’s ability to set atmosphere and mood. Frankly, this is a movie I wish I enjoyed more. I can see lots of positives about it. But sometimes there’s a gulf between watching a movie as a general thing and watching a sapphic movie. Luxurious Bone works as an overall movie. But if you watch it as I did, with a focus towards the sapphic element, the film will likely disappoint.

For over an hour into Luxurious Bone, I thought that this movie might not even be a WLW film. Luxurious Bone focuses on two female roommates, Miyako and Sakkiko. Miyako works as a sex worker. One day, she has a new client named Shintani who is awkward but polite with her. Miyako ends up experiencing her first orgasm with Shintani. When she recounts this to Sakkiko, Sakkiko takes the lead in finding Shintani and basically, going on a date with him along with Shintani. Shintani and Miyako continue a non-transactional sexual relationship. This ends up causing Sakkiko to feel jealous and left out. Now basically living with both women, Shintani also has sex with Sakkiko who is overcoming a history of childhood abuse.

The first hour or so of this movie was too focused on Shintani for me to be happy about. It seemed like the premise of the film was just these two ambiguous female roommates who couldn’t not fuck this random nice guy. Shintani is also usually positioned as the kindest, most rational of the three while Sakkiko and Miyaki display more flaws, especially when it comes to interpersonal relationships. And none of this is really what I’m looking for on my WLW film review website.

Finally, in the third act, the focus shifts back to Sakkiko and Miyaki’s relationship. And wouldn’t you know it, I really liked this bit of the movie! Their relationship is complex, sad, sweet and more than a little unhealthy. The time spent exploring this dynamic was time I really enjoyed the film. Luxurious Bone really came together for me by the end. But so much of the buildup was stuff that I was not interested in seeing.

Even in that first hour I didn’t like, there’s still a lot of good. Especially when it comes to mood and atmosphere. Yukisado is so good at a dang atmosphere. The control with which he shoots the contained, often claustrophobic apartment scenes really adds something. He’s also got an eye for visual metaphor. The three goldfish in a blender image might be on the nose, but it’s effective and integrated well. Luxurious Bone is at its best when it’s moody and melancholic. Which is most of the movie anyway.

Which Yukisado shows a lot of talent as a director, I just straight-up didn’t like the focus of this particular story of his. I wasn’t ever able to get over the concept of guy who makes a sex worker orgasm so then she and her roommate just have to fuck him. Yes, the story expands on this plot. We get character development and good visual storytelling. But I still found these first two acts a frustrating watch. It’s a wholly subjective critique, as proven by how much I enjoyed the film when the focus went to the two women instead of Shintani. As ever, no review is objective and certainly not mine. While Yukisado is a talented director, I’ve basically enjoyed all other Japanese movies about female roommates I’ve seen more than Luxurious Bone.

Overall rating: 4.9/10

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