“Bakushi” means “rope master” in Japanese, and this new documentary by Ryuchi Hikori focuses on three Japanese men who, through their fame and many years of expertise as erotic rope bondage practitioners, may have earned that title: Chimuo Nureki, Haruki Yukimura, and Go Arisue.
Each man’s models are also interviewed. Taeko Uzuki may be the most intriguing of them all. She sports a full back (and buttock) tattoo, an alarming scar along her jawline, and an articulate and thoughtful demeanor. I would have loved to watch a whole documentary focusing on her, to be frank.
But for the most part, talking to the bondage masters produces little insight. There are no revelations of technique ‒ you won’t learn how to tie someone up from what’s shown here. In addition, only a sketchy history of modern rope bondage erotica is offered; a wider history of rope bondage in Japanese history and culture is not even touched upon. The bulk of the movie is taken up, then, with watching the masters tie and untie their models.
Of the masters, Haruki Yukimura comes across as the warmest and most experienced. “I used to tie women as objects,” he admits, but says he prefers working collaboratively with his models now. His ties are quite intense and erotic. Many rope bondage sessions in other movies come across as technically accomplished but passionless; Haruki’s are technically complex and full of feeling both.
Go Arisue’s work (with the aforementioned Taeko) is more detached, but also more strenuous. He likes to kick the feet out from under his model, leaving her gasping and swinging in the air.
This is not a movie for beginners. The director assumes that we have all seen these images before and are familiar with their context, which may be true for Japanese viewers but may leave the casual Western kinkster at sea. It must also be noted that the world of bondage in Japan is very patriarchal and sexist, and that the “safe, sane, consensual” way of life is not part of that culture. Listening to Go Arisue’s comments on how Mistresses are often secretly masochistic, for example, may anger some people; his ideas about the inherent death wish of all masochists may do the same.
The other secret is that all three of these men are essentially pornographers and career rope artists. They learned to tie for the camera (still and moving both), and that is their focus. This makes for a lovely movie, of course, but the focus is square on aesthetics ‒ the model’s expressions, her posture and body language. The film’s finale and set piece is a long photo session, with Chimuo Nureki acting as rigger, that certainly gives you a rare behind-the-scenes look at what a fetish shoot is really like, but here’s a clue ‒ listening to the director yell at his assistants to adjust lighting and props isn’t all that sexy, even when there’s a pretty girl suspended in the center of the action.
The bottom line: if you know you love shibari and want to see several beautifully shot, explicit scenes of women being tied in strenuous bondage, then seek this documentary out, but don’t expect much added value.
