A Night in Nude (1993) [Film Review]

A Night in Nude; or, Life on Lease
      Whatever it is, we do it for you, so you don’t have to do it.
The late Takashi Ishii is one of the few Japanese directors that never won me over, mainly because of the fact that the genre he specialises in was never right up my alley. Erotic crime thrillers and straight up exploitation flicks are just too much for me, but I decided to give the director a chance when I found out about A Night in Nude, starring one of my fave veteran actors out there: Naoto Takenaka.

Release Info

Directed by: Takashi Ishii Starring: Naoto Takenaka, Kimiko Yo, Kippei Shiina

Language: Japanese Original Title: ヌードの夜 Runtime: 110 min

Synopsis
Jiro (Naoto Takenaka) is a guy for hire. He basically serves as a stand-in at events which nobody wants to attend, but he will do any kind of job for money. One day, his agency is visited by a woman called Nami Tsuchiya (Kimiko Yo). She hires Jiro to be her tour guide in Tokyo. The next day, Jiro receives a phone call instructing him to visit Nami’s room in a hotel and clean it up. When Jiro arrives, he discovers that there is a dead body in a bathtub…

The Days of Being Prosperous
A Night in Nude is, thankfully, more of a crime flick than pinku production; however, it does contain a fair share of NSFW sequences, especially in the third act. On the whole, the movie feels very neo-noir with its dense atmosphere, night scenes, and just breathtaking cinematography that captured the image of post-Bubble Japan. You could literally frame all the master shots from the film and hang them on your wall.

Come to think of it, the story of A Night in Nude is a social commentary on the situation of Japan in the 1990s. Jiro is a man without a purpose who lives in a country that desperately wants to keep up appearances of glamour and lavish lifestyle, but the whole thing is an illusion because they are living on a lease, borrowing stuff rather than paying for it.

This is very much the case with femme fatale of the picture, Nami, who desperately tries to breakaway from the roots in poverty and criminal underworld to finally become a respectable member of the fake society. However, what she does in order to fulfil her dream only consumes her morality, in a very Dostoevsky-like manner.

With regard to performances, it is a weird experience for me watching young Naoto Takenaka in action, but he effortlessly portrays a sympathetic guy who is knee-deep in an affair that is beyond his professional expertise. Kimiko Yo is absolutely outstanding in the role of a tragic woman who commits a crime. It is a real shame that this actress gets mainly supporting roles nowadays. Kippei Shiina is, unfortunately, unconvincing as a homosexual yakuza sidekick. Jinpachi Nezu is okay as the villain of the picture, but his screen time is limited.

Recommendations
All things considered, I do not regret watching this film. It was an interesting experience indeed, but I think the movie would have been better had the last 20 minutes got cut. Sadly, this final section of the film only washes over a satisfying resolution and provides only the shock value. Then again, cinematography in the film is just beautiful. Interestingly, Ishii made a sequel to this film 17 years later called A Night in Nude: Salvation (2010). So I may give it a try, just to see my boy Naoto Takenaka in noir action again.Overall score: 7/10

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