Kôji Wakamatsu's "A Pool Without Water" tells the story of a frustrated ticket-puncher(Yuya Uchida)who works on the Tokyo underground.During one rainy night he saves a woman from being gang-raped by two attackers.But he can't impress women,so he gets a large amount of chloroform and starts stalking various girls including his favourite waitress named Nerika.First he sprays their rooms with chloroform making them unconscious and then rapes them.He prepares breakfasts for Nerika after raping her."A Pool Without Water" is a surprisingly gentle pinku drama in comparison to various other pinku eiga/Roman Porno/violent pink movies of 70's and early 80's.The acting is pretty believable and the story is captivating.8 Polaroids out of 10.
3 Reviews
Frustrated middle aged man takes it out on sleeping women
ebiros221 June 2011
This movie based on an actual event that occurred in Japan, is in the vein of Michael Douglas' "Falling Down" except that the character instead of using violence, takes it out on women that he subdues.
The man (Yuya Uchida) is a ticket puncher working for the Japanese railway. He has a dead end job and a wife that hounds him when he goes home. One day he saves Jun (Mie) from getting raped. He sneaks into her house few days later but gets discovered. Again few days later, as he's watching his son subduing an insect using chemical gets an idea to subdue women while they're sleeping so he won't be discovered while he sneaks into their home. He goes out and buys Chloroform to use to this end and puts together a gear so he himself won't be affected. He first uses this on Jun while she's sleeping, and later on Nerika (Reiko Nakamura) to relieve his frustration. His life if not already at a low point, from that point starts to take a further downward spiral.
For a movie with rather an underground theme, the cast and crew are all star quality. Many of the celebrities then who are still active today appears in this movie. Relative new comer Reiko Nakamura takes the center stage as the interest of the man. Her beauty is the key for this movie's success.
Yuya Uchida plays the role of frustrated middle aged man, and he expresses pathos that is perfect for this part. Interesting plot, and the motive of the man makes this movie one of a kind cult classic.
The man (Yuya Uchida) is a ticket puncher working for the Japanese railway. He has a dead end job and a wife that hounds him when he goes home. One day he saves Jun (Mie) from getting raped. He sneaks into her house few days later but gets discovered. Again few days later, as he's watching his son subduing an insect using chemical gets an idea to subdue women while they're sleeping so he won't be discovered while he sneaks into their home. He goes out and buys Chloroform to use to this end and puts together a gear so he himself won't be affected. He first uses this on Jun while she's sleeping, and later on Nerika (Reiko Nakamura) to relieve his frustration. His life if not already at a low point, from that point starts to take a further downward spiral.
For a movie with rather an underground theme, the cast and crew are all star quality. Many of the celebrities then who are still active today appears in this movie. Relative new comer Reiko Nakamura takes the center stage as the interest of the man. Her beauty is the key for this movie's success.
Yuya Uchida plays the role of frustrated middle aged man, and he expresses pathos that is perfect for this part. Interesting plot, and the motive of the man makes this movie one of a kind cult classic.
Meh
the-antichrist-is-near5 March 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Great acting, along with nice pacing of the movie.
Sadly, just that doesn't always make a great movie. There is rather little background on the main characters and a lot of time 'wasted' on the weird pool thing. I'm sure it's a reference or metaphor I'm missing, but some more explanation on the pool and the roommate would've been nice.
The reaction of the lady at the end is something that might've been part of the original story, but that gives a little bit of a weird feeling to everything, along with how the protagonist just goes all out on his adventures eventually. Again, it might've been part of the original story, but it might've been nicer to see him stick with the 'girlfriend'. And even though that would've justified why he did what he did a little more, in the end the main feeling you're left with after watching is that it's just romanticizing r*pe. Altogether it makes it feel more like watching porn, than watching art house erotica...
Sadly, just that doesn't always make a great movie. There is rather little background on the main characters and a lot of time 'wasted' on the weird pool thing. I'm sure it's a reference or metaphor I'm missing, but some more explanation on the pool and the roommate would've been nice.
The reaction of the lady at the end is something that might've been part of the original story, but that gives a little bit of a weird feeling to everything, along with how the protagonist just goes all out on his adventures eventually. Again, it might've been part of the original story, but it might've been nicer to see him stick with the 'girlfriend'. And even though that would've justified why he did what he did a little more, in the end the main feeling you're left with after watching is that it's just romanticizing r*pe. Altogether it makes it feel more like watching porn, than watching art house erotica...
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