60
Although the movie drags, Okuda (who also directed) makes for a gloriously bad lieutenant, while Ozawa is enjoyably discomfiting in her unblushing carnality.
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What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
60
Los Angeles Times by Kevin Thomas
Decidedly uneven yet intriguing.
50
The New York Times by Lawrence Van Gelder
The film, at least 20 minutes too long, has too many competing story lines to succeed as more than an oddball mood piece.
50
TV Guide Magazine by Maitland McDonagh
Suicide, child molestation, corruption, insanity and the faintest implication of incest are wound around the film's suggestion that the cure for modern-day alienation and anomie lies in embracing traditional Japanese culture, like ritual tattooing.
70
Okuda creates that slightly surreal atmosphere of ghost-town emptiness that will be familiar to fans of Takeshi Miike, but he infuses it with a romantic's sense of deep yearning.
50
The A.V. Club by Tasha Robinson
The problem is that both as a director and as an actor, Okuda never makes a particularly convincing case either for sex or for deeper commitment as a road away from the abyss.
50
Okuda's debut behind the camera, Shoujyo, is a dirty old man's delight: schoolgirls galore in short skirts or, in Yoko's case, nothing at all. That may be enough for some viewers, but not for those who insist on a story that gives substance to its characters.