FANTASIA 2021: Sexual Drive
FANTASIAIt is clear from the very beginning what Kōta Yoshida's anthology drama wants to be: the hope of creating an existential and provoking experience of the human spirits via sexual nature. To cut a long story short, Yoshida's film does not achieve what it aims to do thematically. Granted, it is a rich tapestry of performance, but dive any more profound, and Sexual Drive ultimately feels flat and uninspired.
It is the depth here that does not elevate the material. In fact, it is more or less nonexistent. It is clear that Yoshida wants to implore a fantastical and dream-like nature to proceedings, and it does, for the most part, feel present. However, deeper under the surface, Sexual Drive gets lost in tone and voice. It is never clear if Yoshida's film wants to dictate a subtext or a straightforward contextual flair – with the latter the undeniably seismic factor that takes precedent in proceedings.
Nevertheless, the uncomfortable and unnatural nature of its fairytale and dreamlike flavoring are wonderfully presented in the performance of Tateto Serizawa's Kurita. An unstoppable force of uncomfortable and invasive physicality that scares more than contemporary horror. The under-the-skin nature and unpredictability of such a performance undeniably crafts immersion and atmosphere to the overall experience. Yet, it is the substance of proceedings that sadly feel redundant and lifeless.
If anything, substance aside, Yoshida's film is well shot and edited to add to the overall thematics of the piece. Cinematographer Masafumi Seki does an excellent job blocking off the space and crafting a forced emergence between the characters and Serizawa's Kurita. An element that feels so influential and immersive, it could be argued that it is, in fact, Seki that genuinely holds this film together.
Even in the exemplary performance of Tateto Serizawa and the crafting of scene composition from Masafumi Seki, director Kōta Yoshida's Sexual Drive bites off far more than it can chew – thematically – and can never quite wrestle out an approach to form a galvanising position on its thematics.
