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A man (Masayoshi Nogami) has been arrested for assaulting a police
officer and raping a girl (Maki Oaki) - yet the girl doesn't press any
charges ...
Flashback: The man is on the run, when he on a deserted beach stumbles
upon the girl, tries to rape her then handcuffs her to his wrist (the
handcuffs being a souvenir from his encounter to the officer), and drags
her, who is by now wearing next to nothing, with him. It's only later that
he finds her suicide note and learns that she wanted to end her life
having been betrayed by both her fiancé and her mother.
The man cuffs the girl to a tree and makes a fire for them both, but
when he notices search planes combing the area, he goes down to the sea
for some water to extinguish the flames ... and when he returns to the
tree fire, the girl is gone. Eventually the man breaks down from
exhaustion when trying to track her down, which is when the girl decides
to return and handcuff him to a tree. Then she heads off and could be
safe, but she returns yet again and leaves him a hairpin to open the
handcuffs with.
Having freed himself, the man goes after the girl, who has by now shed
all cloths, and leaving all caution behind, he rapes her on the beach, in
plain view of the airplanes. After the rape he wants to celebrate his
triumph, but the girl claims she has actually won, since the whole
experience has given her a reason to live again ...
On the surface, Naked Pursuit might seem like nothing more than
a piece of sleaze with the sole raison d'être to show Maki Oaki in the
nude as often as possible, but on closer inspection the film is much more:
a poetic exploration of a violent subject, with the chase sequences often
seeming like perverted dance scenes, an essay on sexual powerplay, and an
existentialist, archaic drama. Add to this a lyrical directorial style
that makes perfect use of the beach scenery without restorting to postcard
kitsch, and a clever use of music, sound and silence (there is only very
little dialogue in this film), and you've got a regular work of art.
Recommended.
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