Shura: Sisters of the Rope

Two sisters struggle to overcome their traumatic pasts, in which their mother, a bondage model, committed suicide and their father, the rope artist, abandoned them. Aya has become a successful bondage model herself and although her older sister Hana deeply disapproves of this, it doesn't stop her from giving in to Aya’s boyfriend. Everything changes when her father's whereabouts are found and with him a chance to unravel the family secrets that have left so many wounds. With every scene, Tohjiro takes us deeper into a world that is so outlandish and disturbing, and at the same time filled with the passion and innocence of those who feel free and understood within it. Transgressive filmmaking of an intensity that leaves the audience breathless.

It would be fatal to be fooled by the aesthetics of a fast-paced and unpolished adult film production, for the film's cinematic intentions are as profound and haunting as the intimate dramas of Ozu or the searing psychodramas of Bergman. A bold cinematic journey, captivating in its narrative and liberating in the realization that beauty and catharsis can be found in many places.