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RETRORAMA Loose in Las Vegas: 2010 – The Deuce  by ED Tucker
GROWING UP FANBOY When MTV Played Music  by Chris Woods
THE ASIAN APERTURE Man, Woman, and the Wall  by Jason Fetters
MIKE'S RANT Passing On .... And Now, A Special Note From Mrs. Smith .... .... .... .... .... .... .... Mike's Record Shelf by Mike Smith

Man, Woman, and the Wall

A hilarious Japanese comedy for anyone who has ever fallen in love with a stalker. Ryo, a nerdy bachelor, is lucky enough to share a wall in his apartment with the sexy Satsuki. This leads Ryo on a journey into various types of deviant and obsessive behaviors. He memorizes her apartment number so he can pick up her garbage, which for some reason, everyone's garbage in placed in a spot with their room numbers listed. Anyway, Ryo gets her garbage and sneaks it back into his apartment so he can spread a plastic sheet on the floor and dump out the contents. Shifting through her discarded trash, he learns all about Satsuki's food preferences.

That's not all, Ryo also uses a microphone to listen to Satsuki take a shower and he masturbates while she is having sex with her boyfriend.

Man, Woman, and the Wall is all about perverted behavior and how far people will go for their kinky fix.

When Ryo gets static through his headphones, he has his friend check out Satsuki's apartment to find out what it going on. His friend, an expert in bugging, discovers a hidden camera set up and a microphone installed in her room. Someone has been going in and out and watching Satsuki via web cam on a laptop somewhere nearby. Ryo thinks this is strange, when his behavior is questionable in and of itself. For all the weird ways that Ryo goes through to meet Satsuki, he could have accomplished the same thing with better results if he was just normal about it.

Using the knowledge that he obtained from his trash sifting adventure, he goes shopping to buy Satsuki's favorite foods. Then he has a package mailed to her apartment number with his name and address on it. One night there is a beep at Ryo's door and he finally meets Satsuki face to face. She tells him a package was waiting for him at her apartment door to which he replies that he had it shipped to a neighbor because he is usually at work. She smiles at him and leaves. Next there is a beep at Satsuki's door with Ryo bearing gifts. He just happens to have extras of her favorite foods which he graciously gives her. This is the start of their real relationship.

Up to that time, he fantasized that Satsuki lived in a plush apartment with cutesy anime characters everywhere. When he finally sees Satsuki's plain ole apartment that is just like everyone's else he is understandably disappointed. There are several scenes of what he imagines and reality that recalls George Romero's Martin and how Martin would fantasize and the ironic reality that shattered that fantasy.

Satsuki's boyfriend, Yuta, is a strange duck. He seems to come right over whenever Satsuki gets scared and needs him. Satsuki has been getting sexual calls from a strange caller. When the calls comes, she is frighten and calls Yuta, who just happens to be close by and comforts her and has sex with her.

Ryo and his debugger friend find Yuta's car. In one scene, Yuta is watching Satsuki undress on his laptop inside his car just outside her apartment. He then calls her using a voice altering device to scare her. Then he waits for her to call so he can calm her down using his normal voice. Ryo figures this out and eventually gets Yuta out of the picture by staging a scene of a violent gangster and an actress that resembles Satsuki. The gangster beats the fake Satsuki and threatens to pimp her out to make up the money he owes her. He tells Satsuki that is she won't give him money then he will get it out of Yuta. Yuta leaves his apartment and for awhile is out of Satsuki's life. This is a good thing. In a previous scene, Yuta rushes into Satsuki's apartment and she just wants to talk and Yuta proceeds to rape her. He ties her hands together with leather belts and laughs like a psychotic when she screams out in pain with a towel crammed in her mouth.

Despite the dark nature there is a lighter side to the story of Ryo and Satsuki getting to know each other inside a teahouse. When Ryo is not engaging in his weird sexual fantasies, he opens up as a warm, caring individual that Satsuki is able to identify and fall in love with. They start going out to dinner together and Ryo cooks dinner for her inside his apartment. If he would just be normal, he would have the love life that he can only dream about.

Even though Man, Woman and the Wall contains several sex scenes (some violent), it is the heartwarming and open communication between Ryo and Satsuki that separates this movie from being just a low-brow skin-flick. Their relationship becomes real and believable in all their non-sex scenes. In fact, that is no sex scene between them. The only sex they have is in separate rooms. It is both touching and sad to see two lonely people resort to pleasing themselves instead of each other.

At the end of the movie as Ryo lies on top of Satsuki, and she is allowing him to have sex with her, he tells her that he cannot because this goes against his sexual fantasies.

Later on, Satsuki discovers Ryo's micophone and knows that he has been listening in. She turns on the bathwater and plays with the water with her hands. Ryo is listening through headphones. Satsuki silently enters his apartment and walks into his bedroom. She sees his right hand shaking violent and calls out, “Ryo, Ryo.” Finally he is literaly caught when his pants down and shamefully turns to face her, not sure what to expect. She unzips her coat and is standing completely naked in his bedroom and giving him a sensual smile, says, “Let's begin.”

Satsuki has taken his perverted nature and used it to help him instead of judging and condemning him and that makes for a beautiful romantic moment regardless of how prudish your own sexual outlook is.

Man, Woman and the Wall stars the sexy and talented adult video star, Sora Aoi, in a legitimate theatrical release. Aoi had previously starred in many adult-only videos with titles unsuitable for publication. In the many years that I have spent watching nudes in movies all over the world, I have never seen such a perfectly-toned beautiful body as Sora Aoi naked. She even gives Jessica Alba a run for her money. She iconizes sex in a way that no other actress can. She is perfection to the max.

The sex scenes in Man, Woman, and the Wall are the usual T & A shots that would make it no different from a hard R (pun intended) than any sex scenes in the west. This is a interesting look at people, relationships, and problems that is sure to please drama and some romantic-comedy fans.

Currently available for instant streaming viewing from Netflix right now.

Overall rating: 5 stars out of 5.