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Man, Woman And The Wall DVD Review: Porn Spoof, Asian Style

By Prairie Miller

While porn movies are grounded as much in voyeurism as auto-erotic tendencies, the Japanese fetish-minded frolic Man, Woman And The Wall, playfully switches its focus to the subject rather than object of desire. As such, this Asian T&A teaser which is as much mirror as peep show, is bent, all puns intended, on having its fleshy cake and eating it too.

A sex satire touching simultaneously on mind-over-matter thwarted male lust and kinky female objectification, Man, Woman And The Wall plays hide-and-seek with its XXX innuendos, while mulling the erotic possibilities inherent in flimsily constructed modern apartments. Ryou is a geeky investigative reporter for a bottom feeder rag specializing in features like national sewer systems. Upon moving into his new apartment, Ryou is distracted by the muffled sounds of hottie Satsuki having sex with her boyfriend in the adjoining apartment.

Since Ryou is a sheltered kind of guy who has led a life of habitual self-pleasuring for so long that it's become his sexual lifestyle of choice, he is soon mounting a listening device to the wall, complete with headset, the better to flesh out his fantasy affair with his enticing neighbor. Meanwhile, there's apparently a second auto-erotic mystery culprit lurking about, and taunting this victimized sexpot with obscene phone calls.

When Ryou finally does get to meet and potentially cultivate a romance with Satsuki, his desire wanes because she just can't emulate the fantasy female he concocted from her through that wall. And eventually all these sexually perverse males - the neighbor, the boyfriend and the phone sex sleazebag nut - come to blows, likely less over this actual woman than their own shared self-loathing over their collective debased sexuality.

Director Masashi Yamamoto seems to be aiming for both a conventional sexploit with Man, Woman And The Wall, and a lampoon of those who indulge in such pastimes. Which could run the risk of satisfying both audiences, or neither. In any case, the proviso 'for mature audiences only' should never be taken literally.

TLA Releasing
Unrated
2 stars

DVD Features: Making-Of Featurette, Original Trailer.

Prairie Miller is a multimedia journalist online, in print and on radio. Contact her through NewsBlaze.