Electric Button (2004/aka Moon & Cherry
aka Tsuki To Cherry/MVD Visual DVD)
Picture:
C Sound: C Extras: D Main Program: B+
Tadokoro (Shungiku
Uchida) joins an erotic literature club; there he meets Mayama a young rising
star in erotic literature. Mayama
(Noriko Eguchi) however suffering from writer's block, decides to introduce
Tadokoro into the world of sexual intercourse and steal his virginity as
inspiration for her latest book. She
'researches' Tadokoro sexual awakening, she has sex with him for 'research' to
write her book, but can she keep it from spilling into her personal life?
Yuki
Tanada’s Electric Button (2004)
takes all of this and Mayama as the only girl in an all male erotic writing
club and runs with it well. When she
discovers their newest member is a virgin, she decides to not only steal his
virginity, but introduce him into the world of Eros. At first, Tadokoro thought Mayama was
attracted to him, but then he realized he was just another guinea pig to her
like all the other guys in the club, she had sex with them all for the sake of
writing her books. But even so, Tadokoro
still continues to help her 'research' and write her books. As the sex gets more weird and hard core,
Tadokoro gets real girlfriend, but even then still finds himself coming back to
Mayama time and time again. The teacher
suddenly becomes the student, as Tadokoro finally accepts and admits he is
hopelessly in love with Mayama and he teaches her there is more to sex than
it's physicality and her writing books.
This is a
comical and yet frightening believable realistic scenario, a group of erotic
romance writers having sex, for the sake of their writing books. As the characters have sex for purely their
literal inspiration, they still would go on meeting other people, live separate
lives and having carnal relationships with others, but then they realize what
was missing from their books is true affection and love, that sex isn't just
physical attraction, but how they feel and think when they are with their
partners. There more to life than just than just sex (really), but do they
believe this and behave like this? Can
they live with such a conclusion?
Shot in
the standard definition DV digital video format, the picture really shows its
age, as well as the lossy Dolby 2.0 audio that is barely stereo and has plenty
of location audio issues, so expect a very dated presentation. Extras include photo gallery and trailer.
- Ricky Chiang