Gate of Flesh(HKAFF 2017)

Suzuki Seijun's pulpy adaptation of Tamura Taijuro's 1947 novel offered the director new avenues to refine his iconoclastic style. In the shelled remains of post-World War II Tokyo, a gang of prostitutes defends their territory from rival working girls, seedy Yakuza and American GIs. There's only one major rule: don't offer anyone sex for free. But the arrival of wounded ex-soldier Ibuki sows seeds of strife in the tenuous community. When Ibuki's shared affinity with the youngest prostitute Maya gets serious, the world they've created is torn asunder. Equal parts lascivious melodrama and wicked social critique, this chronicle of desperation and depravity is among Suzuki's most daring works.