Mosaic Japan (2014)

Sakamoto does a shallow dive into the world of AV

Mosaic is a short drama set in the world of AV (adult video) production in Japan, and so of course you can expect a lot of explicit sex, rape scenarios, sexual exploitation, and frank talk about all of those subjects. But the issues with this series have relatively little to do with its subject matter.

It begins as a fish out of water story of its antihero protagonist Riichi who has left his job in the world of finance and has returned to his small home town only to discover that it has become a factory town for Galaxyz, a large AV production company. His parents work in post-production applying the mosaics covering the genitals that make AV videos legal in Japan, and Riichi is soon pulled into the company as part of the financial group within the company.

The narrative is conveyed in relatively short vignettes and rapid dialogue, and there is often an intentional confusion between what is meant to be being shown diegetically in Riichi's life and what is being filmed by Galaxyz for release as part of their porn films. At least at the the beginning of the series this ambiguity is meant to reflect Riichi's confusion and disorientation as he returns to find the hometown completely turned upside down by the influence of Galaxyz on the local economy,

As a writer Sakamoto loves to try different things, and here I am guessing that the intention was to write bits of scenes and dialogue that when pieced together would reveal a larger picture. That is, the writing style itself is meant to be a mosaic. Great idea. Does it work? No. Not at all. (In my opinion, of course.) There just is not enough narrative glue to hold this story together. Only two or three of the characters have any kind of back story, and some of the women characters in particular are so poorly limned that it can be hard to tell them apart. And while there is a story here of people being corrupted by money, men being corrupted by readily available sex, and government officials literally getting away with murder, it's one that I think we've all seen before in better and less confusing forms. It also suffers from issues similar that of trying to make a war film with an antiwar message: what you see on screen glorifies the subject no matter what the characters are saying about it.

All that being said, Sakamoto does have things to say that are worth hearing, and if you make it through the first few scenes, I recommend that you stick with it through the final episode: the whole series is shorter than some movies, and Riichi's love interest, Momoko, gets some excellent monologues in episode 5.

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Sex, Violence, and Criticism!

If you're uncomfortable with nudity and sex scenes, this show might be difficult to get through! There is a LOT of it.

This was a show that was interesting to watch. It was clearly aimed at those who watch porn, while also heavily criticizing the industry. What a way to hit your target audience! Definitely a bold and risky move. With the criticism in the story, you'd almost expect the drama to be written and performed differently, but instead of a prudish approach, it goes in the complete opposite direction, an absurd dive into the sex industry.

The show has a lot to say for such a small amount of episodes, but luckily, I didn't feel like any of it was skimmed over or too short. Sure, for a deeper dive, they could have made the episodes longer, but I think they were able to capture a lot in a satisfying way. For me, this was a good length.

It criticized sexual exploitation, the ways in which the AV industry uses and abandons people (both men and women), the paradox of sexual liberty when coupled with unequal dynamics, the hypocrisy of censorship, corruption in government and law enforcement, and more.

In order to enjoy the show, you have to suspend your disbelief a bit. The show walks a fine line between the absurdly hyperbolic to the oddly recognizable. Despite the short length, the jumps in character growth felt natural and well-done. Plus the way small detail piled onto each other was very fun. Felt a bit makjang-y at times, but I think because it fit the overall tone of the show, the drama aspects worked very well with that style.

Everything feels so overdone that I think it's easy to finish the show and just consider it odd, but it's worth sitting down and thinking about it.

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