by D.K. Holm

There’s a new trend in adult movies, mostly found in S&M videos.

In this new vein, videomakers embrace an arty approach that would have been laughed off the screens even five years ago. During the recent history of adult films, some filmmakers have occasionally indulged artiness, but about the most ambitious and notable Triple X’er was Cafe’ Flesh from the early `80s. That was the hardcore New York art film set in an apocalyptic sci-fi future which just happened to anticipate the forthcoming AIDS crisis.

Recent offbeat releases such as The Operation, however, suggest that filmmakers are impatient with the rigid conventions and commercial imperatives of hardcore films, especially if the artists involved have a taste for leather. And in Asianatrix: Suffering Eternal (starring Suzi Suzuki, Neko Kim, Jade Blue Eclipse), the San Francisco based director and co-screenwriter, David Aaron Clark, a reviewer and author of S&M porn mounts an evocative anthology consisting of two confessional tales of Japanese women submitting to a fierce, if ethereal, dominatrix.

First up is buxom porn star Suzi Suzuki. In voice-over, she compares and contrasts Asian and western cultural attitudes about sex, and relates the history of geishas. “Japanese feel bound by social conventions,” she says, but adds, “In Japan, there is no conception of sin.”

Meanwhile, she slowly divests herself of her complicated kimono trappings, a lengthy strip tease which takes about 12 minutes.

The excitement heats up about the moment she tells us her fantasies concerning a dominant lover and, lo and behold, there appears Neko Kim in lace-up thigh-high boots and wielding a thick cane. She proceeds to dominate Suzi with slow eroticism. She pounds Suzi’s raised ass, makes Suzi suck her black dildo (which seems to spurt sperm), and then “takes” her from the rear. From the way Suzi rocks back and forth to Neko’s thrusting pace and the way Neko brutally manipulates Suki’s posture by tugging on her hair, you can tell that Neko is truly dominating the obviously satisfied Suzi.

Next comes Jade Blue Eclipse, a pert, tattooed, pierced, fire-breathing bisexual who also happens to have dreams of a dominant lover, though this time in the context of a general prison-interrogation fantasy. After a fully-clothed shower and a feather dance, Jade is led to jail, where she is shown deliciously hog-tied, and then finds herself spread-eagled on the bars of her cell. Then, strapped to a chair in a silvery room, Neko shows up, only to apply clothespins to Jade’s vaginal lips, which reveal deep pressure dents when the pins are removed. Neko, ravishing in a latex dress and long gloves, smiles sadistically at the writhing and wiggling submissive, who is erotic in a vest that looks like chocolate-covered barb-wire and bulky, strap-heavy platform gladiator boots.

S&M videos at their best are much more intimate than vanilla videos. And Asianatrix feels very intimate. Here, the emphasis is on the slaves, with loving close-ups of their dreamy faces and with the dom kept erotically cold and distant, a voiceless creature who appears only to humble them. The style of these two stories suggests taped performance pieces (the film was shot in the San Francisco perv club, Power Exchange), which contributes to the racy and daring confessional exploration of fantasy. Asianatrix is a surprisingly stylish work that may herald a new era in adult video.