A review of Hisayasu Satô’s film Muscle. A twisted relationship and obsession unfold in this strange feature film, which has become a cult classic.

Muscle certainly cannot be recommended to everyone, as it is so bizarre and at times frankly disturbing. At the time of writing, director Hisayasu Satô’s film is impossible to find; it can only be tracked down indirectly through Internet searches.

We follow Ryuzaki (Takeshi Itô), editor-in-chief of a bodybuilding magazine. As a sultry introduction suggests, his attraction to men who are bodybuilding enthusiasts is beyond doubt. Yet it is a rather slim aspiring bodybuilder who becomes his obsession: the enigmatic young Kitami (Simon Kumai). Arriving for an audition, Kitami immediately catches Ryuzaki’s eye, and the two men embark on an abrasive passion. Ryuzaki soon discovers that Kitami is unlike the others: sadistic in bed, he introduces him to games that are, to say the least, painful and dangerous. Ryuzaki allows himself to be drawn in and eventually snaps one day: in a burst of madness, he cuts off his lover’s arm! He is then sent to prison.

After serving his sentence, Ryuzaki begins a long wandering, driven by two obsessions: finding a copy of Pasolini’s film Salo (which was released in cinemas while he was imprisoned) and picking up Kitami’s trail, as he still haunts him despite everything that happened… The search for his lost love leads Ryuzaki to cross paths with various outcasts, as deranged and lost as he is…

A subversive feature film of fetishism, drives and fascination with the forbidden

This dark, subversive feature film wisely runs for no more than a short hour and, in that brief time, manages to leave its mark on the retina with several rather traumatic shots and scenes. It is difficult not to feel like screaming when confronted with the particularly disturbed and disturbing intimacy of Ryuzaki and Kitami. S&M, Eros, Thanatos… Fascinated by muscles and bodily discipline, the main character is unable to keep up with his lover’s erotic rituals and sinks into madness… unless these games reveal his darkest fetishistic side? It is probably no coincidence that, throughout the film, Ryuzaki seeks to get his hands on Pasolini’s Salo, one of the most shocking and disgusting works in the history of the seventh art. Kitami has awakened his monstrosity, his attraction to the forbidden and the morbid.

The overall darkness, though steeped in a certain melancholy, will not appeal to everyone, but it makes Muscle a curiosity of obscure cinema. Singular romanticism and pure madness intertwine through colourful encounters in the underworld, leading all the way to an uncompromising finale.

Film produced in 1989

Other disturbing gay films to discover

–Dangerous dr*gs of sex
–The breeding
–Black and White
–The Wounded Man