‘Hebi ni Pierce’ ready to scare old people

I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that Yukio Ninagawa‘s upcoming film, Hebi ni Pierce (Snakes and Earrings) is more than just sensationalized, melodramatic tripe even though the original teaser would suggest otherwise. On a positive note, Ninagawa called in a few markers for this project and managed to cast Shun Oguri and Tatsuya Fujiwara in bit roles as members of a gang. Some other notable actors in small roles are Toshiaki Karasawa, Yuu Abiru, and Sonim.

The film is about a 19-year-old girl named Rui (Yuriko Yoshitaka) who meets a guy named Ama (Kengo Koura) at a nightclub. Ama is heavily into body modification and sports multiple piercings, a huge dragon tattoo, and a split tongue. Ama brings Rui into his world and introduces her to Shiba (Arata), a tattoo artist and sadist who works out of an S&M shop. Rui gets a large tattoo on her back that’s half dragon, half Kirin—a combination of the tattoos Ama and Shiba have. She also gets her tongue pierced with the eventual goal of increasing gauges until she can split it like Ama’s. Soon Rui gets caught up in a life of sadomasochistic sex, alcohol abuse, and the constant search for something in her life which will never be satisfied.

Author Hitomi Kanehara was only 20 at the time the original source novel was published and she went on to win two major literary prizes for her work. Her young age would seem to give her a unique perspective of the value system of her age group, but it’s just as likely that the subject matter just captures the imaginations of older folks ready to believe a generation they don’t understand is a total freaking disaster. But hopefully I’m wrong about the latter; the new full trailer (shown below) has a bit more depth than the first one.

“Hebi ni Pierce” will be released in Japan on September 20, 2008.

Cast details via Tokyograph

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Tags: arata, body modification, kamejiro ichikawa, kengo koura, rakkyo ide, shun oguri, sonim, tatsuya fujiwara, toshiaki karasawa, yukio ninagawa, yuriko yoshitaka, yuu abiru