Be My Slave (film)

The day before he begins work at a publishing house, a young man has sex with a young woman, Midori, in a bar bathroom, then sleeps with his friend's girlfriend, Junko. At the office, the man is drawn to Kana, an aloof senior employee. He tells her of his admiration for the illustrator Edward Gorey. Despite warnings from his colleagues that Kana is married to a man who lives in Osaka, he flirts with her; she tells him that his come-ons are unappreciated.

The next day, Kana sends the man an abrupt text message inviting him for sex. That night, she has him record their sex using a camcorder. At home, he brushes off a call from Midori. He has more sexual encounters with Kana; each time she has him record their sex, then leaves abruptly, brushing off his affections and saying little. Out walking one day, he sees her dressed in a school uniform, for which she offers no explanation.

Kana invites him to her home one weekend. When he arrives, she leaves for Osaka to see her husband. He finds a set of DVDs left for him containing footage of Kana taking part in sadomasochistic sex acts with her master, a man she calls sensei. In the footage, "Sensei" instructs her to sleep with the man who has been flirting with her at work and record it.

The man leaves distressed. He brings Midori to his apartment for sex, but she is disturbed by his new behavior and says she can smell another woman's perfume. Drinking alone at a bar, he meets a man who quotes the DVD footage to him, revealing that he is "Sensei". He explains that he finds unfulfilled women and "makes them beautiful" by making them his slave. He says that the man too is living an empty life by dreaming of becoming an artist but doing nothing to achieve it, and instructs him to ask himself what he is really meant to do in life.

The man becomes depressed and unfocused at work, angering his boss. He receives a text message instructing him to catch a particular bus. On board are Kana and Sensei; Kana is wearing a remote-controlled vibrator. Sensei gives the man the control and exits the bus, leaving the pair to pleasure each other. Seeking information about Kana, the man goes to the bar, where Sensei introduces his newest slave. Sensei recounts how he offered to make Kana "beautiful" after overhearing her complaining of her boring life to a friend. As their sadomasochistic relationship deepened, Kana became sexually dependent on him.

The man goes to Kana's house and begs for sex, but she refuses unless he records it, and tells her she longs to be free. He rapes her. At home, the man destroys his Gorey-inspired illustrations. He finds Sensei in the bar and tells him he believes his purpose is to free Kana, to which Sensei agrees. To prove that the man loves her, Sensei has him have sex with her in front of him, then ties her thumbs together with thread and has sex with her himself. Afterwards, he asks if she has "become beautiful"; she says yes. He unties the thread and leaves. Kana asks the man to become her slave.

• Mitsu Dan as Kana, an office worker involved in a master/slave relationship
• Hiroaki Mayama as "I", an unnamed new employee who pursues Kana
• Itsuji Itao as "Sensei", Kana's master

The Japan Times likened Be My Slave to the Japanese pink films of the 1970s and 1980s and noted the presence of Dan's "industry predecessor" Aya Sugimoto in a cameo role. The review concluded: "Great art, no, but a starlet is born."[2]