A Queer Craving

One of the few homoerotic films to emerge from the “pink cinema” studios of Japan, which flourished from the late 1960s to the early 1990s, director Hisayasu Sato’s 1988 film Muscle ¹ is the shockingly violent and yet visually beautiful story of Ryuzaki, the editor of the body-building magazine Muscle, who falls in love with a young and handsome participant in a body-sculpting contest, Kitami. Inflamed with passion, the men are immediately drawn to each other sexually, but their torrid lovemaking soon turns bittersweet, when Kitami reveals his penchant for sadomasochistic sex. The intensity of the couple’s passionate and painful encounters steadily increases, until one day Kitami’s torturing becomes too intense. Ryuzaki, also the narrator of the film, coldly states: “I couldn’t take it. Something inside crumbled and exploded at the same time.” In their next encounter, Ryuzaki is shown photographing Kitami as he performs the very routine he had presented at the contest. Suddenly, Ryuzaki takes hold of a samurai sword, and, in a split second, slashes off Kitami’s left arm.