Sexual Drive

IN THEATERS AND ON DEMAND 04.22.2022
Directed by Kôta Yoshida
Film Movement
2021
70 Minutes
Japan
Japanese
Drama, Asian
Not Rated
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Sexual Drive is an unconventional triptych - equal parts thriller, sex comedy, and gastronomy - following the seemingly unconnected lives of three people around Japan and their appetites, both culinary and carnal. In the first story, designer Enatsu worries about his sexless marriage. Next, office worker Akane is recovering from driving-induced panic attacks. In the final third, elite advertising agent Ikeyama wants to end a relationship with his lover. Connecting all three is a shabby man who calls himself Kurita. He appears and presents each with a secret. Both suspicious and revolting, Kurita gradually reveals to each deep, mouth-watering truths regarding their sexual drive...

Director & Cast

  • Director: Kôta Yoshida
  • Starring: Manami Hashimoto
  • Starring: Ryô Ikeda
  • Starring: Mukau Nakamura
  • Starring: Honami Satô
  • Starring: Tateto Serizawa
  • Starring: Shogen
  • Starring: Rina Takeda

Trailer

Photos

Reviews

  • "Yoshida Kota directs three segments that connect food with sex in the most entertaining ways, both contextually and cinematically. "
    Panos Kotzathanasis, Asian Movie Pulse
  • "Consistently intriguing and occasionally hilarious, the movie does not depict sex itself. Instead, the characters eat food items that become objects of titillation, lust and pleasure: the sticky goo around soybeans, chili oil sizzling in a wok."
    Natalia Winkelman, The New York Times
  • "The film is masterfully written and directed by Kôta Yoshida, and it’s one of the darker explorations of human sexuality I’ve seen since David Cronenberg’s twisted masterpiece, Crash. It’s 70 minutes of genius and perverted bliss."
    Larry Kitka, Film Threat
  • "You will never see mapo tofu being cooked more intensely or orgasmically, and Yoshida’s regular cinematographer Masafumi Seki finds salacious new angles in the kitchen. "
    Richard Gray, The Reel Bits
  • "Kota Yoshida's fascinating film explore the link between food and sex through a trio of darkly funny and surprisingly sexy tales that all share the same central character, a limping semi-satyr named Kurita who enters each one bearing a box of chestnuts and a startling story to tell. The results are stylishly staged and very funny throughout.... (The scene in the middle story in which the woman, her true self finally released, makes up some extremely spicy tofu instead of the bland variation she had been planning on contains more genuine erotic heat in just a couple of minutes than the entire "Fifty Shades of Grey" franchise put together.)"
    Peter Sobczynski, eFilmCritic.com
  • "Yoshida’s giddy fetishism makes for its own simple fun. "
    David Ehrlich, Indiewire
  • "With its bonkers sensibility, the film is bright and often wickedly funny, cleverly exploring the shifting power of attraction. And it's packed with profound observations that linger."
    Rich Cline, Shadows on the Wall
  • "Yoshida Kota’s minimalistic Sexual Drive is an absurdly satisfying romp."
    David Cuevas, FilmHounds
  • "Sexual Drive is an amazing and unconventional narrative that not only explores the eroticism of the oral drive in an enticing and visually pleasing way, but also succeeds to touch, in a lighthearted way, upon the complexity of sexual desire as such. "
    Psychocinematography
  • "An amusing sex-food hookup driven with skill, dynamism and humor. ...It's excitingly cerebral."
    Filipe Freitas, Always Good Movies
  • "Sex and food make the perfect pairing in Yoshida Kota‘s feature film, Sexual Drive."
    Alan Ng, Film Threat
Nominated
VPRO Big Screen Award
Rotterdam Int'l. Film Festival
Official Selection
Fantasia Int'l Film Festival
Official Selection
Golden Horse Fantastic Film Festival
Official Selection
Moscow Int'l. Film Festival