Masumura's no holes bared-style is capable of the best and the worst. He does not shy away from anything and it is this characteristic that makes for exciting and unpredictable cinema. However, it can just as well end in muddled and uninspired moments and A Lustful Man struggles to find a balance between the two. Roughly the first and last 30 minutes are invigorating, the middle passage being unfocused and losing itself in an episodic structure that doesn't let any room for the story to breathe. While the incessant forward-motion of the narrative is characteristic to all of Masumura's films, at times, like in Irezumi, this story bulwark hinders us to absorb enough of it to fully enjoy it. Which doesn't prevent the director from giving us interesting glimpses into his gender politics and his critical view of materialism.
Yonosuke is a young man who's only reason to live is to bed women and allegedly to make them happy. He is the son of a rich business man and is disowned by his father when he fails to live the responsible life that is expected from him. Stealing money from one of his father's businesses, he buys a geisha so she can be free to live with her lover. He subsequently travels from place to place, meeting women, embarking on strange adventures with them, until he finally gets back home where his father lays dying. Dad hands him down all his fortune just before kicking the bucket and Yonosuke spends all of it on parties and women. When it is time to pay taxes on his new-found riches, Yonosuke flees because he can't pay them, having spent all the money.
Based on a novel by Saikaky Ihara, the film depicts a lot of different sexual practices, tapping into prostitution, arranged marriages and even homosexuality when Yonosuke finds himself in a bordello filled with transvestite geisha's. At the same time, Yonosuke, the carefree whippersnapper, is the only character in the film who seems entirely happy and finds a solution to every situation. Most of the women he encounters either wind up dead, broken or humiliated, Yonosuke emerging as the only insouciant character. One explanation may be that in a world, as envisioned by Masumura, where virtually every human interaction is based on an economic transaction, our protagonist is the only one who refuses to prescribe to this mode of interplay. The fact that love, sex and happiness seem to hinge on wealth and influence is everybody's downfall, but Yonosuke, by not participating in this spiel, remains unaffected by the destructive nature of money. As soon as he acquires some, he immediately finds a way to spend it all. His father is introduced as a greedy bean counter and nothing in the film suggests that this way of life provided him with happiness.
On the other hand, Yonosuke appears as possessed, crazy and irresponsible. Clearly Masumura's theme of love as a state of mental illness is made very explicit here, where Yonosuke's quest for women is nothing more than a bender of self-destruction. The question then becomes what the solution might be. Masumura depicts rich and poor individuals as equally grotesque, seems to make fun of Samurais and presents women purely as objects ready to be bought and disposed of. Yonosuke, the character who seems to defy the rules of the game, is the only one who appreciates women for what they are: human beings who can enrich a man's life. "Treat her like a queen and she will be a queen", he says. "Treat her like a witch and she will be a witch". Might it be that Masumura argues for a better treatment of women? In any event, the individual actions of one single protagonist manage to defy the prevailing order. In that, A Lustful Man, while not one of Masumura's more successful offerings, ties neatly into his body of work.
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