Over a decade after his high-octane cyber-punk metal mutilation fetishism monster debut Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989), director-producer-writer-cinematographer-editor-star Shinya Tsukamoto truly discovered himself as an artist and filmmaker with the blue-tinted, rain-drenched fever nightmare A Snake of June (2002). His seventh feature film, it follows three characters: a sexually-repressed telephone counselor, her hygiene-obsessed husband and a mysterious, spying interloper who will disrupt and upend their domestic sterilization.

Hosts Christopher Funderburg and John Cribbs revisit every monochromatic corner of this beautifully strange film, which is somehow persistently cruel yet deeply empathetic to the three characters who find themselves trapped within the oppressive confines of their urban surroundings. How much of this is a self-critique by Tsukamoto (who also plays the creepy, disembodied voyeur) on the exploitative nature of cinema itself? Is there a safe middleground between cultural subjugation and unrestrained liberation? There's a lot to discuss about this deceptively short masterwork.

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Intro music: Unleash the Bastards / “Tea for Two”

Outro music: Marcus Pinn / “Vegas"