An Aria on Gazes
October 6, 2026
Presented by Grand Illusion Cinema. One of legendary filmmaker Hisayasu Satô’s most celebrated and visually stunning works, newly restored!
Housewife Kyoko (Kiyomi Ito) begins moonlighting at a mysterious sex club, The Bedroom, as a means of rebelling against her boring salaryman husband Akihito (Mineo Sugiura).
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SIFF year-round passes and vouchers are not valid for this screening.
The Bedroom isn’t like any normal sex club: the female hostesses all take the powerful sedative Halcion to sleep through their perverse encounters with the male clientele, waking up at the end of their shifts with no memory of what’s been done to them. But when Kyoko decides to explore her fetish for voyeurism by not taking the drug, the lines between fantasy and reality quickly become increasingly blurred—and dangerous.
In Japanese with English subtitles.
“An Aria on Gazes is a fascinating study on alienation and how technology has accelerated that process. Besides still being firmly rooted within the areas of pink film and exploitation, the design of each scene, the lighting and the overall aesthetics create an unforgettable experience, arousing while still disturbing at the same time.” — Rouven Linnarz, Asian Movie Pulse
- Director: Hisayasu Satô
- Principal Cast: Kiyomi Ito, Momori Asano, Kyoko Nakamura, Issei Sagawa, Koichi Imaizumi
- Country: Japan
- Year: 1992
- Running Time: 65 min.
- Language: Japanese with English subtitles
- Has Subtitles: Yes