Dream sequence scene by scene breakdown and analysis

First of all, here are my conclusions:

* Asami was abused not only physically and emotionally, but also sexually. We know the dance teacher probably raped her and used the one thing that was her support (dancing) and corrupted it (He tells her to dance for him as he brands her, which is likely a euphemism for rape.) She implies that she "died" then. It's implied that other men have also sexually abused her and now that she just wants someone to love her and hold her, her psychosis has warped her sense of love and she tries to buy that affection by giving sexual pleasure to men. (See Hotel scene and dream blowjob scene) Her lack of love people in her life has made her idea of love highly possessive.

* Asami also feels damaged because of her past and is embarrassed of her scars, not just the physical ones. She wants Aoyama to know her, all of her, and accept her for it which is why she asks him to look at her body before getting in bed. She doesn't believe anyone can love her the way she is so she resorts to using sex to buy affection.

* Asami really did kill the music director and his girlfriend and he really is the man in the sack. Asami really does feed him puke. As she is doing so, the camera switches and she's a little girl petting him like a dog. Subsequent scene shows a woman (who doesn't look like Asami, maybe it's the music director's girlfriend) clenching the man from the sack to her chest. Asami says, "Males need female support. Otherwise they can't maintain." Just as men deprived her of her support through dance, she chops off their legs and makes them rely on her for support (vomit dog bowl). This is a reversal of power of men over her to her over men.

* For Aoyama, the dream sequence tracks how he got into this mess. He lets his son's comment about him looking old start him. He obsesses over this girl and is fixated on her ever since he read her application. When he's going to sleep and he imagines his deceased wife disappearing behind a tree, he is replacing her with his lust for Asami. Later in the restaurant dream sequence, his wife warns him about her. But it's too late, he's already damned himself.

His sex-drive is also stronger than his reason which is why it isn't until the dream sequence that he thinks back to their dates and realizes that she's not all that sweet. He also hurt his secretary by leading her on, having sex with her, and letting her go. He regrets it, but his horniness has already done the damage. His


* The man in the sack in Aoyama's visions is meant for us to have background into what Asami's been up to. Aoyama doesn't actually see it, but he probably suspects she did something with the music director.

The scenes in blue tint are dreamed, the different events and ideas collapsing together.

* Three fingers possibly implying three men that she has done this to: wheelchair guy, music director/sack man, lastly perhaps her stepfather. This is hinted at by the quick scene showing a finger falling into Aoyama's bottle of scotch which is what she used to incapicitate him.

And now my long-ass breakdown of the sequence for anyone else that wants to analyze it:
Date 1: She tells him about her abusive childhood.

Scene 1: Abusive step father made her, "(do) nothing in a dark room everyday." She is a little girl, lying down in what is now her apartment (the same window, black telephone, and ornate grill is shown). This explains why she was just sitting in her room waiting for his call earlier - it's all she knows, which is to be isolated from the world and allowing her thoughts to fester and become psychotic.

Scene 2: In the hotel, she is apologizing for being scarred like this. "If you dislike me please say so." She feels like she's damaged goods.

Cut back to Date 1: This jump happens in the middle of that sentence. Connecting her telling her story to showing it with the scars.

Date 2: (He is paying attention to her, the cut is meant to be a progression in time.) The tone of the scene is very different from Date 1, she is smiling as she talks now. She says ballet supported her, it purified the dark side of her. That means that when she broke her hip and could no longer dance, it was the death of her innocense and her ties to reality.

Suddenly, his deceased wife calls to him from another table. He introduces her, but she is horrified and warns him to stay away from her. We saw her earlier as he is falling asleep and he imagines her disappearing behind a tree. He is letting go of her to love Asami, but that was his damning.

Scene 3: Return to the apartment. Asami says she wants him right now and tries to give him a blowjob. "I'll do anything to give you pleasure. I like doing this." Perhaps this is alluding to her sexual abuse as a child. She wants to be loved, but the only way she knows how is to give men sexual pleasure. This is backed up by the scene in the hotel where he is talking her about going to the museum tomorrow, but she is being totally quiet and just gets naked and asks him to come to her, but first she wants him to see her scars and approve of her anyway. She repeats throughout the movie that she wants him to know all about her - and she wants to be loved despite that. The problem is that her idea of love has become so warped by her psychosis that it's highly possessive.

She turns into his secretary giving him the blowjob. The secretary is in tears because she had sex with him, but feels stupid for expecting something more from him. He apologizes, but it's too late, he has already hurt her.

She turns into his son's girlfriend. He freaks and pushes her away, he has a hard on, but he doesn't want this with her.But it just highlights how his horniness has led him down this path.

Scene 3.5:
The girlfriend changes to the sack with the man inside.The man crawls out, cries and gestures his hunger. Asami vomits into a dog bowl and places it in front of him and he devours it.

Camera shifts angles and now Asami is a little girl who reaches out and pets the man. She turns to Aoyama and tells him to, "love only me. Only me."

Scene 3.75:
The man in the wheelchair appears, and stumbles forward on his prosthetic feet, telling the little girl to, "Dance! Dance for me, bitch! Otherwise I'll torture you." He moves forward holding a red hot poker.

Now adult Asami is in the dance hall with the wheelchair guy still crawling towards her. She simply sits down, spreads her legs and lets him brand her. The whole scene is in a blue tint. Asami screams.

Scene 4: Back in the blue tint studio. Asami uses the garrote to behead the man in the studio. "I never felt unhappy. Because I was always unhappy!"

(Sequence of flashes)
Ryoko at the restaurant, on the floor, screaming, "No!"
In bedroom, camera between Asami's legs while Aoyama is looking up at her and pleading, "Asami..."
At the bottom of the stairs, where Asami later dies, a woman we haven't seen before is clenching the man from the sack to her chest. Asami is heard saying, "Males need female support. Otherwise they can't maintain."

Scene 5: The bar scene where they decide to hold the audition.

Scene 6: Blue tint. Headshot of Ryoko in a room, turning towards the camera with an expression of dejectedness.

Scene 7: The audition room, Aoyama says, "My son told me that I look old. Why don't I remarry. That's why I decided"

Scene 8: The dance studio, blue tint, bartender shaking cocktail shaker while Asami beheads the wheelchair guy.

Quick flash of the man from the sack screaming.

Scene 9: A finger floats to the bottom of Aoyama's scotch glass. Probably implying that what happened to the sack man is now going to happen to Aoyama.

Scene 9: The beheading is finished. The head falls to the ground.

We return back to Aoyama falling onto the ground.