Tsukasa Saitô
In a race with time, celebrity contestants desperately try to outmaneuver black-clad Hunters in pursuit, for a chance to win a growing cash prize.
Sato Tomoko leads an ordinary life with her husband and young child. One day, she defies the rules at the company where she works part-time to supplement the household income, and is fired. Tomoko is in her 40s, a high school dropout and has no qualifications. How is she to get a job? She happens to find out about the huge pay and high winning rate of members of the city, townand village councils through a TV programme. Equating huge pay with family happiness, the foolhardy Tomoko quickly decides to run for the city council. Her rival in the election race is Todo Makoto, who comes from a long line of politicians. Hirata Kazumi, a former star political journalist at a newspaper and a friend whose child attends the same nursery school, is inspired by Tomoko’s energy and ability to unify people, and becomes her supporter.
To get revenge on her ex-boyfriend and to help revive her late mother's tennis table club, a table tennis prodigy decides to take part in a mixed doubles table tennis tournament.
Ten comedians are pitted against each other in a closed room with the objective to make each other laugh. The last person to stay in the room without laughing wins and is awarded a 10 million yen prize and bragging rights as the funniest comedian.
"Empty Room is a dark, highly erotic tale of a married couple whose relationship is slowly sliding into oblivion. Bored and sexually frustrated, the wife begins taking lovers while her unemployed husband spends his days wandering aimless around the city parks. Highly stylised and with a film noir feel, Empty Room is a fine example of how Japanese Pink cinema has developed into a genre all of its own." "A highly beautiful and erotic piece of art…with ‘Empty Room’, Pink Cinema has finally come of age."
