Masumi Miyazaki in Strange Circus (2005)

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The dark, horrifying, and often fantastical Japanese examination of murder and sexual abuse Strange Circus (2005) comes to you courtesy of director Sion Sono. It's the story of a writer of the erotic variety, Taeko (Masumi Miyazaki), who is plumbing the perversely soul-pummeling pains that pull her again and again into pondering her sick, surreal personal history. The tale twists and riffs on the relation between fiction and the for real, turning inside out as we question what the truth really is. How much is her imagination and how much is the lady's unbelievable life? When she takes on youthy Yugi (Issei Ishida) as her new assistant, she gets more than she asked for--the lass takes to prying beneath the mask of Masumi. Weaving in and out of the novelist's story of an impetuous, incestuous father, we inch closer to understanding what inspires art and fantasy, even as reality seems to fall away.