6A-071 - Goodbye Rui Sakuragi

This was her second retirement at the time. It’s quite an elaborate production; the effort put in by the director, the studio, and the male actors for Rui Sakuragi is on another level. While the structure feels a bit cluttered with the inclusion of costumes and off-shots, this package captures her final heroic performance, featuring five or six top-tier male actors in a relentless display of intimacy. It’s a historical record I’d like to keep. It feels like one of the last works from an era where male actors were still front and center. Since then, male actors have been relegated to the background, to the point where even seeing their faces is considered off-putting by viewers, so it was strangely impressive to see that, back then, banter between the actors was still considered acceptable and enjoyable.