The ropes and bondage purport to emphasize love and trust. The opening enactment sees the (what’s the right word here? Not victim, or target. Let’s call her…) submissive party, trusting the dominant party implicitly.
It starts off benign enough but after a while, I couldn’t help but feel claustrophobic for the submissive person. Although she looked relaxed and at ease, I felt squirmy.
The second segment downright disturbed me, since it depicted an abduction/kidnapping. The narrator explained that ancient law enforcement used shibari to detain criminals and suspects, but the abduction was nothing of the sort.
The third installment, featuring a person in a gold body suit, showed more of the elegance and the beauty of a willing and athletic participant. This is more like what I expected.
At times, I felt like a voyeur and, at times, I felt like pulling out a knife and cutting the bound person free. The show had some beautiful moments to go with its beautiful music, but there were also some icky moments. Maybe it’s just me—and as a feminist, perhaps it tweaked me somewhat that this is a return to a time when men were always dominant and women were always objectified. You’ll have to make your own judgment.
