Suzuki Matsuo | Machine Diary | Performing Arts Network Japan

Suzuki Matsuo

Suzuki Matsuo moved to Tokyo after graduation from the Department of Design, Faculty of Design, Kyushu Sangyo University, and worked as a company employee and an illustrator before forming the Otonakeikaku troupe in 1988. Their individualistic actors and works depicting a unique world of characters shaped by their own flaws and peccadilloes appealed powerfully to the younger generation, raising the troupe to the top of the small theater scene in the 1990s. Matsuo received the Kishida Kunio Drama Award for Funky! Uchu wa Mieru Tokoro made shika Nai in 1997. He has been active in the Nihon Sogo Higeki Kyokai, a production unit that stages performances with actors outside the troupe, and as a novelist and essayist. He also performs frequently as an actor with other troupes.

The scene is set in a factory managed by the Tsujiyoshi brothers, Akitoshi (the elder one) and Michio (the younger).

There is a prefabricated hut in which Michio has been imprisoned for raping a local government official called Sachiko. In this hut he is made to repair electrical appliances. Akitoshi has taken responsibility for the deed and married Sachiko. But in fact, Sachiko does not believe it was Michio who raped her (and actually likes him); and she was forced into marrying Akitoshi when he insisted on taking responsibility. Sachiko has a P.E. teacher from her junior high school days (also her homeroom teacher) called Keiko, who has come to work in the factory. Keiko hates vagueness, tries to explain everything with numbers, and has a fetish for machines. She indicates an interest in Michio, and it soon becomes sexual. Keiko, who knows that Michio is attaching wiretapping devices to the appliances he repairs and considers him endearing “trash.” Far from falling for a man whose values are unclear, Keiko is drawn to Michio because she can see right through his complete lack of values. Keiko gets him to call her Machine No. 3 and declares that as long as he fucks her senseless she’ll be his slave.

Akitoshi, for his part, is a crude and violent man with 6 fingers to his hand. Since one of his balls was bitten off by his pet crocodile, he has had no sex with Sachiko, who is put off by his condition. Instead he beats her up daily.

Keiko and Sachiko compete over Michio. Sachiko consults with Michio about running away, but having entered the hut is afraid of going out again, and lashes out at Akitoshi with a hammer. Akitoshi does not die, but tries to set fire to the hut, causing Keiko to throw him into the crocodile pond. He loses his other ball to his crocodile, but survives. Sachiko tries to let Michio escape and accidentally cuts off one of his legs; her neck gets broken by Keiko and she dies. Keiko escapes to the town, and because she’s going to have Michio’s baby and because Michio needs to get a job, she runs around setting fire to the neighbourhood where he was bullied as a kid.