It's all in the pursuit

For once, the Japanese title works better than the original -- the New Zealand movie called "Toy Love" is billed here as "Neko wa Nandemo Shitteiru (The Cat Knows Everything)." It has a nice Shibuya ring to it (appropriately enough it is currently at Cine Saison Shibuya) and it matches the topic, which can loosely be described as run-amok hormones. The cat, by the way, refers to the stuffed toy that belongs to the heroine, without which she refuses to have sex. True to the Japanese taste in such matters, the cat fetish enhances the pornographic flavor while neutralizing it with cutesieness.

The sole concern of "Toy Love" is the turn-on. Accordingly (and in spite of the promised titillation factor), the actual sex in "Toy Love" is kind of flat, for both characters and viewer: an anticlimax following the delicious, delirious excitement of tease and pursuit. The characters know it, and to keep the fire burning (so to speak), they lie, steal, break up, get back together, wreck other relationships, fake suicides -- all in the name of seduction.

Directed and written by Harry Sinclair, "Toy Love" is clever and stinging and fast, fast, fast -- trouble is, it just runs laps on the exact same track. For the first 30 minutes or so, the speed is satisfying. But after a while, the repetition becomes a bit wearing. Ben (Dean O'Gorman) tries to pick up Chlo (Kate Elliott) in a bar, but is interrupted by other suitors. Later, Chlo gives him a lift home and then insists on coming in. This is rather inconvenient for Ben, who's living with girlfriend Emily (Marissa Stott). But Chlo smoothly introduces herself as "Ben's colleague," then seduces him in the bathroom (as Emily makes tea for all of them in the kitchen).