In our anything-goes age, pedophilia remains one subject that makes everyone from film industry executives to ordinary fans nervous, to put it mildly. In "Lolita," Stanley Kubrick made the title character older than the 12-year-old in Vladimir Nabokov's notorious novel, while suggesting the sex rather than showing it, but the film was still at the outer limits of what was permissible in 1962. In his 1997 version, Adrian Lyne tried to be more faithful to the novel, and his film was turned down for distribution by every Hollywood studio before finally going into limited release in the U.S.
Junji Sakamoto's "Yami no Kodomotachi (Children of the Dark)," based on a novel by Yan Sogil and scripted by Sakamoto himself, is a far rawer depiction of pedophilia and its victims than anything in the "Lolita" films, but not in a pornographic sense. Instead, Salkamoto shows, with a documentary-like directness, how children caught in the web of a Thai prostitution ring are exploited, abused and, in some cases, murdered when they are no longer sexually salable. Despite its thriller plot structure, the film is a serious indictment, based on actual cases. There is not a "Lolita"-ish leer in it.
"Yami no Kodomotachi," however, has not been given a warm welcome on the festival circuit, though Sakamoto has made several critically acclaimed films, from his 1989 feature debut "Dotsuitarunen" through his 2000 loner-on-the-run drama "Kao (Face)," which won the prestigious Kinema Junpo prize for best Japanese film of the year. Also, "Yami" is getting only a limited release in Japan, though it features two of the hottest young stars of the moment: Aoi Miyazaki and Satoshi Tsumabuki, as well as such well-known veterans as Yosuke Eguchi and Koichi Sato.