The aesthetic of photographer and director Mika Ninagawa is gaudy to the nth degree. She crowds blood-red roses into her frame like crammed commuters in a rush-hour train. When she makes it rain, her actors may as well be standing under Niagara Falls.
This may seem un-Japanese to some, but the flip side of monks peacefully raking leaves on quiet temple grounds is raucous festivals with colorful floats. Also gaudy are the manga that explore the ero (erotic) and guro (grotesque) in various combinations — and have served as sources for Ninagawa's two previous films: "Sakuran" (2007) and "Helter Skelter" (2012).
The director's latest, "Diner," is based on a novel by Yumeaki Hirayama that has been turned into a popular manga by Takanori Kawai. Ninagawa, who co-wrote the script, takes both sources to dizzying heights of decadence and theatricality. That is, if a theater could cram its stage with massive bouquets of flowers, glittering profusions of glassware and heaps of rich, diet-defeating food, such as a towering hamburger dripping with juice and stabbed through with a giant knife, suggesting voluptuary pleasures beyond the table.