Today’s viewers may have grown desensitized to screen violence and CGI spectacle, but there’s still something bracing about seeing an actor go beyond the call of duty for a role.

Ryuichi Hiroki’s “Ride or Die,” which will be released worldwide on Netflix this month, is likely to get people talking in a way that few of the streaming giant’s Japanese originals have managed so far. The film is a torrid, emotionally bruising tale of sexuality, class, domestic abuse and murder, featuring a pair of extraordinarily committed performances by its stars, Kiko Mizuhara and Honami Sato.

It’s also one of the most sexually explicit movies to come out of Japan in recent memory, at least beyond the realms of the adult entertainment industry.