Love's Whirlpool (愛の渦, Ai no Uzu) is a 2014 Japanese erotic romantic drama film directed by Daisuke Miura.
The film was adapted from Miura's own award-winning play of the same name, and portrays a group of men and women who pay to come to a common location to take part in organized promiscuous sexual activity.
After the clerk/bartender leaves to get snacks, the men and women slowly begin small talk amongst themselves until the Freeter finally propositions the office lady to go downstairs.
From here the remaining men and women slowly paired: the salaried man with the kindergarten teacher, the NEET with the college student, and the factory worker with the regular customer.
After everyone has had their first round downstairs the men and women open up more to conversation, while the clerk returns with sex toys to be freely used for the rest of the night.
However, the scene cuts to show a couple who have joined the others in the living room, creating an awkward silence once again amidst the group.
The film concludes with the college student sitting with her friends at school, while the clerk cleaning up at the club receives a picture message of his newborn child.
[4] In the film these primary four men and four women characters come together and are a faced with an immense amount of pressure at the beginning of their encounter, with long pauses of awkward silence precluding small talk.
[5] Critic Christopher Bourne writes in his review that, "The sex is visually discreet at first, but as the night goes on and more details about the characters are revealed during the course of the film, the encounters become gradually more revealing, both physically and emotionally," explaining how this gradual exposure culminates in one of the film's most striking shots, showing a circling bird's eye view of all eight characters during simultaneous intercourse.
[7] The film begins by illustrating the industry's lower reaches, in which four men and four women all pay to join an anonymous sex party in a high-rise building in Roppongi.