I.K.U.

I.K.U.
"This is not LOVE. This is SEX."
Directed byShu Lea Cheang
Written byShu Lea Cheang
Produced byTakashi Asai
Starring
CinematographyTetsuya Kamoto
Edited byKazuhiro Shirao
Music by
  • Hoppy Kamiyama
  • The Saboten
Distributed byUplink Co.
Release date
  • May 3, 2001 (2001-05-03) (Japan)
Running time
90 minutes (Premiere)
74 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese / English

I.K.U. (pronounced ai-kei-ju, abbreviated as iku?) is a 2000 independent film directed by Taiwanese-American experimental filmmaker Shu Lea Cheang. It was marketed as "a Japanese Sci-Fi Porn Feature". The film was partially inspired by Blade Runner (1982). I.K.U.'s premise involves a futuristic corporation sending shapeshifting cyborgs out into New Tokyo to collect "orgasm data" by means of sexual intercourse. The title is a pun on the Japanese word iku (行く) which, in sexual slang, is used to express an orgasm.

I.K.U. premiered at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival. It was the first pornographic film ever screened in the festival. Critical reception was poor.