The overall tone of Midori's Expert Guide to Sensual Bondage is very much aimed to cater to people who have no experience in bondage at all, and who are interested in taking their sex lives to "the next level". Not only is it a guide of how to do bondage, it's a guide on everything having to do with bondage; it discusses terms to describe partners' roles who are indulging in bondage, safety things to remember, what certain tools to use, and, of course, how to use them. This DVD also allows couples or individuals to watch light bondage in play, and understand how to "make sex hotter," as Midori likes to say.

1st Scene: Midori's Bondage Workshop
During this little introduction to bondage, Midori gives a lot of helpful tips and useful guidance to aid those new to light (or sensual, as they refer to it) bondage. Her three main topics are communication, "why bondage?", and safety, the first and third being the most necessary. I was very pleased to see these topics discussed; they were all very well said by Midori, and she left nothing out. My favorites of her tips were:
-If the mouth is full (like with oral sex), you can put a small ball or set of keys in the "giver's" hand and, if they drop it, that means to stop (a safe "gesture," rather than safe "word");
-Make sure to communicate with your partner while fitting bondage on them as to not make it too tight;
-Take out contacts if you are going to wear a blindfold;
-And, my favorite of all, keep scissors nearby in case anything goes wrong.
Towards the end of this segment, Midori also gave some advice on cheap and easy bondage tools to use (like bathrobe belts, stockings) and she also talks about where you can perform bondage. After listing a few places, she then says, "...in a tent!" It was very funny.

2nd Scene: Adrianna and Mark, Instructional Portion with Midori
Midori introduces a couple of bondage equipment to the couple, and both Adrianna and Mark seem engaged the entire time (it's very realistic, and sort of brings the "perfect porn" idealistic view down a few notches), allowing the viewer to feel comfortable. I especially enjoyed Midori's tip for using bungee cords on the bed posts like under-the-bed restraint systems. Mark performs Midori's suggested positions and methods on Adrianna, and it switches over to the sex scene, where Mark "tries it out" on Adrianna.

3rd Scene: Adrianna and Mark's Sex Scene
These two are quite the couple; they are both full-bodied people, and they each had their imperfections. Mark in this scene was the Dominant, and Adrianna seemed to enjoy it. It starts with Mark eating Adrianna out after tying her up to their bed. She does a lot of squirming that's fun to watch, though I personally feel that the angle showed him licking her pussy too much. He also fingers her, both anally and vaginally, and he also penetrates her vaginally. She gives him head at some points, and their roles never falter. Throughout the scene, Adrianna throws in some "Yes, Master"s and "Please, Master"s, which I found to be nice.

4th Scene: Madison and Danny's Sex Scene
Madison and Danny have no instructional piece—they get right to the action! First, it starts out with Danny as Madison's Dominant, and he plays the role very well. Madison is a loving and appreciative submissive, as she lays kisses on his erection eagerly with closed eyes. There is some anal penetration (of Madison), and a switch of role where Madison puts a blindfold on Danny and rides him cowgirl style. I felt that they both went very well with each other, though the role reversal was a bit forced as Danny, even when he was Madison's submissive, was taking control.

Midori
Midori has this low, sultry voice that almost lulled me to sleep. She had this "sensual" (like the title of the film) voice that, though I didn't find attractive, was very sexy. The way she talked with her movements and gestures really bring you in to the film and are not boring at all. It's obvious that she's also very educated on what to do with bondage, and makes it easy for people who might not know much about it. After seeing this, I'd love to go to some of the seminars that she was talking about in her film. Midori, along with this instructional guide, has out a few other books.

Adrianna Nicole and Mark Davis
In their instructional scene, the directors really played up the M/s aspect that they were trying to convey, with Mark as the Dominant and Adrianna as the submissive, as well as the loving/caring aspect to their relationship outside of bondage. It was actually kind of cute—I enjoyed watching Adrianna's actions and reactions to Mark. But Mark didn't exactly interest me as much. He sort of fumbled around with testing out the bondage tips Midori gave him, which did make their coupling seem more "real," but only struck me as having an inability to comprehend simple instructions.

Their actual sex scene was only so-so. I was much too distracted by Mark's loud, aggravating moans to be able to concentrate on the actual interesting part; Adrianna. She really was what made the entire scene shine. And this might be an attractive bonus to people who enjoy "well-rounded" women, Adrianna isn't thin at all. Her curves do bounce around, and her breasts (I'm assuming 38B, though I might be wrong) aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination—they're actually fairly floppy. Mark also doesn't have a perfect body, and his penis isn't "porn-star"-sized. I will say, that above everything, they have wonderful chemistry with each other. Very good as a pair, though alone, Adrianna was a much more pleasing actress.

Madison Young and Danny Wylde
Both Madison and Danny have very thin frames and are much younger than Adrianna and Mark. They also have nice chemistry, and their scene was solely done without any instructional guide beforehand. I felt that they seemed to have more of a connection than Adrianna and Mark, but I must say, Madison's noises really bothered me. Though I won't get down on her for it, be forewarned that she does have very loud, nasally, shaky moans. I did love though how much she seemed to worship Danny during the scene when she was his submissive; she was very eager to please him. When he was tied up, he seemed to remain dominant, but it was cute to watch them each attempt to switch roles.

On the cover of Midori's Expert Guide to Sensual Bondage was typical pornographic artwork—it's very flashy, but I do find it to be attractive and well done. Centered is a photograph of Midori and Adrianna, Adrianna in cuffs and a collar, Midori in everyday clothing. Displayed on the back are multiple scenes of the film with a very well-written description on the left-hand side. Artistically, it's very well done. There are three options on the title menu (Play Movie, Scene Selection, and Special Features), which runs for thirty seconds then begins to play the first sex scene with Adrianna and Mark. Playing the movie takes you to the very beginning, with Midori's workshop, Scene Selection allows you to choose between the scenes, and the Special Features menu brings you to a couple of interesting things to watch:

-Bonus Scenes (consists of both sex scenes without Midori's instruction, Midori's special scarf harness, and a safer sex clip)
-Behind the Scenes (a very lovely look at how porn is actually done; I enjoyed watching this)
-Photo Gallery (some lovely photos taken of the sex scenes, though it is boring to sit through)
-Previews (other Vivid films)
-Vivid Ed Commercial (just as stated—a commercial)
-Vivid Extras (more commercials, hosted by Monique Alexander)

The total run time of the film is 1 hr. and 40 min. The instructional video on Midori's idea for a scarf harness is really cool—a cheap way to wear either a dildo or the Hitachi vibrator. I'm not giving away how to do it though—that's classified!

When I had first gotten the request to review this, I had thought that it was a book. I had seen Midori's Japanese bondage book and was very interested in it, so I thought that this, based on its title, was a more comprehensive guide. I did feel like a bit of a dolt after accepting it and reading further to find out that it was a pornographic DVD guide. I am happy, however, that I received it, as Midori shared some interesting tips that were helpful. However, the DVD is not a guide for experts, as the name might imply; it's a guide given from experts.

I do hope that my review was useful, as I'm not particularly well-versed in pornography and this is my first review on a film of this caliber.

As I was watching this, I wasn't particularly getting excitement from it. That's to be expected, since watching porn was never really a turn on for me. I actually watched this looking more at their technique with bondage rather than their sex. My favorite parts were the instructional, which is unlike most people's experience with pornographic guides. They were really interesting, and I loved Midori's take on some bondage. I also loved when she would come on at random times during the scenes and say something. It was hilarious, at one point, she made fun of one of the actors. It did give me a good laugh.