Tokugawa - Gequälte Frauen

I recently watched the Japanese film 🇯🇵 Shogun's Joy of Torture (1968) on Tubi. The story follows a young woman whose brother is accused of horrific crimes and killed. In an effort to clear his name, she assumes both the blame and the brutal consequences that follow.

Directed by Teruo Ishii (Blind Woman's Curse), the film stars Teruo Yoshida (Goke, Bodysnatcher from Hell), Masumi Tachibana (Yakuza Law), Fumio Watanabe (Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance), and Mie Hanabusa (Horrors of Malformed Men).

As with many of Ishii's works, the film does a strong job immersing you in its world. The acting, period attire, sets, and props all contribute to a sense of gritty realism. The female leads-particularly Mitsu and a blonde who appears later-are strikingly beautiful, and the camera certainly doesn't ignore that. However, the torture scenes, while intense and stylized, are handled with a seriousness that keeps them from feeling purely exploitative.

The plot develops in a fairly grounded way, holding your attention even if it doesn't quite break new ground.

In the end, Shogun's Joy of Torture isn't a standout in the genre, but it offers enough to make it worth a watch for fans of vintage Japanese exploitation cinema. I'd give it a 6/10.

Teruo Ishii's extremely provocative movie set in the 1600 in feudal Japan. 3 short stories dealing with punishment and torture. The first deals with incest where a woman is beaten and tortured to death for having an affair with her dying brother. The second is about lesbian nuns and the third story shows a crazy tattoo artist who kidnaps a woman to use as his canvas. Even though this movie is over 35 years old, the effects and the gore are amazing! Humans burned at barbeques, decapitations and more torture than you could possibly wish for makes this classic videonasty a must have for all fans of good and gory movies!

Don't miss out on the even more extreme sequel; The Joys of Torture 2: Oxen Split Torturing!

Teruo Ishii may never be regarded in the same exalted terms as fellow Japanese cult heroes like Norifumi Suzuki or Koji Wakamatsu (though to be fair much of his work remains pretty rare), but he was certainly no slouch, a solid and stylish contributor to many genres. The Joy of Torture is probably the best I've seen from him so far, the start of his eight strong ero guro series. An anthology film indicting Edo era savagery, while not especially graphic its a classy and even moving work with some memorable scenes.

The first story is the weakest of the three, seeing a woman driven to desperation and aberrant love by her injured brother. Interesting enough but little developed, it's a set up that would have benefited from a full length treatment or at least greater levels of emotional intensity, high melodrama should have been the style but its actually relatively subdued. Still good stuff though and its theme of love binding characters to their doom leads nicely into the next story, a tale of nuns driven wild with lust for a neighboring monk. This one really ups the ante, with escalating hysteria mounting into interesting torture scenes and bloodshed, including a hilarious use of loaches. The best is saved till last though, a dedicated tattoo artist seeks to create his finest work by watching the torture of Christian missionaries. This segment combines interesting obsession with the most protracted torture scenes of the film, lots of beating, wheeling, burning and so forth of a multitude of screaming semi naked ladies to unsettling yet undeniably erotic effect. Plus the close is (relatively speaking) pretty upbeat. So its a decent mix, but at the same time somewhat flawed. Some inconsistencies nag, most notably the aforementioned slightly flat opening story. The film is thematically inconsistent too, flitting from the tragedy of love to the mania of excess to the excess of torture, taking in the harshness of social strictures, cruelty of individuals and passion of torture along the way. Although the stories are united by recurring torturer Nambara and his (relatively) nice guy assistant, there's a slightly scattershot feel to the general critique that detracts from the overall effect. The social justification is a tad cheesy as well, which wouldn't be a bad thing but the film is exploitative enough to seem hypocritical while not exploitative enough to be hilarious in having higher pretensions. There isn't much gore either, but then its still fairly strong for its time. Altogether still a very worthy film, nudity, nastiness, solid plotting and beautiful cinematography, definitely worth a watch for vintage Japanese exploitation fans.

Shogun's Joy of Torture sees a change in direction for director Teruo Ishii, who leaves his previous cinematic worlds of gritty crime drama and cheesy sci-fi for more exploitative territory, where the order of the day is bondage, sadism, sex and tattoos. Yes... tattoos.

The film - which is set during the Edo period - opens with some truly eye-opening violence: a woman is hung from a tree, beheaded, and her body cut in half by a swordsman; another victim is burnt alive; and a lady is torn to pieces by horses. All of this before the opening credits have even finished. The rest of the film comprises of three tales of cruel punishment meted out for different crimes, while a Shogunate assistant weighs up the pros and cons of such extreme discipline.

The first story sees pretty 18-year-old Mitsu (Masumi Tachibana) forced to accept financial help from Minosuke (Kichijirô Ueda), master of the local kimono shop, after a log falls on her brother Shinzô, leaving him in need of expensive medical care. Indebted to Minosuke, Mitsu is forced to comply with his sexual demands, which leaves Shinzô distraught, for he has long harboured incestuous desires for his sister. Unable to bear it any longer, Shinzô declares his love for Mitsu, and is happy to learn that she feels the same way. The siblings begin a sexual relationship, but their taboo trysts are soon rumbled by Minosuke, who rapes Mitsu, knowing that they dare not report him. When Shinzô commits suicide in order to put an end to his shameful life, Mitsu loses her temper and attacks Minosuke, who finally reports the girl to the authorities. In order to get Mitsu to confess, she is stripped, bound, and beaten with bamboo. Mitsu doesn't break, and is given the option of exile instead of death, but the young woman ultimately decides that she would rather be reunited with her dead brother and confesses. Her punishment is to be crucified on an inverted cross in the surf as the tide comes in. Glub, glub, glub! Mitsu's fate is made all the more harrowing after we learn that Minosuke was responsible for Shinzô's injuries in the first place, having arranged for the accident so that he could have his way with Mitsu. Naughty naughty.

The next chapter is called 'The Beheading of an Abbess in the Juko Temple'. Mother Reiho (Yukie Kagawa) takes a fancy to bald priest Syunkai (Shin'ichirô Hayashi), who she discovers is having a secret affair with pretty (but equally as bald) nun Myôshin (Miki Obana). After watching the couple going at it in the woods, Reiho approaches Syunkai and orders him to strip and purify himself under a waterfall. While the young priest is repenting for his sins, Reiho slips out of her habit and joins him and they have sex. Afterwards, Syunkai tells Reiho he only jumped her to save Myôshin, for now she is just as guilty. His ploy doesn't work: Reiho has Myôshin tied up and tortured, using loaches and a red hot chili pepper to bring tears to her eyes (and I'm not talking about Flea wearing nothing but a sock - that would be way too cruel!). Syunkai turns up demanding to see Myôshin, and stupidly agrees to be tied up beforehand, which ultimately leads to the guy having his head hacked off by the now certifiably insane Reiho. The Shogunate officials turn up to find the crazy nun carrying the priest's head. She commits harakiri, but that doesn't stop the authorities crucifying her dead body and piercing it with spears, along with a handful of other, very much alive nuns.

The third story is the murder case of tattoo artist Horicho (Asao Koike), who is committed to producing a masterpiece depicting the agony of torture. When his latest work is mocked by a Shogunate lord for its lack of realism, Horicho finds a new canvas - a woman named Hana (Reiko Mikasa) who he kidnaps for her perfect skin - and sets about creating his finest work of art. Horicho requests if he can attend the torture of prisoners, so he can accurately capture their expressions, as well as using the sadistic lord as his model for a hellish ogre. However, the tattooist's real aim is to give the torturer a taste of his own medicine.

All three stories feature copious scenes of torture and misogyny which undeniably push the boundaries for the time, but never quite live up to the promise of the amazingly gory opening credits executions. However, those who think that this one doesn't go far enough should definitely check out the 1976 unofficial sequel, The Joy of Torture 2: Oxen Split Torturing, which goes all out to shock with its nasty graphic violence.

Three separate approximately 30 minute stories. Each story is just a normal story but will involve torture at some point. Each story stands on their own tho they are connected by a magistrate that is going through the records of three incidents.

The tortures are the glue that binds each individual story. The tortures shown are historically accurate. The special effects and editing are mostly very good with a couple of exceptions. This is a Ero Guro film, not a Pink Eiga. There is some nudity but it's often subdued. At times when nudity would have fit, they instead covered up. Any sex scenes are definitely not erotic or explicit.

The first story kind of drags a little although still interesting. The second and third are really done well. The sets and acting are above average. Seems like there was a decent budget for this film.

This movie wasn't well received originally but since then has become a well respected classic. It will not be for everyone. For those it is, they will enjoy watching.