Angel Guts 5: Red Vertigo

Passionately directed fifth installment, ANGEL GUTS: RED VERTIGO (aka RED DIZZINESS), possesses the Takashi Ishii edge and is a solid exhibit of the talent for provocative imagery that this fine director also brought to GONIN and FREEZE ME.

Nami, a dreamy nurse (Mayako Katsuragi), is raped, cheated on by her photographer boyfriend, struck by a car and molested by the driver (Naoto Takenaka), a pathetic loser who is on the run from businessmen he ripped off. This unlikely duo discover a twisted shade of love.

It's the director who makes or breaks these films because the plots are merely serviceable. Though some critics consider the eroticizing of sexual violence in cinema questionable, I am not one of them. Sex and violence are strong cinematic staples and hold a power that only a courageous filmmaker can adequately convey.

In every scene, Ishii tries hard. He never retreats to bland, conventional coverage and extracts maximum erotic potential from the sexually charged scenarios. Ms. Katsuragi delivers a strong, believable performance as the unfortunate victim of male lust and opportunism. She conveys vulnerability and strength and suggests that she lives a life beyond the film's immediate framing.

An early scene, in which Nami's boyfriend takes erotic photographs of his mistress, which uses stark lighting and harsh sound effects, radiates an anarchic, raw sexuality.

This is solid, sensual, exciting cinema.

After nurse Nami (Mayako Katsuragi) is assaulted by two of her patients (who are clearly feeling a lot better!) she flees to her photographer boyfriend's apartment where she discovers that her beau has been doing more than just taking snaps of his sexy model. Distraught, Nami runs away, only to be hit by down-on-his-luck stockbroker Tetsuro Muraki (Naoto Takenaka), who isn't paying attention to his driving.

Believing Nami to be dead, Tetsuro bundles the unfortunate girl into his car, and after parking up to decide what to do next, decides that a little sexual gratification is in order. Nami, however, is still very much alive, and waking up mid-grope, opens the car door and legs it.

Testuro pursues and catches Nami (but only after she has beaten him over the head with a piece of wood), and then attempts to rape her, but experiences problems in the trouser department. Eventually realising that his behaviour has been a tad out of order, Tetsuro apologises and begs forgiveness, buying Nami food and taking her to a motel for a bath. It is there that the pair form an unlikely bond and gradually fall in love. The next time Tetsuro gets Nami's knickers off, it's consensual and performance issues are a thing of the past.

Thematically, Red Vertigo is par for the course for the Angel Guts series, but the depravity actually depicted on this occasion is far more sporadic, the action interspersed by prolonged and rather dreary scenes where very little of interest happens. This probably wouldn't matter too much had the 'good bits' of the movie been sufficiently bizarre or if the lead actress had been an absolute stunner, but this one remains rather restrained in terms of dementedness, and Katsuragi isn't quite as attractive as previous actresses who have played Nami.

A real downer of an ending makes the film an even less enjoyable experience.

Yet another soft core sex flick from Japan. Yet again filled with perverse goings-on and shady characters. Yet again about a woman discovering and becoming comfortable with her sexuality. Yet again all men are sex-starved pigs and women the (often) unwilling objects of their desires. Then why the decent rating? Hard to say really.

A nurse is assaulted and nearly raped by some hoodlums at her hospital. She manages to escape and runs home for comfort, only to discover her husband cheating on her. She then flees her home only to have the bad luck of being hit by a car. And then, as if things weren't bad enough, she wakes up just in time to find herself being molested by the man that hit her. Talk about a bad day.

After the initial attack, the man keeps her captive and a classic case of Stolkhome syndrome kicks in, with her willingly giving into his advances. During this period viewers are treated to some graphic, if fogged-out, sex scenes that are a welcome contrast to the earlier scenes of sexual violence.

Despite myself, I did enjoy this film. I started for the kinky sex, but ended staying with it for the relationship between the characters, both of whom are victims of social ill; the woman that of physical, the man that of emotional. They just want a happy ending and by the end so do you. It is very much an urban fairy tale.

The film is in no way a technical marvel. It is a low-budget effort, but the makers use what they have well enough that it doesn't get in the way very often.

Despite being pretty slow in parts and fairly graphic sexually, there is a quality story being told here.

7/10

I don't seem to share most commentators' view that this is one of the best in the series, indeed I like it least. I find it harder to believe, with it's thrice abused Nami allowing herself to slide into a relationship with her last would be rapist, who had originally planned to have sex with her body after he believed he had killed her on the road. I find it hard to empathise with the characters for the same reason and I have even more trouble in this part of the series with the basic premise. Struggling to survive an attempted rape by one patient in her hospital while a second patient holds her down she finally manages to get out of the room albeit in dishevelled state. Bumping into another nurse in the corridor, the look on the other's face clearly tells us that there is no question that assistance will be called for and that conversely Nami has offended. I know this attitude existed and still exists to some extent but within a hospital with a patient crying that as he is to die he wants to have sex first (with a nurse!) and be able to have the shame directed towards the victim? Very hard to believe and as the fifth part of such an excellent series based on this director's own manga and scripts I think it a shame this is so melodramatic. Plenty to enjoy as well of course for Mr Ishii is a major talent and a stylish director.

In the fifth entry in the Angel Guts films, Takashi Ishii, himself takes over the directorial reins to tell this story of Nami,a nurse who after getting almost raped by two patients and returning home only to find her photographer boyfriend cheating on her with another woman (eagle eyed viewers will recognize her as Nami from the forth film, "Red Porno"), has enough. Running into the street in a frenzied state, she gets hit by a car. While she's knocked out the helpful man molests her, putting the running tally to 3.. At first she's angry at him, but then they begin to fall in love. While this was better then the forth and worst of the series, it was still nowhere near the first three. Which makes me strongly feel that Angel Guts would have been a fondly remembered trilogy, if only they left it at that.

My Grade: C

DVD Extras: Commentary by Jasper Sharp; Bio/Filmographies; a 32 and a half minute interview with Takashi Ishii; Original Sleeve art; and Trailers for this and 4 other Angel Guts Films (High School Co Ed, Red Classroom, Nami, & Red Porno) all available in Artsmagik's Box-set, but for some reason the 6th film "Angel Guts: Red Flash" is not in the set