Shojo no harawata

Maybe it was the title, or the trailer (certainly not the interview on the DVD, which is with the director as he keeps saying "hi, kids" into the camera like a buffoon), but I had expectations for Entrails of a Virgin to be at least a bit of sleazy fun with some good sex scenes and brutal, bloody killings by a weird Japanese penetrator. Turns out it's way too sleazy for its own good, or bad, or whatever. There's a problem- and one can see this also in the Italian sexploitation flick Porno Holocaust, similar to this in many respects- in not having balance to the sex and violence. Too much sex and it will turn into a prototypical porno, and not even with much production quality in comparison with most professional porno movies! And with the killing scenes, there has to be at least a little tack, and maybe just a smidgen of ingenuity, in creating the creature/killer/whatever. Entrails of a Virgin has neither. It's safe to say it's a pretty soulless movie, even if isn't one of the very worst ever made- it's there just for horn-dog Japanese fetishists to get off on girls in trouble and men who have all their brains in their 'other' heads.

In this case, we're given a photo team where the guys are taking some shots of some girls, nothing too salacious, and then by way of a dense fog they stay off at some house one night and are picked off one by one by "A Murderer" as he's credited. First off, the director Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu decides he has to put in a quota of random sex scenes early on- we get spliced in (or phoned in, take your pick) clips of one of the photographers having sex with one or more of the girls elsewhere. It looks like it's from another movie. Then once settled into the house, there's a 'wrestling' scene that's poorly choreographed and shot (yeah, we really need to see him 'all' there), and then on to the rape and killings. First the rape, by the photographers, who promise the girls some jobs for their time. Then the Murderer, who like D'Amato's creature is simply covered in mud and given a stupid facial, and who for an unknown reason kills the men and/or rapes the women one by one.

Now, the latter of those, taken by themselves, should be considered the highlights of the movie. This is like saying, however, that the croûtons are the best part of a wretchedly tasting salad. An eye-gouging scene, a spike thrown like an Olympic event (that scene, actually, is kind of cool), and finally the entrailing of the overly sex-crazed girl, whose inconsequential name I can't remember. Even *this* becomes disappointing just by not being correct to the title! On top of this, the sex scenes, which become tedious through 'Gaira' and his indulgence in long-takes-without-cutaways where everything by the Japanese censors is blurred anyway, are dubbed over by the actors (you'd think that they seem to be enjoying themselves enough, hence the need to let them 'speak' for themselves). But the overall feeling from Entrails of a Virgin is that of a lumpy one, where it's just there to be gawked at and without a shred of suspense or true horror (watch as the last girl left alive, the virgin of the picture, tries to stop the murderer from getting to her, which lasts five minutes as she keeps throwing sticks at him!) You just want it to be done with, for the 'I hate women' mantra to ease up or be rid altogether.

A lot of these Japanese soft porno movies remind me of old American nudie/sex films from the 60s, albeit a lot more explicit. This one is no exception, save the severely warped "horror" (?) movie that somehow sneaks its way into this tame squeal and grunt production. The "porno" parts are almost anti-erotic (they reminded me of scenes from Andy Milligan's "Seeds of Sin" for some reason) with lots of irritating Japanese girl squealing and the typical Japanese obsession with various bodily fluids dripping or being flung about (watch out for fogged pubic hair though!). In the midst of this time wasting stuff a muddy guy stalks around the fringes of the production and finally makes himself known by killing and raping the cast in ridiculous ways, before finally impregnating the one survivor while spouting off nonsense about "the only power that can kill me" or something. This movie was boring, and yet fascinating. The acting comes from the Big Book of Japanese Acting Templates. The cute girl acts like the cute girl in every other Japanese movie, as do the crazy girl, sexy girl, and horny lecherous old man. The violence is very cheap and silly, but seemingly from another movie, as if the director really wanted to make this extreme and surreal horror movie statement (in the terrible supplemental interview with him that I watched for 5 minutes he mentioned Decartes and said he was "angry at the world") but could only get sex movie studio Nikkatsu to fund it, so tossed off a half dozen boring sex scenes before getting to the good stuff. The "good stuff" made this movie semi-legendary on the underground/bootleg circuit for years (the title alone was a strong selling point), but I'm glad I never shelled out $20 for a bootleg, its just not all that great, save as a curio.

Director Kazuo Komizu started out as an assistant director and sometime co-writer to the great Koji Wakamatsu, so one might hope that the genius rubbed off. On the evidence of Guts of a Virgin, it did and it didn't. There is something of a similar innate skill with sleaze, a knowledge of the power of the frame, of close ups and still, gazing shots. He knows the illicit thrill of the female objectified, the female image dismembered, though rarely erotic this is a film with some aesthetic accomplishment to its shows of tits and asses, of beautiful legs and moaning faces. The use of discreet blurs rather than full pixellation to hide prohibited details helps too, conveying a certain woozy artiness. But sadly this is about the extent of the potency passed down and it gets rather stretched. The plot is thin, three female models and three fashion photographers finish shooting for the day but get lost in fog, leading them to spend the night in an abandoned house that just so happens to be part of the prowling ground of a dirt caked monster with a big dick. Lots of sex and assorted death follow. Thin stuff, and the writing gives no weight. The males are mean and manipulative, out for nought but throwaway thrills and the women are absurdly naive, to the point of being unsympathetic. They don't relate in especially interesting ways, so little is left but mostly joyless sex and it gets a bit dull despite the stylish shooting. The performers are all decent so if not especially interesting all the time its certainly convincing, the men are really pretty slimy and the women evidence some legitimate discomfort. Also one physical feat that seemed pretty impressive to a weakling like me (I won't say what). But it does get a bit wearying Fortunately the horror side of things is quality bizarro entertainment and the pace gradually quickens throughout the film to reach a borderline intense finale (which is also blithely bonkers in a rather pleasing manner). Atmospheric use of fog and backlighting helps, and a distinctly odd feel is produced by the decision to cut from the action to jarring visual metaphors and back. The gore effects are cheap but fun and the kills reasonably inspired and best of all unpredictable, with one being an absolute gonzo marvel. All of which doesn't entirely make up for the various longueurs, but it goes a long way in trying. I guess to sum up this is a worthy pit-stop for fans of lunatic trash, especially those with a big taste for soft-core, but no classic or anything.

When i sit down to watch a movie with a name such a this and a reputation to be one of the most grotesque japanese cinema has to offer i await to be repulsed. That didn´t happen. The first half of the movie was filled with softcore leening towards rape-porn, often featured in japanese films such as this. The few gore scenes where placed in the dark so you couldn´t see what was happening. There is of course the infamous highlight with chopped of hands, naked girls and lots of monster semen, but this comes too late. You are already uninterested. So, if this sounds appealing, see the movie with low expectations.

For fans of porn and/or horror there is nothing but disappointment to be found in this film. The 'porn' is no stronger than you can find on late night television in Japan replete with the fogging or pixelation. But even if the fogging were removed it still wouldn't have lifted the sex scenes out of the banal to the, hopefully, mildly arousing. The perennial motifs of Japanese porn are here; juvenille looking women wearing white knickers taking no pleasure in the sexual acts they indulge in only under protest. As for the horror quotient, there isn't any!!

Dont believe the hype around the DVD release of this film and don't, upon seeing the box's cover, buy it on the assumption that its a manga animation....like I did.