XX: Utsukushiki kemono

While it is marginally better than the other two entries in the "XX" series I watched recently ("Beautiful Prey" and "Beautiful Weapon"), "Beautiful Beast" is still barely worthy of a recommendation. The usual ingredients are here: lengthy sex scenes, kinkiness, torture (including some acupuncture!), a few gunshots, and of course a violent end for most of the characters involved. The action is limited, the pacing is patience-trying, and the ending is anti-climactic. Kaori Shimamura is beautiful indeed, but the most interesting character in the film is her newfound "boyfriend", who has to choose between his fascination with her and his loyalty to his former Yakuza associates. Girls-with-guns fans looking into the Japanese market will be better served by most "Zero Woman" films. (**)

The formula is simple: take a long-legged Japanese beauty like Kaori Shimamura, who looks really good with a gun in her hand, and can also display a magnificent body during the sex scenes, and put a shell of a story around it.

In this case, we have our girl trying to hit the head of the Yakuza for killing her sister.

There is lots of shooting (both bullets and sperm) and blood enough to appease the vampires in the audience. There is also some really strange action that will best be left for the viewer to discover.

One of the best I've seen.

Perverse! Maniac who takes to slicing up nubile young women is pursued by a forensics cop who has a morbid streak of her own; her involvement with the prime suspect recalls but doesn't quite follow the tired Eszterhazian formula which hobbles most similar films this side of the Pacific Rim. Breaks many western thriller conventions (i.e. dispatching a major, sympathetic character at a crucial moment), a creepy and methodical unraveling of plot elements and a ruthlessly economical narrative reflect an approach decidely offbeat to viewers more conditioned to Western formulas of thriller exposition...

A gory, somewhat unpleasant ice-fingers-on-the-neck treat. If this your cuppa tea, have a slice, but don't expect "Scream"-style conventions---the take-no-prisoners level of violence and the leading lady's chilly presense keep things disturbingly out-of-kilter despite a silly and moralistic epilogue.

Pic more or less works without subtitles, if you're wondering.

A hit-woman goes after the Japanese mafia with a mad-on after her sister is killed. This is a merely ok foreign action flick. Has a few sleazy moments meant to shock. But it doesn't tread any new ground, which is fine as it has a style of to it.

My Grade:C-

DVD extras: Trailers for Terminatrix, Sumo Vixens, Weather Woman, Blowback: Love and death, Tokyo Mafia: Yakuza Wars; a (not very good) trivia game; & cast bios

Eye Candy: Kaori Shimamura as Ran (the Black Orchid), has a lengthy nude love scene early on. She's topless later on but in a far less erotic way.

This is a great movie!!! It deals with a serial killer; The suspense is quite good and does not follow the Hollywood convention so you don't know what to expect. Plenty of graphic well done sex scenes. Beware that there is also a graphic rape scene. Still a 9 out of 10.