Dabide no hoshi: Bishôjo-gari

Finally , i was trying to find it for a long time !

This is a well made beautiful film about the kidnap and torture of women. Its great to look at but I have yet to determine why I should want to watch it. Don't get me wrong it has nothing to do with refined sensibilities, I can enjoy twisted exploitation as well as anyone, but there's simply something wrong.

I think the problem with it is that its rather a dull movie. Terrible things happen to good looking woman...and thats about it. There is some attempt at character, but its not all that interesting. Its as if its trying to be more than the bondage porno it is.

I had been drawn to the film when I had read several articles that mentioned its bad reputation, so when I found a cheap copy I figured I'd give it a try. Perhaps back in 1979 it was something, but today with these jaded eyes its unremarkable. I've seen films of every sort and this one didn't strike as much of anything.

Will you find it offensive? If naked tortured women offends you, or you have stayed in the mainstream in your tastes, you probably will be offended or made uncomfortable, but for anyone else, this is probably going to bore you much more than it will shock or excite you. It has not lived up to its reputation.

When a man's wife is raped and impregnated by a serial killer, the result is a handsome playboy who grows up with a fetish for sex, torture, and murder. This Japanese production is like a morality play with no morals, with a protagonist who is at once charming, intelligent, and unredeemable; the multi-layered script fleshes out the character and those he abducts, and makes some surprisingly insightful observations about a society fixated on religion, morals, and beauty. While not achieving a balanced mix of depravity and fascination like Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salo," "Beautiful Girl Hunter" comes close enough, though the violence and sexual content becomes excessive near the end.

6.5/10

I heard about this film on the "cult film" message board of IMDB and, on his dare, ordered the video through WitchingHour Video.

How can one fairly review this trash? For what it is, the photography is well-done such that I was surprised the film was made in 1979 and not more recently. The plot has something to do about a notorious rapist/kidnapper father begatting a son to one of his rape victims, a son who grows up to be like his father (at film's end, they team up). Of course, the rape victim/mother of this son is flogged by her husband in the nude for several minutes when she tells him the rapist impregnated her and begs him not to strike her belly (which he does). Overall, as if plot was relevant, I thought it tried to imply that there's a "rape" gene that can be passed from father to son -- not just any rape gene, but one that causes its bearer to commit acts of ultra-violent depravity: prolonged rape, sexual torture, bondage, bestiality, caging women and everything under the sun (female masturbation and urination scenes are here too, although it's all exaggerated). Each scene seems carefully planned by the director (unusual in Western adult films). Some scenes are more realistic than others. A depraved filmmaker, this guy Noriyumi Suzuki. Japanese males must really be misogynistic that it could be made and distributed. School-age girls and even the rapist's sister aren't spared (although the sister, in a bizarre twist, doesn't find it at all offensive and turns on her co-captive -- so there goes the "gene" theory, unless she was a twin). Something in the story about hidden sexual desires in females, regardless of age or relation. About two hours of bondage, simulated sex and sexual torture, attractive and capable and surprisingly buxom Japanese actresses (acting defined as mostly physical bumping and grinding and hanging from ropes; oh, and some begging then being killed, others begging then submitting and later killed; Russ Meyer would be proud of the talent here). Comparable to Texas Chain Saw Massacre but with a prurient sexual theme. Oh, a pretty realistic, albeit simulated, bestiality scene is thrown in. The pacing from one depravity scene to the next is impressive; must have had a large budget; true, there is little story development in-between. Pretty graphic stuff, even if it is simulated.

Strange values, these Japanese film authorities: no male frontal nudity, no graphic penetration scenes but lots of the most realistic, prolonged simulated rape/torture scenes I've ever heard of. Still, if America allowed its distribution, it would be X-rated for its content alone and the realism of the "simulations" of murder and rape and degradation of the women... One could easily conclude that nothing like this could ever be made in a more civilized country that actually respected its mothers, sisters, and female children. I guess they call it "free expression."

More pornographic than what passes for "XXX" here, even though it is all simulated. Not a "date" movie. I can see only envision that hard up guys who blame females for their dating ineptitude and wish to vent on them, similarly-depraved minds and misguided liberals (an oxymoron) will champion this one.

Gave this film a 10 out of 10, which it probably doesn't deserve if you compare it with 'Citizen Kane' but if it's about originality it deserves it.

On the surface, it's just another of those Japan-shock-films. But notice how one girl is set free and how another one is shot on top of a building for everyone to see.

Disguised as a Japan-shocker this is an anarchist smuggler-film. Of course it is not too obvious as such, but still enough to enjoy. Easily the best of Japan-shockers.