Shojo no harawata

Given the title and outlandish box art, I was ready for just about anything. Perhaps my expectation were forced just a bit to high, because I was left a little dry.

A film crew working on a soft-core sex movie end up at a strange house when they get lost in the fog and decide the best way to spend the evening is to have sex. Where hasn't this set up been used before? The difference here is the uber-perverse nature of the sex. Not allowed to show all the goods (groin shots were illegal in Japan for a long time, what is shown is fogged out) the movie tries as hard as it can to show the viewer just how unnatural sex can be.

Amidst all the kinky goings on, a mud monster (whose origin I can't fathom) shows up and begins murdering the men and raping the women...then murdering them too. Some of the sights are a bit much, most notably a woman having her intestines pulled out through her vagina or another woman spitting out a mouthful of...stuff, but otherwise the gore is pretty standard fare.

Ultimately the film is pulled down by it's own designs; it's too over-sexed to be a strait horror picture and too gruesome to work as a sex flick. The mediums can work, but there need to be a balance.

4/10

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.

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.

How do you review this objectively? I don't think you can. You either enjoy this sort of thing or you don't. I've given the movie a 5 not because its either good or bad, it simply is and I can't try to rate it for that reason.

After a soft-core photo shoot the photographers and the models go to a house in the mountains where kinky sex takes with occasional interruptions by a mud-covered demon/psycho who tears the men apart and has his way with the women. Plotwise thats about it, sex followed by violence followed by sex...

I don't know what else to say beyond that. Certainly its well made with sex scenes that are quite steamy (and kinky). I can't say that there really is a point beyond the melding of sex and horror. If its suppose to disturb it does that. If its suppose to titillate it does that too. I just don't know if you're suppose to feel both emotions at the same time.

As I said you either enjoy this sort of thing or you don't. Whether you watch it is your own choice, just don't say you weren't warned.

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.