Iki-jigoku

I was lucky enough to come across a copy of "Living Hell" in a record shop, used. I scooped it, not really knowing what to expect, but it looked cool on the cover. I laughed at the goofy tags on the insert...It claimed to be 'a Japanese chainsaw massacre..' Truth be told, I think this movie is almost as good as "The Texas Chain Saw Massacre."

The story is like this: a family of four with a handicapped, wheelchair-bound son, takes in some relatives that have been sort of abandoned. An old lady and a mysterious, ultra-creepy, animal-girl. Things take a turn for the worse and we find that the seemingly innocent old lady is not so innocent, and the animal girl, she's, well...an animal. I won't give anything else away, but I'll say this: I usually don't get creeped out by movies and I've seen my share: "Cannibal Holocaust," "Beyond the Darkness," etc... This one creeped me out. I got a little nervous when "Living Hell" takes a turn for the dark side.

I'd highly recommend this one to people who love Asian horror or gore films. If you can find it...

8 out of 10, kids.

Made in around 9 days, with a budget of just $100,000, this movie is a fun ride. While not being the over-the-top goreathon that I imagined it may be, "Living Hell" certainly contained a number of memorable scenes which are well worth the purchase price.

This film's been compared to "Texas Chainsaw" and "Evil Dead 2"....dangerous comparisons as viewers will expect a hell of a lot and the movie may disappoint.

Keeping plot details to a minimum (I don't want to spoil anything), the film concerns the survivors of a bloodbath seeking accommodation with distant relatives. As soon as the survivors arrive, things start to turn bad, particularly for the relatives' young wheelchair-bound son. His life is about to become a "Living Hell"! Considering the budget of the movie, it's a small miracle that this was shot on film. Thesedays, most low-budget affairs are Digital Video productions and this movie benefits from the more high-budget appearance of film. It's a remarkable achievement and far more impressive, IMHO, than films like "Deadbeat at Dawn" or "Combat Shock".

Worthy of a rental.

Living Hell (2000)

** (out of 4)

Yasu (Hurorito Honda) is a troubled twenty-two year old who is confined to a wheelchair due to some sort of anxiety, which has taken over his body. The young man lives with his father, sister and brother but soon two new relatives show up at the house. Chiyo, a senile older woman and her granddaughter strike the young boy as being a bit weird but soon he realizes that they are a lot more than that. Within days of moving in the two women start torturing the boy but no one in the family will believe him because they think this is just an act to get more attention. With no one to believe him Yasu is trapped in the house with the women who go all out to serve their deadly plans.

I went into Living Hell with high expectations but in the end I found myself checking my clock way too much to totally enjoy the film. There are many wonderful ideas floating around in the film but in the end we're left with a pretty empty film without any characters to root for and an ending that's so over the top and ripped from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that the eeriness the director tries for went way over my head.

The first thirty minutes really kills the film with its boring introduction to the new family, which will soon be stalked by the crazy grandmother and granddaughter. We first see the family gathered around the breakfast table arguing about the new guests that are about to arrive. All this fighting is so incredibly annoying that within minutes you'll be wishing they'd get knocked off right then and there. Also in this time we never really get to know any of the family members, especially the paralyzed boy who is supposed to be the guy we're rooting for throughout the film. What we do get to see of him doesn't make us care too much for him and the wooden performance by Hirohito Honda doesn't help mattes either.

Without anyone to care for I really had a hard time getting into the actual torturing that goes on. I'm quite certain the director wants us to cheer for our young hero yet since he never bothered to let us get to know him then we're left without any real emotions going throughout the film. Another incredibly boring and pointless plot line has a local detective trying to track down the grandmother but this here turns out to be nothing more than filler, which adds an extras thirty-minutes to the running time and doesn't offer us anything interesting. Even without a likable character I was hoping the violence would push this into the entertainment level but that didn't happen either.

I think the film tries to appear a lot meaner than it actually is. Perhaps I'm just a little too jaded but the violence here wasn't really anything we haven't seen before and if you've seen any horror films from Italy then I highly doubt you'll be shocked by this film. In the torture department we see teeth being pulled out, heads beaten with hammers, the young boy used as a dart board and to top it all off we even get to see his private area soaked with water only to have a stun gun put to test. None of this is done overly graphic and the director makes a mistake by keeping the film a bit too clean. With such films like Organ and Men Behind the Sun I'm really not sure what the point of this cleanness was. Perhaps budget problems? Director Shugo Fujii adds some nice touches here and there but the bad editing and constant blackouts really start to get annoying very quickly. The director does a wonderful job trying to set up a doomed atmosphere, which is nicely brought to life by the way the film is lit. Most of the scenes take place with light only coming through windows while other scenes are merely lit by candles. Another nice addition are some wickedly creepy sound effects that come into play throughout the movie. Living Hell is worth a viewing but I can't help but feel it should have been a lot better.

I've been around the horror block a few hundred times. I've literally seen a few thousand horror films from every corner of the world. I actively seek out the sickest films on earth, and had thought myself hopelessly jaded. Now, for the first time in years, I find myself genuinely shocked. Of the thousands of horror films I've seen, Iki-jigoku ranks in the 10 sickest of them all.

An excruciating examination of cruelty and insanity, this film makes Make Them Die Slowly look like The Jungle Book. A very cringe inducing mother and daughter team, with amazingly reserved glee, torture a wheelchair bound young man in his own (apparently very well soundproofed) home. With each new scene, I would grind my teeth in dread and anticipation as new and more wretched horrors were visited upon our long suffering (and suffering and suffering) hero.

About an hour into the movie, things take a completely insane turn. Humor darker than a cosmic black hole permeates the films decent into total madness.

If this were a lousy film (and lets face it, most horror films are), I would have still been pleasantly appalled. However, this movie was actually GREAT! The cinematography was creative without drawing too much attention to itself, the lighting was damned perfect, and the performances were absolutely believable.

Those who are not truly horror film junkies will undoubtedly not understand, but if you are among the converted, SEE THIS FILM, even if you have to watch some third generation dub like I did (far be it from Americans to release something this bold).

I have just one question: are the Japanese the only people on the face of the earth who can create REAL horror movies anymore?

I love horror movies. Good ones, bad ones, silly ones - I like them all, except when the only plot device requires the characters to all be total idiots.

I picked this up at blockbuster today because I generally find Japan low budget horror films to be better than most. I don't want to tell you readers to skip this one so I'll offer some questions. You can make up your own minds.

Q1: You are a journalist who is investigating a missing mental patient and murderer that the police are looking for. You track down the address of her son. If you'd call the police, you might want to pass on this one. If you'd drive over at night (when you know he's home), sneak in a bathroom window and start wandering around, this movie could be for you.

Q2: You come home and find your brother beaten, bleeding and frightened. Power is out, phones are dead and you know that two evil people are still in the house. Brother says "Go out the window and get help". If you'd get help, skip this. If you think wandering though the house looking for your cell phone is a better idea, have at it.

Q3: You find your cell phone. Dial 911? Not for you. Nope, watch this movie if you think the best action is to now get a flashlight and start looking for that lost first aid kit.

There's a lot more stupid stuff. Watch this film only if you can totally and I mean totally turn off your brain. You won't find a bigger collection of morons until you get to a slapstick comedy.