Chôjin densetsu urotsukidôji: Original gekijô kôkai-ban

Urotsukidoji is a textbook example of Epic. This film is HUGE and is very, very complex. Sure the Japanese have a somewhat misogynist view on things but who are we to judge them? It's about culture. Urotsukidoji boiled down to the essentuals is basically about the search for the meaning of life (and destiny), morality, yes! sexuality BUT in context if you look at it the films are about doomed love.

I don't have time to go into the ins and outs but if you look at the series using a feminist perspective one will find that the series actually treats all characters with the same distain. Yes, the destruction of the female principle is there (fascism reference- justified once again by the context of the series as A WHOLE) but it is the female characters that have the most depth. Take Megume for example, the so-called 'slut' archetype. if you look closer to the overall story her storylines are much more philosophical.

Take even Amano, who at the begining takes a certain ambivalence to other people's suffering, towards the end he becomes more humanist. Take his metaphor of nature (how it goes round and round), we live and die then become one with the world. (See also THE WICKER MAN (1973))

I could go on but it is far too complex to get into. I suggest reading up on Japanese tradition and mythology...I think you'll find your basic Shakespeare play will have all if not more of the 'deviant' themes that Urotsukidoji has. The difference? Books are treated with reverence...film's aren't. Why? cos Nazi's burned books but what people forget is they also suppressed film. Why? because they knew it had a power over the population that books didn't. (See 'Triumph of the Will' for an example of their abuse of film's emotive qualities).

Nuff said!

Wow, if you're reading this review; you've probably heard all the hype and controversy surrounding this movie and to tell the truth it deserves it. From the first 10 minutes of a female teacher turning into a demon and raping a student, to orgies to sodomy to some graphic depictions of violence; this film is an endurance test for a movie-going novice. I enjoyed this first segment in the series, I think the 2nd one (Legend of the Demon Womb) was slightly better, but they are both better than any other in the series including RETURN OF THE OVERFIEND or INFERNO ROAD. The later in the series, the more confusing and stupid it gets. Don't say you weren't warned!

This is rightly considered the greatest of all Hentai movies. Even anti-hentai Anime fans have praised it as revolutionary. But there are some elements of Urotsukidoji should have been dropped altogether. The pointless scenes of rape for one thing. And that schmaltzy scene at the end is badly done. But for all it's extremities, this has the kind of mind-blowing action, plot and animation which could have put it up there with Akira. Behind the sex and violence, director Hideki Takayama and writer Toshio Maeda have nonetheless managed to give us an acute observation of teenage sexual anxiety which has wrongly been interpreted as violent porn. Let's face it, we've all been like Nagumo at some point, hopelessly in love with Akemi but without a chance of catching her. It's both intelligent, observational, with touches of humour and outbursts of outrageousness. In short, it's anime fantasy at it's most humanist level. Very well done.

The main problem with this film is it tries so hard to offend that everything else (plot, character, good dialogue) gets thrown out of the window. The graphic scenes of sex and violence wouldn't really worry me too much if they were relevant to the plot but alas, the initially intriguing sci-fi premise is soon ditched in favour of a "let's see which one of us can do the sickest and most disturbing scene in the film" between the animators. Such a shame, if they actually put a bit of effort into developing the plot and less time testing the audiences morality then we might have something interesting here. Oh yeah, and what was the point in dubbing all the original Japanese voicework with completely out of place American accents? (which have to be squeaky of course, to suit the films Tokyo setting.) Couldn't they just have kept the film the way it was and added sub-titles at the end? Oh sorry I forgot, the studio thinks the average Yank doesn't have the patience to read them AND watch the film at the same time... Cheers for that vote of confidence there, dudes. In conclusion, this film is like that foul-mouthed child you stick in the corner for using bad-language: They try to get your attention by trying to shock you as much as possible, but really all they succeed in doing is make you realize just how sad and desperate they are.

Many people see this as nothing else but another stupid hentai title with cute little girls being raped and killed for no good reason. Well, with such way of thinking, Neon Genesis Evangelion would be nothing more but stupid big robots fighting for entertainment that little boys can watch. Well, that of course isn't the case, is it? Such an opinion is a serious understatement.

First of all unlike other hentai titles I've come across, this series is strongly plot driven. In fact, (almost) all of the sex scenes serve the storyline and drive the story forward in some way, let it be consensual or not.

As for the characters, this movie is unique already in the fact that it's one of the very few films that actually has made me feel something for the characters. Like the character of Niki for instance, or the doomed love of Nagumo and Akemi...I wanted to shed a tear or two for them.

To sum it up simply, Urotsukidoji is very much worth of watching, if you can take the content, that is. If demons with multiple penises raping schoolgirls (which actually happens quite a little, in the first series at least) and the excessive violence doesn't disturb you, I highly recommend this one. As a hentai title, it's 5 out of five. As a movie among others...3 1/2 out of 5.