Bijo no harawata

A sequel in name only, we have another decadent journey into the realm of horror perversion. While this is notably improved over the first installment, it still has much room to improve.

First of all the movie is really short, only about 66 minutes. That's hardly feature length. Though I digress, given what the film is most concerned with showing (graphic rape scenes) I think a short run time is just fine.

A woman witnesses her friend commit suicide and decides to investigate the matter on her own. In the course of her investigation, she uncovers a criminal group marketing a new designer drug and taking woman for slave trade. She tries to put an end to it, but is ultimately taken captive and viciously (and I do mean viciously) raped. She is injected with the drug, but OD's and dies, only to return as a slimy, mutant hermaphrodite.

The sex is handled more competently than the first film, but is ever bit as uncomfortable. The blood and gore are noticeably less until closer to the end when the blood monster goes on it's rampage. Those scene will stick with you for a while.

This could have worked, but is killed by the same problems as it's prequel, that and it's near obsession with graphic depictions of gang rape.

5/10

This is straight out sexploitation like I have never seen.

A young virgin (Seira Kitagawa) is brutally raped and drugged and raped some more by the Yakuza. They did the same to her sister before selling her into slavery. She commits suicide after telling her story to a doctor (Megumi Ozawa), who then decides to investigate.

Hiromi's (Ozawa) plans don't go as planned and she finds herself in the same fix. But, after she is raped and drugged and thought to be dead, she turns into a hideous monster that does exact revenge.

The blood flows as violently as the rapes.

For fans of the outrageous.

This movie, I would like to say, was completely great. I can see how many people would think that it's just a shocker film. This isn't completely untrue, but it's as much of shocker fiction as Chuck Palahniuk's books are. One of my favorite movies of all time, Bijo no Harawata is a certain type of crudely made movie that you can have just about any reaction to. It's scary, funny, silly, gross, full of off-the-top material and to some people, arousing. The fist time I saw this, it was with my friend, and his mother had brought it home for him to see it. He said it was just some screwed up Japanese movie, but I saw so much more of it. It's badly made, yes, but it has a certain type of poignancy as to be beautiful, too. As the Director says himself, this is a shocker movie made for a certain reason. Its like atrophy. If you leave audiences soft, then the entire human race is going to be soft. I think this is a good philosophy, and I agree with it one-hundred percent. Bijo no Harawata is the type of movie that gang rapes the hell out of fitness, yogurt, and all of this new-wave stuff.

The first half (actually a little more) of the movie is a standard pink eiga film with requisite nudity, sex scenes and violence. This time the story is Yakuza that are capturing women to become sex slaves in another country. To make the women more willing they inject a drug that causes them to become nymphomaniacs. But one of the women escapes, makes contact with another woman that learns of this. At this point the movie becomes a revenge story for the rest of the movie. There's still more nudity and sex to come but into the second half several scenes of gory violence take place. I won't give it all away. It is worth watching.

The acting is good by some, bad by others. I did like the basic story which moved right along.

One minor blooper or Behind the Scenes item is at about 27 minutes in, you can see for a second the actress has tape or a shibue covering her private part. Of course not ever Japanese pink movie uses it but they obviously did in this one.

As pink movies go this one was fully watchable. If you don't like pink movies then maybe it's not for you. As always, they are rarely classic film making. Still, this was different than most and kept my interest the entire time.

Kazuo Komizu, who hasn't made one decent film, directed this "notorious" shocker and should be ashamed that it was a hit upon its Japanese release.

Yes, it does feature scenes of rape, gore and dismemberment, but so what? It has the style of a bad American porn film shot and badly photographed by Ed Powers ("Dirty Debutantes") and is incredibly slow.

It seems to have earned its notoriety based on its roster of anti-social acts.

There is a huge difference between this and horror that is well produced.

Just because someone likes their cinema a little wet does not mean they'll accept crap like this. On the contrary, that kind of fan (myself, for example) tolerates even less crap than the average punter out there because he's seen so much and has become overly discerning. It's a shame production companies don't realize that.

One reviewer here (ZombieKilla81) commented that the film's "near obsession with gang rape" is one of the factors that killed it. I disagree. The subject matter is never the issue. The issue is how that subject matter is treated. In ENTRAILS OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, it is treated so unimaginatively that it is boring.

Personally, I like graphic depictions of psychopathic behavior (with an intriguing context) if the material is well directed, freshly photographed and aesthetically pleasing. This Nikkatsu horror/pink hybrid is woeful.