Saigo no bansan

When you don't want anymore to eat pork meat, you start eating human meat. That's the idea of this "film". The story is sub-stupid, the acting is super-bad, I was watching and I couldn't believe what I'm watching. They call themselves filmmakers. I would call them butchers. Butchers of the 7th Art. I hope not all Asians are crazy. There is still Kurosawa, Kaneto Shindô, Hiroshi Teshigahara. Somebody has to do a parody upon this. Maybe you'll say that I'm too sensible. I am not! Life goes on and I'm still hungry: I'm going to eat some good cheese with fresh tomatoes.

In Tokyo, Doctor Yuji Kotorida (Masaya Kato) is a famous plastic surgeon that works with two former university classmates, Dr. Akimoto and Dr. Yanagihara, and a distinguished cook in his vacant time. He welcomes a television crew at home that is preparing a coverage about his life, but he does not disclose the secret about his meat.

Dr. Kotorida writes an anonymous diary in Internet where he discloses his dark secrets. He was an unpopular student and mediocre doctor in the beginning of his career until the day that he tried to eat human fat from a liposuction. Soon he improves his skills and decides to try to eat human flesh. When he finds a suicidal woman hanging on a tree branch, he brings her corpse home and literally eats her. When he travels to lecture in Hong Kong, he kills his first woman to eat her flesh and becomes addicted in flesh of young women. When his colleague and former lover Dr. Akimoto tells that she will get married to Dr. Yanagihara, Dr. Kotorida promises to prepare the dishes for her guests. But he is the prime suspect of the snoopy Detective Shimoda (Katsuya Kobayashi).

"Saigo no bansan", a.k.a. "The Last Supper", is a bizarre Japanese horror movie by Osamu Fukutani with a gruesome story of cannibalism. The plot holds the attention of the viewer, but the conclusion is very disappointing, senseless and open without any explanation. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Have a hankering for meat? After just watching this exploitative gloomy little shocker you'll be licking your chops or simply not hungry… maybe for days. The low-budgeted Japanese film 'The Last Supper' is a clinically weird, demented and often tasteless (but some might find it amusingly laughable) cannibal story about a plastic surgeon who goes from dweeb to popular after reverting to eating women's liposuction fat and this would lead to murder when the fixation becomes an addiction to keep this demanding persona. Everyone loves the unknown meat he always cooks up; suddenly he's the caught the gaze of an infatuated nurse and the cops begin their suspicious questioning after a disappearance of one of his patients.

Perversely shocking and humorously twisted with deadpan sprinklings (and this is suitably done with the wedding gift towards the end that has to be seen to be believed!). Vegetarians keep clear. The camera likes to focus on the bloody, juicy meat at every opportunity and there's a scene that would have animal lovers in an uproar. It's bold, audacious and writer/director Osamu Fukutani's establishes a stimulating unpredictable and patient screenplay (off Kei Oishi's novel which would be an interesting read if this film is anything to go by) on a familiar concept involving a protagonist/cannibal surgeon (soberly humanised performance by Masaya Kato) detailing how his craving for woman's flesh began and eventually the patterns he went about to feed his hunger (like the sequence involving finding a secret club of cannibals and his actual first kill). There might be something hollow and disconnected to it, but it stays gripping and interesting in it's hauntingly close to heart illustrations.

Fukutani's direction is competent in its limited scope and hypnotically tailored in a slow-ease and artsy style (look at the neon-lighting), but during the grotesque and splatter scenes he doesn't hold back. Simply in your face with the decapitations and dismembering of his victims, as you grit your teeth and recoil due to the nauseatingly squishy sound effects. Cracking bones (thanks to one hack-saw sequence), skin pealing, blood dripping, body parts sliding out and flesh chopping. Straight into the bubbling frying pan. Tasty! The allurement of the forbidden fruit and its strong essence is almost like an organism for those who eat it. They can't get enough of this ecstasy and that makes it slightly unnerving.

Digital photography helps invoke a real sense of intimacy and the music is subtly dramatic with its scattered choices. The performances are tolerable with Hiroki Matsukata making for a weaselling detective.

'The Last Supper' is cheaply produced, but a luridly fulfilling meal of delicacy.

I watched this film the other day at the Dead by Dawn festival, and i must say what a film! A plastic surgeon realises that to truly lust/love someone, you must eat them. This is a fantastic film, with some excellent moments. This film actually makes cannibalism look appealing - human meat never looked so good. When the surgeon steals the human fat from his surgery and then fries it is easily the one point in the film that i thought i was gonna be sick - disgusting, sick, vile.... but bloody great! I actually came out of the theatre wanting to sink my teeth into some meat, and so did the other guys i saw it with. The film went down great at the festival and easily was the film of the day - except probably to the promo of Worst Case Scenario - If that film gets made - its gonna rock hard! All in all a great film thats worth watching it if you can.

I have just seen this at Edinburgh's Dead by Dawn festival and was thoroughly impressed with it. I had never heard of it before so had no idea what to expect.

A renowned plastic surgeon and budding media darling develops a taste for human flesh after taking a bit of lypo-suction fat home with him, frying it up and having a munch.

It's a pretty sick concept but has good comedy moments in all the right places. It is almost a pro-cannibalism in the way the story is told and is unlike anything I have ever seen before. It went down really well with the festival crowd and was easily film of the day.

It is also very well shot, with some excellent lighting in certain interior scenes, superb timing and decent acting throughout. Very implausible at times, but that does not take anything away from it, and fans of Japanese horror will be used to this anyway.

I hope lots more genre fans get to see the surprise gem.