Escola da Besta Sagrada

It's pretty difficult to fully comprehend the background to this movie, when you contemplate about it. "School of the Holy Beast" is a nunsploitation film but there are as good as no Catholic people in Japan and most of the actresses probably didn't knew what the hell a convent was! The only thing director Norifumi Suzuki knew for certain was that sex movies with nuns were extremely popular in Europe around that time and he saw this as an open opportunity to do the same for the Japanese exploitation-market. Maybe that's why "School of the Holy Beast" isn't anything like those void and trashy Jess Franco movies, but actually a very stylish and reasonably well-scripted film! "School..." doesn't feature the textbook plotting of nuns worshiping the devil and even the lesbian interactions between the young girls aren't the film's main events. This merely is a good old-fashioned tale of revenge, set within the walls of a convent and compellingly criticizing the abuse of Catholic power. Despite obviously enjoying her sexuality in the outside world, young Maya seems determined to become a nun in one of Japan's strictest convents. She never knew her parents but she discovered that her mother also was a nun here who died in mysterious circumstances. As the plot develops, Maya's only interest seems to be unraveling the convent's hypocrite network of sexual perversion, torture and murder in the name of Catholism. She and rebel nun Ishida become good friends who bring men into the convent and encourage other oppressed sisters to stand up for themselves. Don't get too frightened by this rather ambitious-sounding plot, as the film features more than enough sleaze & violence to satisfy even the most demanding exploitation fanatic. The girls get severely whipped, raped by a Raputin look-alike priest, tied up with thorny stems and beaten with bouquets of roses (that's not as pretty as it sounds). Things get even more sadistic when French/Japanese über-nun Nathalie Green shows up, since she immediately implements some of the vilest torture tricks ever, including a bizarrely fascinating ritual to decide whether or not a girl is a witch. "School of the Holy Beast" is astonishingly beautiful to look at, with imaginative cinematography and an excellent use of color shades. The set and costume designs are magnificent, and surprisingly surpassing the quality of most scenery used in European nunsploitation movies! The music is enchanting and the nudity, although plenty of it, is always illustrated with flair and good taste. The young starlets here, especially Yumi Takigawa Emiko Yamauchi, belong to the prettiest and most talented Japanese actresses I ever beheld. This movie now ranks among my favorite nunploitation-efforts, along with "The Devils", "Flavia – The Heretic", "Alucarda" and "Behind Convent Walls". Highly recommended!

When a young woman named Maya(Yumi Takigawa)decides to investigate her mother's death by entering a convent school,she discovers a horrific den of pleasure and sadomasochistic activities.Encounters with a randy archbishop and a lesbian mother superior lead to episodes of torture,which include the poor girl being bound topless by thorny vines and beaten with long-stemmed roses.Norifumi Suzuki's "School of the Holy Beast" is a chock full of sleaze,violence and blasphemy.Still the film is visually stunning and the use of colors is execellent.The script pulls no punches in criticizing the hypocrisy of the Catholic church.The story is interesting,the nudity is expicit and there is plenty of symbolism.Overall,I enjoyed this film very much and you should too,if you are a fan of sleazy nunsploitation sub-genre.9 out of 10.

This is a beautifully shot movie and is definitely not a cheaply made porn. It's made to stand up as a legitimate movie and entertainment for adults.

Maya Takigawa (Yumi Takigawa) is enjoying her last day of freedom, having a wild time, because tomorrow, she will be entering a convent. She meets a good looking guy Kenta Aoki (Hayato Tani) and becomes friends with him. He wants to go steady with her but she declines. What's driving her to enter the convent ? 18 years ago her mother was at this convent and committed suicide while being pregnant with her. She aborts early but survives. She's now on a mission to find out why her mother had to die and who is her father. After she enters the convent, it's nonstop erotic violence with nuns beating up each other in name of God with beautiful breastages, and naked bodies shown at every opportunity.

The movie is high quality as it has real story, beautiful "real" actresses who can actually act, and crisp cinematography that's top notch.

How did such far out, and excellent movie come out from a rather conservative Toho studio ? I can put all the credit squarely on the director Norifumi Suzuki's capable talent. Suzuki is not well known in the west because he himself prefers not to be in the front line, but he is an unmistakable genius of Japanese cinema, and have directed many famous (and some considered masterpieces) of movies and movie series such as "Torrakku Yaro" (Trucker Guy) series starring Bunta Sugawara and "Hibotan Bakuto" (Hibotan Gambler) series starring Junko Fuji. Sugawara and Fuji both became famous after starring in Suzuki's movies. Suzuki's movies are all known to be somewhat eccentric and squarely focused on entertainment value. He is very versatile as he can direct movies of many different genre all with very high quality.

Seijyu Gakuen (Holy Beast School) gets all it's quality and entertainment values from the talent of its director. Beautiful Yumi Takigawa makes her debut in this movie, and she enjoys a long career as a movie and TV actress in the proceeding years.

School of the Holy Beast (1974)

*** (out of 4)

Notorious Japanese nunsploitation film from director Norifumi Suzuki has a simple storyline but borrows heavily from the Euro erotic genre. A rebellious woman enters a convent so she can learn the truth behind her mother's death eighteen years earlier. Her rebel attitude doesn't sit too well with the higher up nuns who aren't afraid to resort to torture by whip. The first half of the film is mostly an erotic movie and I'm not going to lie, Japanese women are quite sexy so the erotic nature of the film worked for me. Japan censorship laws were pretty heavy back in the day so the director comes up with a couple very good scenes to get his point across without having to resort to hardcore scenes, ala Euro flicks. There's an oral sex scene, which isn't shown how you'd expect but it's highly erotic and gets its sexuality across better than most Euro films of this genre. The second half of the film slows down quite a bit as the "mystery" surrounding the mother's death is revealed. The direction is quite strong and the cinematography is excellent.

Movies involving suppressed sexual desires in a convent erupting into violence/rape/bizarre sexual behaviour (y'now,like THE DEVILS) are usually of European origin.But this cracker from Japan is one of the best of it's kind.It has some of the most disturbing yet hauntingly beautiful scenes of blasphemy i've ever seen.It has been screened in English as CONVENT OF THE SACRED BEAST,but i'm not sure how you'd track it down.But if you can,it's well worth seeing.