Brutal

As much as I abhor gore, torture and brutality I thought this a very arthouse flick. Great cinematography. Disgusting in nature and not pleasant to watch but worth it for a glimpse into an original style of film making.

Conducting a rampage of extreme prejudice, a savage killer targets women as he tries to find a compatible woman to engage his fantasies in, eventually catching the eye of a female serial killer who's just as sadistic as he is forcing them into a deadly and dangerous showdown.

Overall, this was an exceptionally enjoyable piece of exploitation sleaze. This is one of the strongest aspects of the film and is given to us immediately at the outset of the film, which is the exceptionally brutal and challenging murder scene of the killer targeting several victims and graphically tortures them in wholly demented fashion as his rants about his intentions go unheeded. Its unflinching mentality makes for a truly immersive experience the first thing you see in a film, and to see how he carries out his work cleaning up after himself in the bloodstained aftermath immediately afterward tells a lot about his psychotic nature. That brutality is carried over and rightly topped by us following the woman around. Arguably going for a more brutal approach with her frenzied and relentless stabbing that's generally targeted at their private regions, the montage that opens her story offers us an even stronger glance at what to expect within here the focus on both disparate people come together is the focus here. The final confrontation that occurs, a full-on hard-hitting brawl with each other smashing objects, pummeling and cutting each other or stabbing the other, is an exceptionally tough and brutal sequence to get through as they lay into each with a rawness that's incredibly vicious and realistic long before it unveils the savage twist for their physical beings. This is all truly fun if not enough to overcome its minor flaws. The film's biggest issue is the fact that there's just so little info that the film simply feels short. While the idea is surprisingly effective in how it's realized, the lack of depth into each individual manages to somewhat undo the idea that each person is mentally deranged. There's something to be said for how two individuals come together, but the way it's handled here where they just come together as a stroke of luck rather than being drawn together due to one picking up the other to continue their individual rampages and then discovering what the other does for a living just comes off as a sloppy mechanism. As well as some questionable tactics designed to get a misguided attempt at nostalgia that's just distracting, there's not much else really wrong here.

Rated Unrated/R: Extreme Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.

... yet very few cineastes will have the stomach to watch it from beginning to end.

No, it is not torture porn. Nor is it shlock in the grand western tradition of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT.

It is a distinctly Japanese attempt to explore the nature of the relationship between men and women.

This is made crystal clear by seemingly random cutaways to a "too cute to live" teenage couple who talk earnestly about male-female relationships, while the real exposition of the topic is left to the central characters. Who say almost nothing. But actually show us the dark side of the topic by their actions.

I must admit that I had more expectations and hopes for this movie, but director and writer Takashi Hirose just failed to properly deliver on those.

Sure, the movie is visceral and have some scenes that will probably be offensive to some viewers and unnerving to others, if not downright sickening. But this movie, and lets just be bluntly honest here, was nothing more than about an hour of a lack of storyline and just watching random violence and mutilation. Sure, it might sound like fun in theory, but trust me after 15 minutes, you will be ready to slither on to another movie, because "Brutal" got real repetitive really fast.

The special effects in the movie's three segments were adequate. But mind you, they are somewhat on the low budget side, so don't expect to be blown away by mutilation and mayhem that looks fantastic. The special effects serve their purpose, but they weren't dazzling or spectacular.

As for the acting in the movie, well let's just be kind and say you know what you will get here, with a movie such as this, for better or worse. The acting performances where not outstanding, nor memorable, but they served the lack of storyline well enough I suppose, to go hand-in-mutilated-hand.

The movie's selling point is, of course, actress Asami. And whom are you kidding if you say that you probably picked up the movie because of her. I did. Of course I did.

"Brutal" is a Japanese gorefest movie that came and went without leaving much of a dent in the horror genre. I managed to sit through the entire 67 minutes of playtime, but I can honestly say that I wasn't overly entertained or impressed. And I know for certain that this is not a movie that I will be watching a second time.

I am rating "Brutal" four out of ten stars.

Silly violence & gore snoozefest that has zero redeeming qualities, entertainment value or sense. There is an attempt to make it all seem arty farty including using the scratched film stock effect Tarantino & Rodriguez's Grindhouse but its all so deathly dull and illogical that it would literally be more rewarding and entertaining to watch grass grow.

I like violent and gory movies as much as the next guy but here its just for the shock value AND it doesn't even do that well. I was simply bored and just wished for the movie to end. Thankfully, its just about an hour long but that hour seems really really long. Not a movie I would ever recommend to anybody.