Brutal

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.

Basically the movie is very confusing. The acting is very poor, the gratuitous violence is kinda bad, the movie soundtrack is also good for Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, sometimes it reminds you of a weird Devil May Cry. Besides that, characters psychology are not even close to a serial killer. Everything is bad.

A chubby misogynistic serial killer brutally kills a group of bound and gagged girls, reducing their remains to a red slop that he flushes down the loo. A female psycho despatches of her victims by repeatedly stabbing them in the crotch. These two sickos meet and discover that they have more in common than their love of killing: both of them have had their genitals mutilated, the guy's wiener just a stump, and the woman's holiest of holies sewn shut (and her nipples removed). The pair then stab each other. A lot.

If you've enjoyed extreme Japanese cinema such as Grotesque, Guinea Pig, All Night Long and Red Room, then Takashi Hirose's Brutal probably sounds like it will satisfy your hunger for more visceral violence, being an hour and seven minutes of unrelenting barbarity. Unfortunately, despite the virtually non-stop stabbiness with a smattering of blunt force trauma, the film is actually quite dull, failing to deliver the graphic nastiness that fans of Eastern excess no doubt crave. There's very little in the way of unsettling prosthetic gore effects -- just lots of unimpressive knife thrusting with plenty of blood splashed about. It all gets very repetitive, although the disfigured private parts are an eye-opener.

... 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.

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.