Shojo no harawata

When i sit down to watch a movie with a name such a this and a reputation to be one of the most grotesque japanese cinema has to offer i await to be repulsed. That didn´t happen. The first half of the movie was filled with softcore leening towards rape-porn, often featured in japanese films such as this. The few gore scenes where placed in the dark so you couldn´t see what was happening. There is of course the infamous highlight with chopped of hands, naked girls and lots of monster semen, but this comes too late. You are already uninterested. So, if this sounds appealing, see the movie with low expectations.

After reading the opinions of other users I thought it a good idea to express my own.

Plot: Soft-core filmmakers take nubile young women to a remote house under the pretense of "advancing" their careers. Too bad for them a maniac in the form of a demon with a large penis is stalking and killing them.

There is a ton of soft-core sex (including demon sex), a beheading, a disemboweling, severed hand masturbation....well, these are things already mentioned in previous comments so let's get to the point of why I enjoyed this movie.

Its sleazy, trashy, a bit gory, and a whole helluva lot of fun. This movie does things that were completely shocking and unexpected and had me, more than once, laughing and crying out, "OMG!". If you're like me you've seen just about every piece of exploitative filth made in the US and Europe, but this film tops them all. And it has an ending which left me gape-mouthed and wanting more.

As far as the optical censoring mentioned in other posts, yes, its true. Now to clarify this. The Japanese do not allow below the waist nudity, period. Optical fogging is a fact even in porn. To the user who hopes Synapse would correct this, they won't. Check out their website and you can find an old news piece that talks about how the actress' wore small pieces of white tape over their genitalia. So, even if the fogging is removed, you won't see anything. But don't let this stand in the way.

If you are a fan of Asian exploitation, horror, or manga I can't imagine you wouldn't enjoy this movie. In fact, that's what it reminded me of; a live action manga. So, check it out.

A lot of these Japanese soft porno movies remind me of old American nudie/sex films from the 60s, albeit a lot more explicit. This one is no exception, save the severely warped "horror" (?) movie that somehow sneaks its way into this tame squeal and grunt production. The "porno" parts are almost anti-erotic (they reminded me of scenes from Andy Milligan's "Seeds of Sin" for some reason) with lots of irritating Japanese girl squealing and the typical Japanese obsession with various bodily fluids dripping or being flung about (watch out for fogged pubic hair though!). In the midst of this time wasting stuff a muddy guy stalks around the fringes of the production and finally makes himself known by killing and raping the cast in ridiculous ways, before finally impregnating the one survivor while spouting off nonsense about "the only power that can kill me" or something. This movie was boring, and yet fascinating. The acting comes from the Big Book of Japanese Acting Templates. The cute girl acts like the cute girl in every other Japanese movie, as do the crazy girl, sexy girl, and horny lecherous old man. The violence is very cheap and silly, but seemingly from another movie, as if the director really wanted to make this extreme and surreal horror movie statement (in the terrible supplemental interview with him that I watched for 5 minutes he mentioned Decartes and said he was "angry at the world") but could only get sex movie studio Nikkatsu to fund it, so tossed off a half dozen boring sex scenes before getting to the good stuff. The "good stuff" made this movie semi-legendary on the underground/bootleg circuit for years (the title alone was a strong selling point), but I'm glad I never shelled out $20 for a bootleg, its just not all that great, save as a curio.

Director Kazuo Komizu started out as an assistant director and sometime co-writer to the great Koji Wakamatsu, so one might hope that the genius rubbed off. On the evidence of Guts of a Virgin, it did and it didn't. There is something of a similar innate skill with sleaze, a knowledge of the power of the frame, of close ups and still, gazing shots. He knows the illicit thrill of the female objectified, the female image dismembered, though rarely erotic this is a film with some aesthetic accomplishment to its shows of tits and asses, of beautiful legs and moaning faces. The use of discreet blurs rather than full pixellation to hide prohibited details helps too, conveying a certain woozy artiness. But sadly this is about the extent of the potency passed down and it gets rather stretched. The plot is thin, three female models and three fashion photographers finish shooting for the day but get lost in fog, leading them to spend the night in an abandoned house that just so happens to be part of the prowling ground of a dirt caked monster with a big dick. Lots of sex and assorted death follow. Thin stuff, and the writing gives no weight. The males are mean and manipulative, out for nought but throwaway thrills and the women are absurdly naive, to the point of being unsympathetic. They don't relate in especially interesting ways, so little is left but mostly joyless sex and it gets a bit dull despite the stylish shooting. The performers are all decent so if not especially interesting all the time its certainly convincing, the men are really pretty slimy and the women evidence some legitimate discomfort. Also one physical feat that seemed pretty impressive to a weakling like me (I won't say what). But it does get a bit wearying Fortunately the horror side of things is quality bizarro entertainment and the pace gradually quickens throughout the film to reach a borderline intense finale (which is also blithely bonkers in a rather pleasing manner). Atmospheric use of fog and backlighting helps, and a distinctly odd feel is produced by the decision to cut from the action to jarring visual metaphors and back. The gore effects are cheap but fun and the kills reasonably inspired and best of all unpredictable, with one being an absolute gonzo marvel. All of which doesn't entirely make up for the various longueurs, but it goes a long way in trying. I guess to sum up this is a worthy pit-stop for fans of lunatic trash, especially those with a big taste for soft-core, but no classic or anything.

Given the title and outlandish box art, I was ready for just about anything. Perhaps my expectation were forced just a bit to high, because I was left a little dry.

A film crew working on a soft-core sex movie end up at a strange house when they get lost in the fog and decide the best way to spend the evening is to have sex. Where hasn't this set up been used before? The difference here is the uber-perverse nature of the sex. Not allowed to show all the goods (groin shots were illegal in Japan for a long time, what is shown is fogged out) the movie tries as hard as it can to show the viewer just how unnatural sex can be.

Amidst all the kinky goings on, a mud monster (whose origin I can't fathom) shows up and begins murdering the men and raping the women...then murdering them too. Some of the sights are a bit much, most notably a woman having her intestines pulled out through her vagina or another woman spitting out a mouthful of...stuff, but otherwise the gore is pretty standard fare.

Ultimately the film is pulled down by it's own designs; it's too over-sexed to be a strait horror picture and too gruesome to work as a sex flick. The mediums can work, but there need to be a balance.

4/10