Ryôjoku mesu ichiba - Kankin

A lady has some dinner, plays some tennis, gets into her car to go home. She won't make it home though, not until she's been through hell. Female Market has accrued something of a reputation among the later echelons of pink films, and it is somewhat deserved. The aspect that will attract (or repulse) is that the first half has a half hour or so chunk of constant mean spirited sexual violence visited upon multiple luckless ladies, all imprisoned in a warehouse in preparation for being later sold into slavery. Character development is minimal and point even smaller, this is just a sordid stare at humanities nadir, well shot with gloomy atmosphere its actually pretty compelling. There's rape, beating, whipping, a brief but hella grisly moment after an escape attempt, all served cold and as hostile as can be. Unfortunately, the film switches gears in the second half and ditches the nihilism, it wouldn't be a bad thing but since the film has laid no groundwork in terms of plotting or character in the first, the second half just comes across as a substantial slowdown. Sure, the acting is decent, even touching, and it's a handy breather for a while, but the film comes across a little lacking when it loses its despicable fire. Classy final shot though. Not much more to say about this one, its pretty thin stuff when it comes right down to it, but for all its flaws worth a watch for serious filth-hounds, as the sadistic, inhuman edge is pretty chilling. Performances are all sound, the women convincingly and harrowingly distressed, the captors suitably vile in an uncomfortable, matter of fact way. Stylish direction from Yasuaki Uegaki keeps things bleakly interesting, but not terribly dynamic, so as mentioned the final half hour really sags. Only worth watching for the serious fans and not that great a film, I still had an OK time with Female Market. A happy 6/10 then.

Japanese Yasuaki Uegaki's film, Female Market: Imprisonment (1986) is one incredibly harrowing, brutal and strong rape related film that won't leave even the most jaded exploitation enthusiasts alone. The film tells the inhuman story of a bunch of young Japanese females who one night get kidnapped and taken to some abandoned looking factory area to be abused by some drug dealers and human slavery bosses. It is soon revealed that none of the girls have too many close relatives so they won't be searched after their disappearance. This all may sound like a plot from some Jess Franco women in prison flick, but it is more. This is Japanese exploitation which means only one thing: extreme.

Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu wrote the film, and this madman is of course best known for his outrageous sleazy Guts/Entrails trilogy consisting of films Guts of a Virgin, Guts of a Beauty (both 1986) and Guts of a Virgin 3: Rusted Body (1987). All these films include almost hardcore level female (and male) nudity and sex and plenty of hyper sleazy goings on including kinky sex, some insane gore, monster semen and the like. The films are pretty harmless and not so "shocking" no matter what casual viewer would think about them (which I won't try to find out!). Female Market, however, goes farther and it is nasty with the capital N. The first 30 minutes or so are nothing but merciless scenes of the girls being brutally raped, abused, tortured and also killed. Soon it turns into some kind of revenge attempt and also escape story, but I won't go into the spoiling details. The first half of the short feature (uncut PAL version runs only 68 minutes) are as depraved, sadistic, misogynistic and brutal scenery as ever possible. It is not about graphic gore or anything like that, it is about the mean spirit and mentality behind those scenes.

What makes Japanese exploitation usually so interesting is the fact that no matter how sick, low and sadistic it may be, it may also have some very interesting and effective cinematic elements and details that prove the talent of the makers. The infamous Guinea Pigs are among these, especially the Mermaid episode directed by manga artist Hideshi Hino. That goes to Female Market, too, as the visual style and darkness is among the most impressive I've seen for long time, in a film like this! It is close to the finale of Japanese master Takeshi Kitano's Violent Cop (1989) in its bleakness and calm shadow filled darkness. When this darkness and depressing visual world is delivered with the mentioned hyper strong images of abuse and rape, you can imagine this film will blow you away. And it does, even an experienced exploitation cinema fanatics have admitted this film being almost unbearably daunting an experience and I am among those. Japanese film makers have proven their ability and talent to hammer their messages to the skull and spine cord of the viewer (Shinya Tsukamoto, Takashi Ishii to name just a few masters), and that definitely goes to their exploitation films, too. Something that's lacking from the cheesy Euro trash films from the sixties to the late eighties.

Female Market can also be seen as a pessimistic look of our nature and its brute and hidden sides, willing to dominate and humiliate each other as most of the rape scenes and scenes overall are pretty silent, without dialogue, which naturally gives much greater power to the images in cinema, and Takeshi Kitano is definitely among the most striking examples of this. The place it all happened may turn into a seemingly normal harbor warehouse next morning indicating that the human market is a big organized crime activity born in a big city and totally uncontrollable and extremely dangerous. This is the kind of film that can make the viewer hate himself just because of the fact that he realizes belonging to the same race, human race. But still the imagery is unnecessarily too graphic and gratuitous to make the above analyze as valid as I'd like it to be, and it seems they wanted to do an exploitation film with some brains in the other half of the piece.

The actors are very good, some of the acts are so graphic that the prints include the traditional Japanese optical fogging to not show the pubic hair, and that goes to all of the mentioned Guts films, too. The cinematography is impressive, the editing always peaceful, and the screenplay hasn't got unnecessary bits of dialogue and speech. This film really is something I won't forget too easily, nor am I willing to see it ever again too soon I think. If you've seen Jess Franco's Sadomania (1980) or some other of the low budget (s)exploitation films from Europe and elsewhere, imagine that to the nth sadism degree filled with dark visuality and you have a CLUE what kind of an experience Female Market will be. The kind of film that is quite impossible to recommend to anyone, and the 3/10 rating I'll give was not also too easy a choice. Again, Japanese cinema has amazed me, but not quite in the way I would've prefer.

The Japanese have a way of showing violence in a gritty manner. Not necessarily only because they show the violence in full view, but also because they manage to represent the evil that lurks within the human mind. The slave traders in this movie have no respect for human life. They are aware of it, and they love it. Nihilism has become a trademark in Japanese cinema. This movie has very little blood, but a lot of nudity, sexual violence, rape and torture. We follow some average women as they are going through a world of pain and misery, where twisted evil soul seek the ultimate rush of power and supremacy by the suffering and unhappiness of other individuals. This movies running time is not long, but that's exactly enough to deliver the punch in your face. Not a great movie, but good. It does what it can well, and deliver the message.

Having seen loads of seventies genre movies from all over the world it is hard for me to find Female Market a must. There is no inspired storyline to lift it above the middle of the road 'women in prison' exploitation fare that has been made over and over again ad nauseum. What is compelling in this film is not the story but the cool delivery of its shocking scenes of ultra violence; most often of a sexual nature. The randomness of the gruesome acts bludgeons you to utter apathy until you beg for it all to end. It simply is too much. The scene in which one of the female victims begs her warden to kill her is one of the more understandable. What makes this watchable is the superb photography and deft direction. Also the lead character's unwillingness to surrender her will to her captors makes for some interesting scenes but nothing much comes from it. No high flyer then, but a well crafted genre movie that harks back to Love Camp 7 and Ilsa She Wolf of the SS. For the fans.

A woman is kidnapped and brought to a warehouse. She wakes to find, she as well as several other women are being held to become sex slaves with the intention to be sold overseas. Of course she thinks of escape.

This story is similar to a number of women in prison B movies from the 1970's & 1980's. This is a Pink Eiga film which means there is (often) nudity and several sex scenes. Nothing too explicit. In addition are scenes of rape and other violence. So again, similar to old B movies although not at a prison. Including some non-sex action.

One difference here is a lot less dialogue and a shorter film length. The other is the bad guys, play bad guys. They treat the slaves as slaves directly. The movies from the 1970's always seemed to first have to explain why this was happening to the slaves. No explanation was needed or given which I preferred. All the slaves are women. All the bad are men.

The acting was very good. The ending was unpredictable and intelligent.

If you are a fan of old B movies or Pink Eigas you will probably like or love this movie. Everyone else will probably hate it. As a fan of both I thought this film was excellent. So this is an 8 out of 10 for me.