JimT10

This is the final chapter of the infamous Urotsukidoji series. And I must say it was not worth it. Parts 1 and 2 are what writer Toshio Maeda described as a "vestigial meander" in the overall plot. These episodes were baned in the UK for their pornographic nature and the depiction of a world run by children who enslaved adults and forced them to hold orgies to reproduce more children. The children-rulers also tortured any of their number who became adults, which usually involved the usual tentacled monsters engaging in multi-orifice rapes. Part 3 continues were Urotsukidoji III left off and sees the Kyo-O finally meet the Chojin. The newly designed character animation is poor (even the voice-over actors are different), the storyline confusing and the sex and violence is ugly and unecessary, far removed from the adrenalin-pumping anarchic mayhem of earlier Urotsukidoji adventures that made such scenes seem acceptable. Here, they are dull, laboured and gratuitous. A sad end to a great series that always seemed like much more than Hentai. In this one, everything that's bad about Hentai is presented in it's repulsiveness.

Even die-hard Urotsukidoji fans will be hard pressed to find anything noteworthy in this one. The series has gone on too long.

This is rightly considered the greatest of all Hentai movies. Even anti-hentai Anime fans have praised it as revolutionary. But there are some elements of Urotsukidoji should have been dropped altogether. The pointless scenes of rape for one thing. And that schmaltzy scene at the end is badly done. But for all it's extremities, this has the kind of mind-blowing action, plot and animation which could have put it up there with Akira. Behind the sex and violence, director Hideki Takayama and writer Toshio Maeda have nonetheless managed to give us an acute observation of teenage sexual anxiety which has wrongly been interpreted as violent porn. Let's face it, we've all been like Nagumo at some point, hopelessly in love with Akemi but without a chance of catching her. It's both intelligent, observational, with touches of humour and outbursts of outrageousness. In short, it's anime fantasy at it's most humanist level. Very well done.

Like fellow "Britpack" member Gary Oldman, actor Tim Roth chooses a difficult and emotionally disturbing subject for his directorial debut, in this case, an adaption of Alexander Stuart's 1989 novel dealing with incest. Indeed, this does for child abuse what Oldman's Nil By Mouth did for alcoholism, with both films featuring Ray Winstone in the role as the destructive father unknowingly tearing his family apart and both films ending with a loving dedication to the directors own father. However, this film is by far the more intense of the two. In Nil By Mouth, Winstone's character is openly sadistic and nasty from the outset, but in The War Zone, he seems at first like a loving and devoted father. Indeed, he could easily be the perfect father, and that's exactly how his son Tom (played by newcomer Freddie Cunliffe) and his wife (Tilda Swinton) see him. His daughter Jessie (Lara Belmont, another debut performance) on the other hand knows only too well the hideous and unthinkable truth about him. Keeping the film perfectly within the perspective of the children's view of events, Winstone and Swinton's characters are simply referred to throughout as Mum and Dad. We never find out their real names and that's how they are listed on the credits.

Stuart and Roth were motivated by examining the emotional bonds between parents and their children and the consequences of what happens when that bond is broken. Although in the original novel Winstone's character eventually confesses to his crimes, in the film version he continually denies ever harming his siblings, and takes to lashing out at Tom, threatening him with physical abuse. It's an extremely disturbing film, bleak in outlook and in it's depiction of it's surroundings, but undeniably moving and unforgettable, forcing it's audience to not only accept that this form of abuse happens, but also asking us to re-examine our values towards our children.

The casting is unorthodox but exceptional. Ray Winstone is an actor of exceptional talent. In this film, he starts off cuddly and amusing as the caring father, but turns into an unbelievably evil monster, causing an unsettlingly tumultuous emotion in the audience. Tilda Swinton also strikes gold as the mother, though given little to do, her character is nevertheless believable and she manages to flesh her out into something three-dimensional. Newcomers Freddie Cunliffe and Lara Belmont were picked from over 2,000 young hopefuls who responded to an advert placed in England's Guardian newspaper which read "young actors wanted to audition for film to be directed by Honey Bunneys favourite Pumpkin", a reference to Roth's cockney thief who appears in Tarantino's hit movie Pulp Fiction. Belmont was spotted shopping in London's Portobello Road while Cunliffe was actually with a friend who initially went to the audition. Both young actors had no experience whatsoever, so it's quite amazing and a testament to Roth as director that both give such intense, emotional performances that are sometimes in danger of upstaging the older, experienced cast members. Given the highly sensitive nature of the material, Cunliffe and Belmont are superb throughout, never going over-the-top and exceptional in the film's hectic final scenes.

There will be those who will argue that The War Zone is simply not entertainment. The depressing locations, the content, the bad language and frequent nudity (which some have wrongly interpreted as the film giving off the message that casual attitudes to nudity in families can lead to incest) may have leave some cold. Roth isn't giving us a bourgeois family drama from jolly old middle-class England to appease Hollywood distributors. There isn't a happy ending and indeed the film leaves Tom and Jessie in an unsure, precarious situation.

The War Zone is a powerful, emotionally charged film, but to be approached only with due caution. Roth has pointed out in interviews that even victims of abuse may find some moments unsettling, but he made it for them. Himself a victim of abuse (though not by his father), Roth has made a devastating and impressive film which is bound to stir debates and provoke a strong audience reaction for many years to come. Surely the sign of a good movie.