Muscle (1989)
Director: Hisayasu Satô
Obsession, paranoia, guilt, and longing. This 1989 queer Japanese horror film manages to pack quite a punch in its scant 58-minute runtime.
In the 80s, Japan’s DTV market seemed to thrive on extremely gory splatter horror and pinku films (considered somewhat analogous to softcore in the west). Muscle finds itself somewhere on the border between the two, and yet the resulting film feels far more stylish, philosophical, and arthouse than that description would imply. There’s a fascinating relationship at its core, one that seems to have no “good” character to root for. And it’s a pretty bold move on any film’s part to have its ending echo the ending to Salo, another notoriously provocative film, and have that reference create a feeling of tragic irony.
This film is intentionally provocative and thus is not going to be for everyone; however if you’re interested in queer cinema from Japan, especially as it intersects with horror, this is a must-watch.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Honestly, I was thoroughly intrigued and entertained throughout.
In the 80s, Japan’s DTV market seemed to thrive on extremely gory splatter horror and pinku films (considered somewhat analogous to softcore in the west). Muscle finds itself somewhere on the border between the two, and yet the resulting film feels far more stylish, philosophical, and arthouse than that description would imply. There’s a fascinating relationship at its core, one that seems to have no “good” character to root for. And it’s a pretty bold move on any film’s part to have its ending echo the ending to Salo, another notoriously provocative film, and have that reference create a feeling of tragic irony.
This film is intentionally provocative and thus is not going to be for everyone; however if you’re interested in queer cinema from Japan, especially as it intersects with horror, this is a must-watch.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5. Honestly, I was thoroughly intrigued and entertained throughout.
Guinea Pig 6: Mermaid in the Manhole (1988)
Director: Hideshi Hino
Another watch from the direct-to-video market, and actually my first experience with the Guinea Pig franchise. I chose this one precisely because it seemed to be considered by far the best of the bunch.
This movie is absolutely disgusting – as in, it actually made me queasy a few times and there was one particular moment where I needed to look away briefly. But it’s also the most artfully made vile and disgusting gore-fest I’ve seen in a long time. As contradictory as it sounds, a lot of these shots are beautiful to look at in a strange way.
Like most of the films in this franchise, it focuses more on the blood and guts than on character or plot, but considering how much of its scan runtime is spent on viscera, there’s actually quite an interesting story at the center. It works in the film’s favor for this to play out as a bit of a dark fairytale, and we get just enough information about the characters for the ending to have its intended impact.
Rating: Never thought I’d be giving two DTV shock fests the highest scores of the week, but here we are. 4/5, recommended; even if you don’t think this is your thing, it’s absolutely worth a watch.
This movie is absolutely disgusting – as in, it actually made me queasy a few times and there was one particular moment where I needed to look away briefly. But it’s also the most artfully made vile and disgusting gore-fest I’ve seen in a long time. As contradictory as it sounds, a lot of these shots are beautiful to look at in a strange way.
Like most of the films in this franchise, it focuses more on the blood and guts than on character or plot, but considering how much of its scan runtime is spent on viscera, there’s actually quite an interesting story at the center. It works in the film’s favor for this to play out as a bit of a dark fairytale, and we get just enough information about the characters for the ending to have its intended impact.
Rating: Never thought I’d be giving two DTV shock fests the highest scores of the week, but here we are. 4/5, recommended; even if you don’t think this is your thing, it’s absolutely worth a watch.
Hitokowa (2012)
Director: Kazuto Kodama
Nice and short little anthology film, all of the pieces were bite-sized and rarely ran more than 10 minutes a piece. Since there was only one director for all of the shorts, it was a lot more of a consistent tone than many other anthology films tend to be.
Almost all of the entries are solid, and some were quite good. As for my favorite segment – I’m always willing to give a recommendation to something that genuinely creeps me out, and the “Raised by Wolves” segment absolutely fit the bill. It was too short to truly get any answers, and absolutely unnerving.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Light and quick, packed with nice little spooky moments. Even when it’s treading familiar territory, it feels like a comfort food watch rather than dull.
Almost all of the entries are solid, and some were quite good. As for my favorite segment – I’m always willing to give a recommendation to something that genuinely creeps me out, and the “Raised by Wolves” segment absolutely fit the bill. It was too short to truly get any answers, and absolutely unnerving.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5. Light and quick, packed with nice little spooky moments. Even when it’s treading familiar territory, it feels like a comfort food watch rather than dull.
Unholy Women (2006)
Director: Keisuke Toyoshima, Keita Amemiya, Takuji Suzuki
This is an anthology film that seems to center on the concept of female monsters. That idea drew me in right away, but the result was kind of a mixed bag overall.
Running at 30 minutes apiece, all three of these shorts have less material to cover than they do time to fill, and all start to overstay their welcome by the end. Unfortunately, the pieces in this are also so tonally different that it’s hard to really get into the right mindset for the one you’re watching until it’s nearly half over.
The first entry was my favorite, with its perfectly unnerving and ghoulish central figure (the very same one that is featured on the poster image for the film). Even though it ran a little long, there were also no shortage of plot twists to keep things interesting just as it was losing stream, and the feeling of constant pursuit kept the momentum going.
The other two entries don’t quite live up to the enjoyment I got out of the first piece, the second one was enjoyably surreal and strange at the beginning, but the runtime dragged its pacing to a crawl long before it was over. The third was a fairly standard feeling ghost/possession type of story, and it felt out of place with the more high-concept stories that preceded it.
Rating: 3 out of 5. Not a bad watch, but I felt a little let down after the high of that first segment.
Running at 30 minutes apiece, all three of these shorts have less material to cover than they do time to fill, and all start to overstay their welcome by the end. Unfortunately, the pieces in this are also so tonally different that it’s hard to really get into the right mindset for the one you’re watching until it’s nearly half over.
The first entry was my favorite, with its perfectly unnerving and ghoulish central figure (the very same one that is featured on the poster image for the film). Even though it ran a little long, there were also no shortage of plot twists to keep things interesting just as it was losing stream, and the feeling of constant pursuit kept the momentum going.
The other two entries don’t quite live up to the enjoyment I got out of the first piece, the second one was enjoyably surreal and strange at the beginning, but the runtime dragged its pacing to a crawl long before it was over. The third was a fairly standard feeling ghost/possession type of story, and it felt out of place with the more high-concept stories that preceded it.
Rating: 3 out of 5. Not a bad watch, but I felt a little let down after the high of that first segment.