Tuesday, October 31, 2023

70's Asian Horror Part Nine

HELLISH LOVE
(1972)
Dir - Chûsei Sone
Overall: MEH
 
Breaking away from the exclusive softcore aspects of his first few Roman Porno films for the Nikkatsu Corporation, director Chûsei Sone chose to adapt the famous Japanese kaidan "Botan Dōrō" with Hellish Love, (Seidan botan-dôrô, Erotic Story: The Peony Lantern, Erotic Bride from Hell).  One of numerous screen versions of the story which concerns a doomed romance from beyond the grave, this one runs a brisk sixty-seven minutes in length and features exploitative nudity and sex, as was common for the pinku genre.  Besides these differentiating aspects though, it is merely an adequate retelling of the familiar source material as opposed to something stylistically memorable.  The brief moments of violence are singular from each other though, with an early nightmare murder being shot in suggestive slow motion while the finale finds a man literally slicing open a woman's throat after she swallows money while both parties exhibit a cartoonish amount of greed.  Sone stages some standard yet effectively spooky elements when they are called for, but the pacing is idle and he seems far more concerned with delivering sweaty, overly dramatic sex scenes than anything more atmospherically chilling. 
 
NUNS THAT BITE
(1977)
Dir - Yûji Makiguchi
Overall: MEH

A nasty bit of exploitation from filmmaker Yûji Makiguchi, Nuns That Bite, (Onna gokumon-chô: Hikisakareta nisô, Torn Priestess), is a pinku/nunsploitation/cannibal/rape revenge hybrid whose primary focus is to showcase as much appalling rape, (is there any other kind?), as possible.  This is done in service to an unforgiving narrative where women in an undisclosed period and location in Japan are brutalized by men to the point where they flee to a convent hidden deep within the mountains; a convent that is occupied exclusively by murderous "nuns" who engage in opium smoking, lesbianism, and eating the males that enter their domain after torturing and/or murdering them.  Another alternate title for the movie would be Omino Can't Get a Break as poor Haruka Tajimai in the lead begins the film running away from her abusive pimp, (is there any other kind?), starving enough to eat scraps of thrown away food off of the floor, as two more mountain men rape her on the way to the convent, at which point the one guy that was nice to her shows up and is systematically beheaded as well.  It all leads to a destructive climax where everyone is ranting and raving in pure madness, sending each other to hell as it were, which by the accounts which we have been presented, is a far better place than the real world.
 
SPECIAL SILENCERS
(1979)
Dir - Arizal
Overall: MEH

More absurdity from Indonesia, Special Silencers, (Serbuan Halilintar), is an exploitation martial arts/horror mash-up that goes off the rails quickly and stays off the rails.  Officially released anywhere between 1979 and 1982, (accounts vary), it is one of the more unusual entries in the prolific filmography of director Arizal who worked across several genres and delivers a ridiculous, gross-out, no-budget spectacle here.  Hinging on the premise of a politically motivated black magician who punches his younger-looking grandfather in order to obtain pellets that when ingested will make people's stomachs burst open with red tentacles, it eventually morphs into one hyper-kinetic fight scene after the other.  Seriously, they come with at most three minutes between them as every character on screen with no exception is of course skillfully adept at punching, kicking, and flipping around.  It all creates a hilariously nonsensical tone that is punctuated by equally laugh-out-loud dialog and dangerous set pieces that can only happen in low-end productions like this which clearly had no safety representatives anywhere on location.  Live snakes and rats get thrown at actors with reckless abandon, people are hung upside down, and star Barry Prima holds onto the bottom of a cruising truck.  It grows numbingly stupid after awhile and the endless fight scenes are more boring than riveting, but it is admirably insane for fans of such nonsense.

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