Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman DVD Review

Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman

Reviewed by SuperNova

DVD released by Synapse Films

Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman
1986/ Japanese Ero Gro (Meaning Erotic Grotesque movie)
68 minutes/Not Rated
Color/English subtitles

Directed By: Gaira (Kazuo Komizu)

Produced by: Hiroshi Hanzawa and Toshio Sato

Starring: Megumi Ozawa, Ken Yoshizawa and Kazuhiro Sano

Story:

Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman opens with a great deal of confusion and all hope of rationality is completely dismissed once the films apparent direction begins. We are introduced to a young woman who is desperately trying to seek answers from a mysterious gigolo on the whereabouts of her sister. It turns out the gigolo use to date the sibling, but when she refused to continue embezzling money he sold her into white slavery. As if the news of her sister wasn't bad enough the young woman finds herself trapped inside a Yakuza hideout and is then repeatedly and sympathetically raped. After the initial arousal parishes the group resorts to injecting the young woman with a cocaine super drug called "Angel Rain" that serves to increase her libido.

In the midst of the night the young woman manages to escape from the torment and wanders into a hospital where she confesses everything to a female psychiatrist. Scarred by the memories and affected by the drug the young woman does the unthinkable and commits suicide by leaping off the roof of the hospital. Overwhelmed by the tragic events the psychiatrist infiltrates the Yakuza clan and manages to hypnotize one member named Hirashi to extract revenge for her. Only the plan back fires. The gang kills Hirashi and then drugs and sexually assaults the psychiatrist in the most vial of ways.

In a state of absolute disgust the psychiatrist is injected with "Angel Rain", but the drug proves to be too powerful and her exhausted body enters into a position of quivery before succumbing to a coma. The gang is ordered to get rid of the woman, but through some method of mystical symbiosis, the body of the psychiatrist and the cadaver of Hirashi form together to create a claret hermaphroditic creature with a grudge. Justice is served swiftly, as the monster extracts revenge on those who dared infringe upon the body of a Beautiful Woman.

Reviewers Thoughts:

How does one react to a film that deals with mortification of not just one gender, but both? Emanating an overt perspective seems like a challenge or a waste of time, but perhaps the juxtaposition between uncertainty and unexpectedness is a balanced relationship, more so than the mind is willing to accept making this convoluted onscreen mess less interpretable as a result. When dealing with such an anemic commentary about a sexual manipulation congregated with a antagonistic crisis like we are here in Entrails Of a Beautiful Woman you have to question the indulgence indiscreetly sought after and the egotism bound by a nomadic frustration every character painfully exhales. With each evocation of sensual intimacy unlocks a door into a hollow darkness that serves to devour the helpless and conceited souls who've come to lust before expiring exhaustively onto the floor. The root of maternalism is abandoned all together leaving room for internal questioning and sinful anxiety. Entrails sets itself up as an encryption of sexual mythology that we see through the eyes of the unwavering yakuza protagonists. We watch as fantasies are aligned before us and fulfilled with an arousing, but often abhorrent happiness. We hear the grottiest snarls and remarks of pure virginal passion. In essence we are a part of this impersonal ecstasy, allowing our self the ability to divulge unto a weightlessness while penetrating the screen with a narcissistic gaze that violates our very own righteous dignity.

The only problem is that much of the eroticism behind Entrails derives from complete absurdity, permitting a small calling that's probably just an irresponsible misguidance of our own human conscious to keep us interested in the escalating tension. The proposed aspect of horror purposely offsets the grim reality of the often in vain altercations that flourish from ones inner most desires. Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman would be a thought provoking film if it wasn't essentially eclipsed by a congested allegory of bland images that gel together without an actual compound to stabilize and secure the idea. The film is an assault on the masochistic approach to sexual craving, expanding upon a sadistic fantasy by influencing the appetite and then enhancing the altercation by injecting a serum most notably similar to cocaine. What seems interesting is that we as a viewer subjugate morality to witness these acts occurring on screen, as one character subjugates her own morals to satisfy a yearning for retribution. Whether it's a statement of depravity or an anomalistic transgression one thing remains certain and that's the seductive underlining every one seems to get away with.

It is in my own opinion that the film serves to balance a rather fragile scale of conformed sexual conduct with salacious annotations about the barbarity and hostility geared towards the actions of love making and rape. More over Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman is often eager to display its realistic abilities and copious talents that seem to range from sexual indiscretion and immoral decency that only exploit women like a puppet. It's this emotionally abandoned shameless retaliation against the opposite sex that separates the gore from the obvious misogynic undertone, making Entrails appear commonplace to fans of grotesque erotic films. However Entrails may seem you certainly cannot deny the credibility of the message and its intriguing premise, which is usually conceived as a reverence of masculinity and not the literal embodiment of the story, which is based upon the fury of a woman's revenge no matter how preposterous her reason for seeking such action might be. If it sounds irrelevant or preconceived that's because the vengeance serves to justify not only a cause, which is of a cruel and unjust death, but an inner quibble of sexual dissatisfaction. In many ways it is the inclination of sex that drives the psychiatrist to subject herself to be at the hands of the mercifulness Yakuza while allowing her body to be a pivotal tool for orgasmic humiliation.

The proverbial yet unwarranted nature and meaning of the film isn't as much of a caricature of Japan culture as it is often just an excuse to create an exposition of sadism. With that being said though, Entrails is as much about a human malady as it is a protracted abject observation and affirmation of the voiceless femininity that acquiesces to the victimization of masculinity. Recalling the implications of the predominant male domain it's easy to see the narrative is placed exactly and unambiguously in the sphere of the masculine control. The articulate sexual authoritarianism isn't just a transient feature, but an analytical discovery of our own subordinate conscious. Even though Entrails was made in 1986, much of Japan belief and culture remain committed to traditionalism where the role of both sexes are strategic, a myopic view if you will. The moral of Entrails, which is distantly drowned beneath its core, can really be found apparent in almost any unforgiving situation where a victim is forced to seek retribution alone. In perhaps the simplest term this is a rape and revenge movie cleverly or incompetently disguised to be something more while trying to sound opinionated by fighting for the cause of women's liberation.

Audio:

Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman is presented here in a Dolby Digital Mono soundtrack with newly minted yellow English subtitles. The soundtrack is far from pristine, but it holds up quite well. Dialogue is projected satisfactorily and the overall sound appears consistent, never succumbing to distortion or muffling. The score while not really effective is quite interesting to hear even if it sounds like arcade music. The redefined English subtitles are a great improvement over the Japan Shock release. They are easy to read and contain no spelling errors.

Video:

Synapse does a wonderful job with the release of Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman. They gave it a new anamorphic (1.78:1) widescreen transfer that fully accentuates the overall gritty and sinister atmosphere. Blacks are predominantly strong and well saturated casting ominous shadows off the contours of the characters. Reds are solid and saturated nicely, exceeding from the screen with a vibrant response. Although close to being two decades old Entrails looks moderately beautiful at times and I must congratulate Synapse for not only doing a job well done, but for releasing this movie to unsuspecting viewers.

Special Features:

The DVD opens with an animated menu featuring the greatest gore sequence in the entire movie. We have the option of watching the movie with English subtitles on as well as viewing the original theatrical trailer. Synapse also includes a lengthy sixteen minute long interview with director Kazuo "Gaira" Komizu. It's part two of an interview conducted by Synapse about the American release of Entrails of a Virgin and Entrails of a Beautiful Woman. The discussion that takes place within is by far the most intriguing aspect of the entire presentation of the DVD. Director Kazuo "Gaira" Komizu for what seems like religious reasoning answers question by presenting more questions and not answers himself. His spiritual concept of making a film and comparing it to desires in our society is fascinating to hear if not too complex for even the most intelligent to understand. It's by far the strangest interview I've ever had the privilege to watch and although director Kazuo "Gaira" Komizu stated he wanted to do another Entrails movie I got the impression he really didn't like his past directorial achievements. The movie runs sixteen chapters in length and the DVD comes complete with an essay on Japanese optical censoring. A job well done by Synapse.

Newly Translated Easy-to-Read Removable Subtitles

Animated DVD menus

Original Theatrical trailer

Part Two of a Video Interview with Director Gaira

Essay on the Japanese Film Fogging Controversy

Overall:

Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman is part of a erotic horror trilogy created by writer and director Kazuo "Gaira" Komizu. The first film was Entrails Of A Virgin followed by Beautiful Woman and then Female Inquisitor. If you can get past the human indignity and open your mind to sixty eight minutes of complete volatility you just may enjoy Entrails Of A Beautiful Woman. While it doesn't necessarily have anything to offer on a broad scale Entrails does deliver the carnal goods and character defamation when needed. Sadly even with its short running time the film seems to overstay its length by deliberately drawing out scenes of intense graphic sex that only serve to push the film into a demeaning territory. The acting is hardly noteworthy even at times none existent leaving the bland cinematography to somehow salvage the film. I can honestly say nothing stands out in this movie and I would only recommend it to someone looking for peculiar Asian films.

Movie **½/*****
Audio ***/*****
Video ***/*****
Supplements ***/*****