Bôhachi bushidô: Poruno jidaigeki aka Bohachi Bushido: Clan of the Forgotten Eight - Teruo Ishii - Japan - (1973)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142773/

Plot by Imdb: "Bohachi Bushido is the story of an ex-samurai named Shiro. Believing life and death to be the same hell, he tries to kill himself by jumping into a river. A very hard man to kill, Shiro is revived by members of the Clan of the Forgotten Eight- an organization of men and women who have discarded god, servitude, loyalty, trust, propriety, justice, conscience, and shame. The Forgotten Eight run Japan's cruel sex industry and they recruit Shiro to rid them of their competition. Shiro agrees to work for them, more out of boredom than any real convictions."

Teruo Ishii. Again ? YES ! And we're not done yet with that man! This forgotten master of Japanese deviant cinema does it again in this Pinku / Chambara, with a lot of style. Every shot is carefully framed and the costumes and sets are gorgeous. Mythical actor Tetsuro Tamba (how do you call someone who's being acting in all these movies: "Kwaidan", "The executioner II (with Sonny Chiba)", "Graveyard of Honnor" (the Miike version), "Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky"(pure insane Cat III from HK) and some movies from Master Kinji Fukasaku ? I call him mythical.) is perfect in the main role, very low key performance (as his character is a desperate man) but very efficient at the same time. Few psychedelic effects in this one but great combat choreography. I especially liked the "naked women versus the Ninja Master" fight, with is nothing but exploitation in motion and, of course, the last fight of Shiro against 147 opponents. Impressive work by Teruo Ishii, in this very balanced movie, that never goes too far in a way or another, and keep you interested all along. Another classic ! 

Trailer:

Kyôfu kikei ningen: Edogawa Rampo zenshû aka Horrors of Malformed Men - Teruo Ishii - Japan - (1969)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0142257/

Plot from Imdb: "We open with a dazed man in the middle of a cage of naked crazy women in a mental institution. We soon learn that he's an inmate as well. He is haunted by an odd children's lullaby. That night a strange bald man tries to kill him but instead our hero kills the bald man and escapes. Our hero hears the unusual lullaby and finds a circus performer who seems to come from the same remote place on the coast. He makes his way to the coast and finds out that a rich man who looks exactly like him has just died. He digs up the body and switches clothing becoming the dead man mistakenly buried too soon. Our hero then attempts to discover the strange secrets of the dead man's family while trying to imitate the deceased."

Another cinematic piece of insanity from Teruo Ishii  (see his other movies here and here), here mixing all kind of influences from Ero Guro to the gothic fantastic detective story from Edogawa Rampo, the Japanese master writer of the bizarre, some Butoh, a Japanese choreography style of Gothic inspiration,with a classic SF touch ("The island of Dr Moreau" comes in mind immediately), including some subliminal images of atomic radiation deformities. After all, we're talking about a Japanese movie, and the atomic Armageddon is always present, in a way or another. Back to the movie: Ishii stars slowly and takes his time to develops the excessively complex story (but entertaining one) of a man who takes the place of a dead one to unveil the truth about his identity. After this part of the story, the fantastic elements of the malformed men come  into play and the hallucinogenic erotico-grotesque flashy images are unleashed upon us as soon as the characters step foot on the mysterious island. From this point on, it's more a visual feast for the deviant spectator and an incredible journey into explaining a plot that didn't make any sense at the beginning. Ishii is going very far, including in the "sins" of his characters: kidnapping, rape, murder, enslavement, body modification, incests, no "sins" are left untouched. The ending is so absurd that it left me speechless.

Great classic for the sinners out there, this "Horrors of malformed Men" shows us again how important is Teruo Ishii to the deviant side of 20th century Japanese movie world.

Trailer:

Kaidan nobori ryu aka Blind Woman's Curse - T. Ishii - Japan - (1970)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065932/

Plot by Imdb: "Akemi and the man of her clan confront their opponents; Akemi delivers a sword thrust to kill the opponents' leader, and Aiko, his daughter, tries to interpose herself, suffering a glancing blow to her eyes, thus cutting her badly, and blinding her. Amid the ensuing fight, no one notices that a black cat laps the young woman's wound. Years later, revenge between the two clans continue, plus added dissension amongst Akemi's people, leading to more deaths. A new member comes to help them, but she is a strange woman - and blind. The curse of the blind woman is about to fell on the dragon-lady."

One fine Pinky violence movie, extremely well made and absolutely nonsensical. Several elements have nothing to do here, like the Gothic horrors sequences with the hunchback and the scenes at the Theater, or the black cat curse (and black cat flying attacks ! Hilarious !)  but they add to the weirdness of this mildly bloody Yakuza clans war tale. As often, the main characters have some kind of iconic elements to them: a huge dragon head tattoo for Meiko kaji, blindness for Aiko. One of the Yakuza gang leaders is wearing a bowler hat and goes around without pants (!!), etc... The "bizarre" elements pile up until you let it all go and just enjoy the mix. Extremely well directed by a Teruo Ishii ("Inferno of Torture") in great shape, using his technical skills to create beautiful images. Some sequences are mesmerizing: the first fighting scene, during the opening credits is amazing and so iconic that it became an instant classic for me. The ultimate bloody fighting sequence is also nicely done.

Meiko Kaji ("Female Convict Scorpion, jailhouse 41", "Lady Snowblood" and many others) is stunning as always but strangely disappears during the middle of the picture, as the story concentrates on other supporting characters. Hopefully, she returns at the end for a grand finale: a saber duel with her enemy.

Half Chambara, half Pinky violence, half Yakuza Eiga, half Gothic Horror, this movie is not the best of Ishii but needs to be seen as another demonstration of the incredible vitality of exploitation Japanese cinema in the 70's.

 

Trailer: