Just when you feel you may have, at last, some measure of Japanese cinema you find out that you do not even have the measure of this ultra extraordinary series - this being number three. Absolutely non stop and for almost a half of the time this means non stop rape sequences. Nami is investigating the consequences of rape by searching out the victims and interviewing them for her magazine. We see the enactment as she reads up on it and we see it again when the individual relates it and sometimes we see it again as Nami's fascination deepens and she begins to fantasise. For good measure we get a re-run of them all at the end as well. As well as all this the tone of the film, fairly routine at the very beginning, begins to take on a sultry sexiness, then a more stylised slant before tipping deliriously over the edge with wide scale scenes of madness, mayhem and more rape with bloody violence added in. As if it were not enough the Nami is gradually getting more sexually excited by these stories she is retelling but we discover that her new found boyfriend is estranged from his wife because she went off with her rapist! There are so many mixed messages in here I shall be interested to listen to the commentary track and also to see this incredible tour de force once more. But not for the moment, this is a very difficult and emotional ride and if I was not shaking afterwards I was certainly profoundly affected. Bold, courageous film making taken way beyond the edge and down through many murky, but not unexciting, levels of depravity.
Review of Angel Guts: Nami
