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Gaira's Guts Trilogy: Guts of a Virgin/Guts of a Beauty/Rusted Body - Limited Edition
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - 88 Films Review written by and copyright: Eric Cotenas (27th September 2024). |
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The Film
 "Discover the visceral world of Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu with the definitive trilogy boxset: Guts of a Beauty, Guts of a Virgin, and Rusted Body. Renowned for his outrageous and uncompromising vision, Gaira delves into the darkest corners of human nature and desire. Each film weaves a gripping narrative with unflinching imagery, pushing the boundaries of horror and eroticism. This collection is a must-have for fans of provocative cinema, offering a unique glimpse into the twisted genius of one of Japan's most controversial directors." Guts of a Virgin: A photo shoot deep in the mountains is rife with sexual tension. Womanizing photographer Asaoka (Daiki Katô) has tired of model Kaya (Megumi Kawashima) who has graced both his lens and his bed to the jealousy of spurned fellow model Kazuyo (Nikkatsu sex film regular Naomi Hagio). His boss Itomura (Angel Guts: Red Porno's Osamu Tsuruoka) has designs on Kaya as per their usual arrangement of him funding shoots in exchange for being "introduced" to the models. That is fine with Asaoka as he is now obsessed with virginal model Rei (Angel Guts: Red Vertigo's Saeko Kizuki) whose excitement at Asoaka's casual cruelty to assistant Tachikawa (Hideki Takahashi) incurs the younger man's jealousy as well. As night falls, the group gets lost in the fog and stumble upon a chalet conveniently under renovation and uninhabited. Boredom gives way to diversions as Itomura is eager to find some time alone with Kaya, as is Asoaka with Rei. When Asoaka demands Tachikawa perform for their entertainment with a wrestling demonstration, he lets out his frustration and aggression on Kazuyo who passes out from the pain. Tachikawa expresses his disgust at the rest of the party and storms off, churlishly stealing the van keys and throwing them into the woods before being brutally dispatched by humanoid creature (Kazuhiko Goda) who has been birthed from the mud and is drawn to the violent sexual impulses of his soon-to-be-victims.. The fusion of sex and horror on film is hardly novel, but in Japan with its particular methodology of censorship – in which human genitals must be optically-blurred or physically blocked from camera view but said occluded genitals and mouths can disgorge fake sexual fluids by the gallon and more than one male pulls pubic hair out of their teeth – gave way to distinctive fetishes and treatment of sexuality within those restrictions that seem nevertheless extreme by Western standards even in the context of American adult filmmaking. While sexual content in Japanese exploitation cinema was becoming increasingly permissive – conceptually if not always visually – since the late sixties with the so-called pinku-eiga genre, Guts of a Virgin forms sort of a bridge between the earlier theatrical pink violence films along the lines of Assault! Jack the Ripper from companies like this film's prolific producer Nikkatsu, the cliché of Japanese schoolgirl/tentacle monster manga/anime, and the similar but more elaborate Evil Dead Trap which featured popular Japanese AV adult performers but dispensed entirely with sex in favor of Dario Argento- and Lucio Fulci-esque gore gags. With its foggy, woodsy setting, handmade gore effects, and its overall sense of spareness – the score consists entirely of one synthesizer cue that is more moody than thematic – Guts of a Virgin actually has more in common with The Evil Dead if it were a porn film (soft or hard). While the female characters are on the receiving end of sexual violence – presumably the monster's phallus was not only unfogged in Japan and got past the British censors this time around because of its rubbery ridiculousness – the male characters here are subjected to the prolonged stalk and kill sequences with Itamura in his underwear following a vague nude figure into the woods and being assaulted by a death trap vaguely reminiscent of the Raimi film's tree root sexual assault, Asoaka in his boxer shorts and bare feet tormented on a tennis court full of broken glass and plates, and an eye-popping fate for Tachikawa. Compared to the only slightly more consensual sex scenes, the sexual assault by the creature on one of the female characters is business-like and her freak death almost incidental. More brutal is the fate of Kazuyo whose hysteria upon waking up surrounded by severed body parts takes a nymphomaniacal turn, while apparently Asoaka's virility was not up to the task of deflowering the virgin despite a lengthy sex scene disrupted by a severed head, and it is possibly beauty who kills the beast through sexual exhaustion in the ambiguous "climax." While the Raimi film had wild sound design, director Kazuo Komizu – who got around to victimizing schoolgirls with a tentacle monster in the little-seen Guzoo: The Thing Forsaken by God - Part I – nicknamed "Gaira", makes use of avant-garde cutaways during the killings to images like hammer pounding meat that may actually be visualizations of the foley effects for the death scenes while an The Omen-esque death by spear cuts away to a javelin thrower. While Komizu was already a veteran of the pink violence sex film genre through is apprenticeship under Kōji Wakamatsu (Ecstasy of the Angels) whose films were distributed by Kokuei Company before Nikkatsu and Shintoho jumped on the bandwagon with wider distribution outlets, Guts of a Virgin was the first of the studio's efforts to blend sex and violence with more overt horror that would be refined in the two subsequent trilogy entries.  Guts of a Beauty: Young Yoshimi (Seira Kitagawa) is searching for her missing sister. When she traces her last movements to boyfriend Higashi (prolific pink film actor Kazuhiro Sano), she is captured by his boss Yoshioka (Violent Cop's Ken Yoshizawa) and learns that her sister was sold into slavery in Africa and that is what they have in store for her as well. After Yoshioka's men (Female Teacher Rope Hell's Shinji Sekikawa, Yoshinari Yoshie, and Kimiya Kôdagawa) brutally rape Yoshimi, Yoshioka orders Higashi to dose her with their designer drug Angel Rain. Yoshimi manages to escape to the clinic of doctor Hiromi (Megumi Ozawa) and tells her what happened before she jumps off the building's roof. The gang think they are in the clear, but Yoshimi uses the tape recording of Yoshimi's story to torment guilt-ridden Higashi before picking him up in a bar, drugging him, and planting a post-hypnotic suggestion in his mind to kill the rest of the gang the next time Yoshioka calls him stupid. Higashi is overpowered, however, and tortured until he gives up Yoshimi's name. Yoshioka turns the tables on Hiromi and his gang rape her before injecting her with Angel Rain. Believing that Hiromi has overdosed, Yoshioka orders the gang to bury her with what is left of Higashi; however, Angel Rain seems to have untested effects on human body chemistry, transforming Hiromi into a slimy, hermaphroditic creature with an all-"consuming" libido with which to exact gory vengeance on her killers. A more visually-assured and even at times stylish evolution over Guts of a Virgin, Guts of a Beauty is not just more of the same while being similarly spare in terms of narration and production. The gore and monster mayhem is held back to the practically the last twenty minutes – as much a plotting choice as a budgetary one seemingly as we have no transformation sequence just a sudden abrupt appearance by the transformed monster and at least two kills that are seen in aftermath – far enough to qualify as a spoiler but that is certainly the film's hook. Gaira seems to be interested in emotionally-engaging the viewer and even perhaps tired of the de rigueur drawn-out rape scenes; indeed, the more interesting aspect of these sequences is Yoshioka's pragmatic attitude towards his own impotence and the big boss' mistress (Ayako Ishii) whose sexual frustration with Yoshioka's lack of physical desire for her gives way to her participation in Hiromi's rape and a sequence meant to top Kazuyo's fate in the first film while Yoshioka's fate seems equally "Freudian." There seems to be sort of a Last House on the Left influence, particularly with a few compositions grouping Yoshioka's gang and the boss' mistress together in complicity; however, it is in the aftermath of Higashi's disembowelment that the gang seem to momentarily contemplate the shamefulness of their excesses (which may be the metaphysical impetus for Hiromi's metamorphosis as an agent of vengeance who becomes "addicted" beyond dispatching those directly responsible).  Rusted Body: Countess Ichijo Hiroko (Fruits of Passion's Keiko Asano) is out to recover 160 million yen that has been embezzled from her account. With the help of three faithful servants – an elderly majordomo (The Notorious Concubines' Kôhei Tsuzaki), his gleefully sadistic granddaughter Koyanagi (Entrails of a Virgin's Saeko Kizuki) who happens to be Hiroko's most apt pupil, and his protege (Wife Collector's Isao Nonaka) – they capture and torture bank employee Yoshida (Hirokazu Yoshihara) but he dies claiming that there was only forty million in the account, leading them to surmise that bank vice president Moriyama (Virginal & Nineteen's Ryôta Sakanishi) must have hidden the balance. They initially intend to capture both Moriyama and his wife Hideko (Hitomi Kazama); however, upon discovering that Moriyama has a mistress in bank employee Natsu (Sexy Battle Girls' Ayu Kiyokawa), they believe they can get the wife to turn on him. When Hideko only expresses heartbreak at discovering her husband's infidelity, they realize they can get just as much enjoyment out of her betrayal and she can be complicit in the torture. Nabbing Moriyama and Natsu off the street, they subject the pair to tortures involving rope bondage, drunken eels, and a special bed able to amplify and transfer physical sensations to a watcher via electrodes, forcing Moriyama to endure his wife's pleasure with the torturers. Whether he gives up the information or not, Moriyama is destined to be pig feed. Better, and more appropriately, known as "Female Inquisitor", the title Rusted Body conjures up "body horror" imagery a la Shinya Tsukamoto's Tetsuo, the Iron Man just a year away. Gaira's film, however, has nothing to do with that, and very little to do with his previous two films in the series. Like the others, it is a chamber piece set in a few locations; however, while the first two films had obvious influences from American horror films, Rusted Body shows more influence from Nikkatsu's more stylish pinku eiga films of the previous decade as well as Seijun Suzuki's "Taisho Trilogy" – or at least the first two entries Zigeunerweisen (1980) and Kagerô-Za (1981) since Suzuki could not get funding for Yumeji until a decade later – in visually evoking that era's (1912-1926) "erotic, grotesque, nonsense" while also reflecting post-World War II attitudes about the Westernization of Japan; indeed, just as Hiroko yearns to live as befitting her aristocratic title, the grandfather reflects a character type in Japanese post-war cinema of the military man who both mourns the old Japan and assumes a moral superiority of the careerist young Japan while hypocritically craving a life of leisure. There is very little in the way of gore – we see meat coming out of a meat grinder and only a glimpse of a finger on the other end – and no monstrous transformation. There is also very little fogging with more creative framing utilized and a few glimpses of phalluses that make the ones in Tinto Brass films look convincing (presumably why the Japanese censors did not fog the shots). The film also does not exploit any of the interesting character dynamics like the potential for Koyanagi to be jealous of her grandfather's protege and his attraction to Hideko or the gang possibly feeling betrayed by Hiroko's lust for Moriyama. That Moriyama in the throws of pain and pleasure still claims that money is more important than anything else and the villains get away and live happily ever after does not turn the film into a conservative statement. In keeping with the anti-establishment stance of Gaira's mentor, Rusted Body is as cynical about people looking forward or back. 
Video
Seemingly in the aftermath of the notoriety achieved by underground releases of the Japanese Guinea Pig when actor Charlie Sheen contacted the FBI believing one of the entries to be a real snuff film, Guts of a Beauty and Guts of a Virgin also started circulating officially and otherwise with the first English-friendly DVD releases of both films coming from Holland's Japan Shock label as non-anamorphic letterboxed transfers with Dutch, English, and German subtitles appearing on black strips. Synapse Films' provided anamorphic upgrades of the films under the titles Entrails of a Virgin and Entrails of a Beautiful Woman which were improvements over the PAL conversions of Japanese NTSC video masters. Both films made their Blu-ray debuts from Austria's Shock Entertainment which also included English subtitles. Presumably, 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray transfers come from the same masters and this is likely the best they ever have looked on video. Guts of a Virgin sports better rendition of night-for-night exteriors – some crush is evident in the black hair of the actresses when it fills the frame – and the brighter, diffused and soft focus shots of the sex scenes early on (there are a couple soft close-ups in the van scene early on in the film but the lens might not have been able to focus close enough). Better detail is evident in skin and hair along with the textures of the real locations while the DIY make-up effects have always looked latex-y. Guts of a Beauty's overall slicker cinematography and more controlled lighting of existing locations while the enhanced detail better shows off the improved monster suit work as well as the Troma-esque gore.  Rusted Body also had an English-friendly Japan Shock DVD release in Holland but it remained the more obscure of trilogy and Synapse did not offer an upgrade of it with the other two films. The film made its Blu-ray bow from Austria's Shock Entertainment last year with optional English subtitles and 88 Films' 1080p24 MPEG-4 AVC 1.85:1 widescreen Blu-ray presumably comes from the same master. The best-looking of the trilogy cinematographically, it also is the best-looking transfer in the set for much of the presentation, resolving sweaty, bare flesh, writhing eels, and slimy fake semen as lovingly as the film's frequently colorful art direction and wardrobe (this is certainly the only film in the set with a deliberate sense of design). On the other hand, there appear to be a few soft individual shots that are either upscaled from video or were out of register in camera (presumably the former since other shots within the same scenes look fine).
Audio
Audio options for all three films are the original Japanese mono tracks in 24-bit LPCM 2.0 mono which sport clear dialogue, loud moans and grunts, and some exaggerated foley work while the scores are often merely "supportive" and almost recessed in the mix in some instances. Optional English subtitles are free of any obvious errors apart from a gaffe in the third film where the blackmailer tells Hideko that her husband's lover is an employee at "her husband's bank" rather than "your husband's bank." 
Extras
Guts of a Virgin is accompanied by a theatrical trailer (1:40) and still gallery (0:26) along with "Sex and Death" (18:29), an interview with director Gaira who discusses enjoying Hollywood movies with his mother as a child and getting into film through Wakamatsu who was anti-establishment even as far as authority in the film industry, so Gaira found it easy to get into the business because his mentor just went out and made films. Gaira, on the other hand, recalls that although he had been directing films, Nikkatsu had expressed doubt about the combination of horror and sex for Guts of a Virgin until he showed them a film from competitor Kokuei in a similar vein. Rusted Body has no extras but Guts of a Beauty's Gaira interview "Bleeding Love" (14:36) actually covers both the second and third films. In the Guts of a Virgin, Gaira had already made some comments about the Guts of a Beauty creature design in contrast to the first film, and here he touches upon the film's censorship and how he mistakenly thought evoking earlier Japanese art forms by depicting Hideko's ravishing in silhouette behind a backlit sheet would meet with any issues. The two interviews do not give much contextualization to some of the films and production personnel he mentions in passing, but here he does discuss the ways in which under Wakamatsu, he, assistant director Isao Okishima and writer Masao Adachi learned to work creatively with a low budget. The Guts of a Beauty disc also includes that film's theatrical trailer (1:26) and a still gallery (1:51). 
Packaging
The films are packaged in three keep cases in a slipcase with newly-commissioned artwork by Ilan Sheady and reversible sleeves featuring original Japanese poster artwork. Booklet notes were not provided for review.
Overall
Miraculously getting past the censors for the first time ever in the U.K., Gaira's Guts Trilogy is still pretty strong stuff and hopefully indicative of more lesser-seen Japanese erotica to come.
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