(1979/JAPAN)
REVIEWED BY- STEVE GENIER DIRECTED BY- NOBORU TANAKA CAST-ERI KANUMA, TAKEO CHII, MIMI SAWAKI, MIYAKO YAMAGUCHI and KYOKO AOYAMA.
The third installment of Japan’s Nikkatsu Studio’s roman porno series ANGEL GUTS, follows a young female reporter named Nami. She is hard at work on her latest assignment, one that has her tracking down women who have been brutally raped in the past. An article called Rape And It’s Consequences which is released in parts in conjunction with each rape victim Nami interviews. As she gets deeper into the report, she finds herself becoming apart of it in small ways. There is one other reporter, Muraki who is from another magazine spots this and investigates until he is face to face with Nami. Nami’s drive to get this report done and with excellent results has her facing the bull by it’s horns as the victims begin to retaliate against as she exposing them. Then, like the victims, Nami becomes one too. As she interviews a nurse who had been a victim, and very unstable, forcing Nami into a complete re-enactment of her ordeal. Raping Nami and then brutally sodomizing her, the nurse has in fact shown Nami what she was looking for. Once again, like the victim she has interviewed, Nami herself becomes suicidal, un-balanced and feeling very dirty.
Quite possibly the most creative, the most edgiest and the most complete installment from the ANGEL GUTS series. Director Noboru Tanaka gives us a very realistic and brutal vision of rape and giving it a complete style overhaul. Topped with superbly lit sets, flashy visions and smooth transitions, NAMI certainly conveys more then one message in it’s storyline. What it’s like to want something you can almost taste something, in this case that later becomes the truth. Nami’s investigation is displayed with precise details in terms of showing just how something like rape can swallow up a person’s hidden desires.
Watching something so brutal from the safety of the sidelines can be derailed towards you at any given moment. The exact direction Tanaka takes with Nami’s obsession with her report, it’s subject and it’s overall outcome. All of which are displayed through a series of scenes where Nami is being raped by her co-workers as well as going through and saying things that each of the victims she interviewed had gone through. These scenes are directed with a passionate eye for sure as they are very stylish and surreal. Almost as if there very in fact the manga themselves. Taken once again from the Takashi Ishii manga, who also wrote the script for the film as well.
There are many scenes that would of course offend some, but others would pick up there real meanings. Though rape is never a pretty subject, NAMI is an example of just one way of trying to explain it. Displaying that both the victims and their rapists are not too far from being a like. Of course I mean being a like in the sense that after being raped, the victim like those who doing the raping are in most cases very unstable. This of course is something that director Tanaka does an excellent job of displaying. Along with the brutal rape scenes, though not as bad as some of the other installments in this series, they are none the less brutal. There are some scenes of bitter distaste in some mouths for sure.
Including the scene where the nurse that Nami interviews is being raped in the compartment where they keep the corpses in fermenting solution. Of course the usual Japanese fetish of wanting to see guts is used as well. I want to make it clear though that for the most part, NAMI is pretty much tame outlined with a very complete storyline coupled with a decent plot. Acting is quite good as well and in fact gets pretty intense in several scenes. Of course the rape scene being a majority of them, actress Eri Kanuma who plays Nami does an incredible job. Almost showing complete innocence, knowing almost nothing about the subject of rape going into her report. Gaining complete experience even before here impeding rape. Still, her composure is completely immaculate until she is raped, then the complete opposite happens.
On this the third disc in the ANGEL GUTS DVD box-set from Artsmagic, there is a 38 minute interview with NAMI director Noboru Tanaka, who discusses everything from his start in film with joining Nikkatsu as a assistant director to his climb up to director. His many calibrations as well as his thoughts about NAMI. The commentary for this disc is supplied by Jasper Sharpe who is Midnight Eye’s co-editor. The commentary is quite intelligent and very insightful as well as being very informative. There is also trailers for all five installments of the ANGEL GUTS set here as well as filmographies. The film itself is presented in wide-screen format with a 5.1 Dolby Digital Japanese soundtrack, with of course removable English subtitles. Both visuals and audio are far more superior to that of the advanced copy they have sent out earlier. Once again they have done an above excellent job of bringing yet another obscure Japanese gem to fruition.
STORY-4.5 BITCH SLAPS
