Guts of a Beauty (Bijo no harawata) (1986)
akaGuts of a Virgin 2

Reviewed By-Sean Patrick Dolan
Director-Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu/
Cast-Megumi Ozawa, Seira Kitagawa, Ken Yoshizawa

This is the second installment of an infamous trilogy of movies directed by Kazuo Komizu (GUTS OF A VIRGIN AKA ENTRAILS OF A VIRGIN, GUTS OF A BEAUTY AKA GUTS OF A VIRGIN 2, and GUTS OF A VIRGIN 3 AKA FEMALE INQUISITOR). The films are not true sequels to one another and have little in common besides their Yakuza characters and extreme sexual violence and gore.

In this film, a young woman named Yoshimi (Seira Kitagawa) is abducted by her boyfriend Higashi, a petty Yakuza thug who intends to dope her up and sell her into prostitution in Africa through the Ichiyama clan- her sister Keiko already met the same fate.  However, after Yoshimi is brutally raped by five Yakuza members, the two thugs left to guard her pass out from their own drug abuse, allowing her to escape.  Yoshimi makes it to a hospital and tells the female psychiatrist there, Hiromi (Megumi Ozawa), her whole story.  Unfortunately, the drugs kick in and she freaks out, jumping off the hospital roof to her death on the street below.

Hiromi decides to get vengeance for the dead woman and her sister, and so she lurks in the bar favored by the local Yakuza and seduces Higashi and hypnotizes him, causing him to freak out and attack his fellow gangsters in a psychotic rage.  Before he is killed and his corpse is chopped into sashimi, the boss, Yoshioka (Ken Yoshizawa), gets enough information out of him to know that there is a female avenger gunning for all of them.  It does not take him long to identify Hiromi as the culprit, and she too is drugged, gang-raped, and murdered.



This is where this nasty little film finally begins to get interesting. The various dismembered limbs of Higashi and Hiromi are dumped in the same place, and the super-strong brand of heroin, "Angel Rain", which both had in their systems, produces a horrifying result.  The corpses merge into one huge creature which looks like it has been skinned alive and which also boasts massive dual genitalia- a two foot long penis with a mouth and sharp teeth at the end and a gaping, dripping vagina.  The Higashi/Hiromi creature continues its vengeance on the Yakuza, ripping them apart with its bare hands or, in one instance, suffocating one member by sitting on his face.  In one memorable and darkly humorous scene, a female Yakuza member who is constantly horny throughout the film (and has indulged in way too much recreational drug use to the detriment of her sanity) welcome the advances of the Higashi/Hiromi creature, first fellating the truly hideous appendage and then spreading her legs for the creature.  She is ripped in two when the member emerges, ALIEN-style, from her stomach.

This is one of those films that you need to take a shower after watching.  The numerous rape scenes are graphic and prolonged, completely gratuitous exploitation in its purest and ugliest form.  The plot of the film is fairly thin, consisting of the rapes and the psychiatrist's foolhardy attempt at vengeance.  The gore and the monster which unleashes the violent mayhem is the one truly memorable part of this very short (70 minute) film, but the rationale for its existence is shaky ground at best- the bizarre properties of the "Angel Rain" heroin, which are evidenced by grotesque, special effects enhanced convulsions that take place as soon as anyone is shot up with the stuff.  Even more perplexing is the creature's ability to assume human form (that of Hiromi) before transforming back, Incredible Hulk-style, into its monstrous form.  Overall, the film is dark and grainy, the acting is never more than competent, and it has no soundtrack whatsoever.  The special effects are not the very best, but are satisfying nonetheless in their "old school" aesthetic- it actually made me a bit nostalgic for a simpler age, the '80's. 

I think the review is pretty clear on this point, but I'll reiterate just in case- this film is certainly not for everyone, but as a gorehound and a self-confessed exploitation film junkie, I give it 2.5 Bitch Slaps. I reviewed a copy of the Dutch VHS release with English subtitles by Japan Shock Video.

 

2.5 Bitch Slaps

 

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