You may have a few misconceptions about Kichiku Dai Enkai. Firstly it is not the biography of Rick Derringer, and secondly it’s probably not ‘the most violent movie ever made.’ What it is, however, is a thoroughly unsettling, artsy exercise in exploitation.
The Sewer screening took place on a night of disruptive baby feedings: sit down and hit play, watch someone get smashed in the face with a bottle, hit pause and change a diaper, repeat. What I’m saying is: I may have missed some key elements of the movie.
What I thought was a poorly organized band of petty criminals is actually supposed to be student leftist radicals or something. No matter, their leader is in jail, and in his absence his shrill girlfriend decides she’ll lead the group by sleeping with every other member and convincing them to beat the crap out of each other.
No sooner can you say ‘demonstration day’ than they are biting each other’s penises off and shotgunning each other in various ways. While Japanese viewers who lived through tumultuous college days in the ‘70s may get the joke, your average punter looking for ‘the most violent movie ever made’ will be lost in the stylistics.
The new-wave realist style is effective and disorienting (jump-cutting and long silent tracking shots abound) if not lugubrious, while the air of casual cruelty is indeed hard to take. It’s almost as if Goddard had directed Last House On The Left.
Other crickets point out the indictment of Japanese culture’s adherence to rigid hierarchy and group-think, but to this delirious reviewers eyes, it also comes down to the stereotypical Japanese fear of women. Even though the female lead sports a Dorothy Hamill cut, she’s still a relentless harridan; loud, controlling and ultimately deadly. After making herself truly ugly and annoying during the films misogynistic climax (heh heh) she finally realizes what her supposed charges feel about her.
Kichiku Dai Enkai features probably the most gratuitously disgusting shotgun blast to the head ever (not even Savini is this crass) and certainly generates an horrific air of reactionary nihilism, but it’s all a bit off - like kidney pie. Those looking for pie will be nauseated, and those looking for kidneys will be left scratching their heads.
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| New Wave blur or poor Photoshop skills? |
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| Disorientation + denigration = stylish horror! |
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| Cultural indictment with imminent intenstine fondling. |