The Discotek Media DVD release.
Naked Blood/Splatter: Naked Blood/Nekeddo burâddo: Megyaku, Hisayasu Sato, Japan, 1995, 76 mins, Discotek Media, Region 0
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Twice in my life I have gotten sick to my stomach during a flick. Both were in my senior year of high school. The first was Stigmata. The scene in the bathtub when the nails go through Frankie’s hands. I remember getting really light headed, sweating like a Tai hooker and then my friend shaking me awake and asking “what the fuck just happened to you?” The second was after Oliver Stone’s U’Turn. Sean Penn with the bones sticking out and the buzzards. Same thing happened. Nothing else has ever bothered me, and frankly those films are fairly tame in comparison to the repulsing things I have seen since. Nekromantik. Cannibal Holocaust. Guinea Pig series. Salo: 120 Days of Sodom. But for what ever reason, maybe it was that they were realistic to me, or I had low blood sugar, whatever... They fucked with me. Saturday night “Splatter: Naked Blood” fucked with me. And for all the right reasons. People not accustomed to extreme Asian cinema sometimes have no frame of reference for it. Odd story telling patterns. Graphic violence and sex and a habit of telling stories in ways very hard to Western viewers to comprehend. In western movies, everything is based on action, reaction. Cause and effect. A leads to B which leads to C. In Asian films, A leads to D, and B and C are not necessary. I’m a big fan of this. But even for me, some films are just too odd and too devoid of any semblance of storytelling and rely merely on shock. This ain’t one of them. At first it is a deceptively innocent story. Very simple. A young scientist secretly drugs his mothers patients with his new experimental serum. One that releases endorphins and pleasure when the body feels pain. The more pain, the more pleasure. And that is about it. It’s clean, elegant A + B = C. The first forty to fifty minutes are just watching and waiting as the characters set the stage until what we know is coming occurs. Then... all fucking hell breaks loose. I’m not gonna spoil the levels of torture these young women subject themselves to, that is the viewing pleasure. But these women mess themselves up good, and they love every moment of it. And it is honestly, kind of hot. Which is one of the things you can take away from it-- You can’t help what turns you on. Keep in mind, this flick is like 70 something minutes. So if the shit takes that long to hit the fan and it fucked with a devoted gore fiend, you know it’s hot and heavy and to the point. The filmmaker actually found a way of combining Bergman’s “Cries and Whispers” and Gordon’s “Re-Animator” in a scene that has to be scene to be believed. You can read in any kind of political message of bourgeoisie bullshit, self destructive over indulgent, greedy consumer society--- you wouldn’t be wrong, but for me it is just an amazing spectacle to witness and experience. Fans of 80’s Cronenberg will likely appreciate this wonderfully violent fear of technology film. I’m not familiar with the director’s other work. Supposedly, this is a remake of his own film. But I will become familiar. Very soon, and very eagerly. So far I have been very pleased with the DVD’s released by Discotek Media. Top of the line films of complete insanity.
- -Chris Sacks |
