Blu-ray Review: VILLAGE OF DOOM (1983)

 

VILLAGE OF DOOM

Directed by:   Noboru Tanaka

Distributed by:  Unearthed Films / MVD Entertainment

 Unearthed Films is one of my favorite movie companies out there.  Not only do they release and distribute films that normally wouldn't get a release due to their extreme nature, they also produce their own extreme gore films!   Recently, Unearthed Films created a new line of films called Unearthed Classics.  These are older films that they are releasing that have either been long out of print, or maybe even the first time being released in the U.S.!    Today's review is from the Unearthed Classics line, and it is called VILLAGE OF DOOM.    The film is from 1983, and is one I had never heard of before arriving to me for review!  

 Here is a brief synopsis of the film from the Unearthed Films website:

A classic Japanese true crime story, Village of Doom is a chilling reenactment of the infamous Tsuyama Massacre, a revenge killing spree that occurred on the night of 21 May 1938 in the rural village of Kamo near Tsuyama in Okayama Prefecture. Mutsuo Toi, an emotionally distraught 21-year-old man who had been ostracized by his fellow villagers, went on a violent killing spree that took the lives of 30 people, including his own grandmother. Before finally killing himself, Toi visited his revenge upon the village using a shotgun, Japanese sword and axe. It remains the deadliest mass murder spree in Japanese history.

 The film is based on the true story of the Tsuyama Massacre, something I was not familiar with before this film.   Here is a brief description of the massacre from Wikipedia:

The Tsuyama massacre was a revenge spree killing that occurred on the night of 21 May 1938 in the rural village of Kamo close to Tsuyama in Okayama, Empire of Japan. Mutsuo Toi (都井 睦雄, Toi Mutsuo), a 21-year-old man, killed 30 people, including his grandmother, with a Browning shotgun, katana, and axe, and seriously injured three others before killing himself with the shotgun. It is the deadliest shooting by a lone gunman in Japanese history.

 I always find it so hard to believe that I have gone my whole life never even hearing about some films, especially when they are as good as this one.   I am in tons of horror movie groups on Facebook, and follow lots of horror movie fan accounts on Insta and X, yet somehow this is one that had just slipped by me.   I am not sure how this is not talked about more, because it is definitely worthy of discussion. 

 The film follows a 30ish year old man who lives with his grandmother.  He is a quiet, shy man who is very smart and dreams of being in the military to serve his country.   He is liked by all in his village, but is sometimes taken advantage of by his so called "friends".   This very normal, calm man is instantly changed when he goes to enlist in the military, but is refused due to an illness.   He has been diagnosed with the highly contagious Tuberculosis.   Word spreads quickly around his small town, and he is instantly discriminated against by all the people of his village.  He is also chastised for not serving his country in the military, through no fault of his own.    

 As time passes, this once quiet man get fed up with the way he is treated.   What starts as a minor annoyance grows into pure hatred as the build up of the way he is being treated boils up inside him.   He makes a plan to extract revenge upon his village.   He makes a map and plots out house to house the direction he will go.   He does this in the dead of night, to catch people off guard and while everyone is inside so the streets will be empty for him to navigate without being seen.    This creates some very cool visuals as he straps two flashlights to his head and around his chest, almost giving him the look of some homemade super hero, or I guess in this case, super villian, costume.   Prowling the night in his homemade get up looks very creepy.    He carries out his killing streak using a multitude of weapons including guns, swords, knives, and even an axe. 

 This was an excellent film, and quite topical with todays climate.  Seeing this nice, quiet, young man go from completely normal to a vicious killer was very disturbing.  The movie shows this in such a way that is so realistic, showing the very slow transition, making it so much more realistic and disturbing.   You can see how his transition was created, and you could see the exact exchanges that led to it.  It really makes you think that if we pay more attention to people and how they are treated, maybe we could tell when people are starting to transition to this way of thinking and could stop a something like this from happening in present day.  

I can't recommend VILLAGE OF DOOM enough.   It is a great film that is a must see for all extreme horror fans.   While there is a bit of gore, there is nothing overwhelming, but just the subject matter by itself and the violence our lead takes on innocent people is extreme enough. 

 VILLAGE OF DOOM is available now from Unearthed Films and includes the following Special Features:

• *  Audio commentary by Asian film experts Arne Venema and Mike Leeder
• *  Dark Asia with Megan: Case #57 Japan's Darkest Night, Tsuyama Massacre
• *  Promotional Gallery
• *  Theatrical Trailer

CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD

CLICK HERE to purchase the BLU-RAY

Check out the crazy trailer for NUIGULUMAR Z, aka GOTHIC LOLITA BATTLE BEAR!!

 I am a huge fan of crazy Japanese horror films. The crazier, the better in my opinion, so this one looks right up my alley!  The movie is called NUIGULUMAR Z, aka GOTHIC LOLITA BATTLE BEAR!  The film was directed by Noboru Iguchi, one of my favorite directors. His previous work includes THE MACHINE GIRL, ROBOGEISHA and MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD just to name a few. 

Here is the basic plot of the film:

Yumeko Ayukawa, better known as Dameko, is a lolita fashion-clad girl who possesses the ability to merge with her pink teddy bear Buusuke to become ""Nuigulumar"". In her new form she must do battle against a villain named Takeshi who's using zombies in his plot to take over the world.

 So the film is probably more of an action/adventure/fantasy film than a true horror film, but it's got zombies in it, so close enough!   Check out the trailer and let me know what you think.   The film was released in Japan last month, and there is currently no U.S. release date that I have seen.

CLICK HERE to watch the trailer

 

DVD Review: SANGUIVOROUS

  
SANGUIVOROUS
Directed by Naoki Yoshimoto
Distributed by MVD Entertainment Group

  I am a huge fan of Japanese horror films, and I do enjoy a good vampire flick from time to time, so I was very intrigued when I heard about the film SANGUIVOROUS.  It looked very interesting from the trailer, but as a full movie, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed.  
 Here is the basic plot of the film from the MVD website:

It incorporates a physical acting style that draws heavily from butoh, a form of Japanese dance. A young woman suffering strange hallucinations and physical ailments discovers that she is the descendant of an ancient line of European vampires, and she and her boyfriend are soon captured by older vampires and drawn into the darkness.

  This is one of the strangest films I have seen in a long time.  I really am having a hard time thinking of how to review this one, because it was just so weird.   I can't say I liked it, but I didn't hate it either.  There are good parts and bad parts to this film, but most of it is just....too strange to even classify.  The film is basically a silent film, done in a very art house style.  There is some dialog, but most the time the viewer is just hit with crazy visuals and sounds.   The film is mostly black and white, with some parts looking old, like Nosferatu old, and some parts looking much more modern. The mixture of looks and style throughout the film is very strange to say the least.

  I think this would have made a great short film, I think trying to stretch it out to a full length feature run time was too much.  A lot of the scenes started to feel repetitive to me.

  I'm not sure if I can really recommend this one or not.  You might need to watch this and see for yourself and see what you think.  Is this film so well made it is a brilliant, or is it so poorly made it is awful?  I really don't know!  Maybe I just didn't get it.   If you have seen this film, please leave me a comment and let me know what you thought of the movie.  I am very interested to hear some other opinions on this one.

  SANGUIVOROUS is available now on DVD from MVD Entertainment.


CLICK HERE to watch the trailer
CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD

Crazy Japanese movie alert! It's the splatter sports comedy film, DEADBALL!

 Ahh...those crazy Japanese and their crazy ass films.  You just gotta love 'em!  I am a huge fan of  Japanese horror films.  I don't think I have ever seen a splatter/sports/comedy movie though!  That will change soon hopefully, as I hope to get my hands on a copy of Yudai Yamaguchi’s DEADBALL!  The movie looks pretty crazy!  Here is some info about the film from the Sushi Typhoon website:

GRAB YOUR BAT AND HOLD ONTO YOUR BALLS….IT’S GAME TIME!!

Baseball prodigy Jubeh Yakyu (Tak Sakaguchi) is the most feared and dangerous juvenile delinquent in all of Japan. After accidentally causing the death of his father with a super-powered, deadly fireball pitch, Jubeh swore off baseball and became a criminal and now, at 17, has been sent to the Pterodactyl Juvenile Reformatory for hardened criminals. Headmistress Ishihara, the granddaughter of a World War II Nazi collaborator, runs the institution with an iron fist and the enthusiastic help of her sadistic assistant, Ilsa. After arriving at the hellhole, Jubeh soon learns from governor Mifune that his long-lost, younger brother Musashi had also done time there after a murder spree, but had since died mysteriously.

Despite having sworn never to play baseball again, Jubeh is presented with an ultimatum by governor Mifune: join the reformatory team, The Gauntlets, in the national tournament for juvenile inmates, or witness the death of his innocent cellmate Four Eyes (Mari Hoshino). With the knowledge that the death of his brother is somehow connected to the team, Jubeh agrees, and Gauntlet training begins. Their first opponents: the sexy but deadly “psycho butcher girls” of the St. Black Dahlia High School, a team of literal man-killers. And so the splatterific baseball tournament begins, but Jubeh soon learns that he is not only fighting to win the game, but also to save his own life!

A hilariously offensive, politically incorrect sports splatter comedy, DEADBALL is director Yudai Yamaguchi’s follow-up to his earlier zombie baseball classic BATTLEFIELD BASEBALL, and once again features action star Tak Sakaguchi (VERSUS, BE A MAN! SAMURAI SCHOOL). A riotous, over-the-top epic of excess, DEADBALL is the movie for the psycho sports fan in all of us, and more fun than a prison cavity search!


I am not sure about a release date yet, but once I find out I will let you know, and hopefully will be able to a do a full review of the film.

CLICK HERE to go to the Sushi Typhoon website and watch the trailer

DVD Review: ZOOM IN: SEX APARTMENTS (1980)

 
ZOOM IN:  SEX APARTMENTS
Directed by:  Naosuke Kurosawa
Distributed by Impulse Pictures / Synapse Films

 As most of you know, I love Japanese horror films.  Not the mainstream Japanese films (Ringu/Ju-On, ect.), but the lower key, independent films from Japan (THE UNTOLD STORY, EBOLA SYNDROME, etc).  Another horror sub-genre that I love is exploitation films, and once again, the Japanese filmmakers really outdo our American counterparts.  The Japanese always turn it up a  notch and just go a little further than we would here in the States.   Proof of this is  the subject of my latest review, ZOOM IN:  SEX APARTMENTS.   It's a crazy title for an even crazier film.  Here is the basic plot of the film from the Synapse Films website:

Saeko, a woman with a mysterious past, is hit with a rock and brutally raped by a man wearing a dark mask and black gloves. Her life is spared, but soon brutal murders befall the residents of the Kibougahara Apartment building. The victims are beaten, killed, and their genitals are set on fire. Saeko has her suspicions about the killer’s identity, but will she live long enough to unmask the pyromaniac?

  The first thing I realized after watching this film is that I had just watched a Dario Argento movie, had Dario Argento been Japanese.   The movie had that feel to it, like an early giallo film of Argento's from the early 1970's.  Even the killer has the classic look with the black trench coat and black gloves.   Dario Argento would be proud!

 As I mentioned, the Japanese always seem to take it a step further, so instead of a mystery man just killing the women of the apartment complex, he goes one step further and lights their genitals on fire.  Not in the sexy sense of the term, but literally pours lighter fluid on their genitals and ignites them.  Crazy stuff for sure.  

If you are a fan of Japanese horror/exploitation films, this is one you will want to check out for sure.


ZOOM IN:  SEX APARTMENTS is available now on DVD and contains the following special features:

*   Newly Translated Removable English Subtitles
*   Original Theatrical Trailer
*   Liner notes from Japanese film scholar, Jasper Sharp



CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD
 

DVD Review: PSYCHO GOTHIC LOLITA (2010)

   
PSYCHO GOTHIC LOLITA
Directed by:   Gô Ohara
Distributed by:   Media Blasters


When a movie starts out with a be-heading and a scene of a woman being split in half all in the opening scene before the title is even displayed, then that movie is for me!    PSYCHO GOTHIC LOLITA is an amazing film that packs a punch right from the beginning and never lets go. 
Here is the plot description from the back of the DVD:

Yuki once led a peaceful life with her loving parents, but her family's happiness was taken away suddenly one day by a group wearing black cloaks. Her father lost the ability to walk, and her mother was massacred. Yuki, the only one to escape the violence, was left with unanswered questions and profound sorrow. But that sadness soon turned into a smoldering anger and a burning resolve to get to the bottom of the mystery. Fashioning herself into an elegant demon of vengeance, Yuki sets off wearing her jet-black gothic lolita dress in search of payback for her mother's death.

I have a feeling a lot of you might not know about this film, but you definitely should.  This film is like some of the other great Japanese splatter fests like TOKYO GORE POLICE, MACHINE GIRL, and MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD just to name a few.   This one didn't seem to get as much press as those other films did, which is a shame, because I think this is definitely as good as those other films if not better.

I am not sure why Americans haven't learned the art of the splatter movie yet.  I mean, we have films we call splatter movies, but take a look at a Japanese splatter film and you will see that American films don't begin to compare with their Japanese counterparts.  It's a good thing we have access to these films..if not,  we would be missing out on a lot of fun...and blood!

 Like most of the Japanese horror films, this film has a lot of martial arts fighting in it.  The fight sequences are choreographed amazing well and the fight scenes contain some very stylistic camera work.   While all this great, everything comes back to copious amounts of blood and the amazing gore effects.   Gore fans will have a field day with this one.  PSYCHO GOTHIC LOLITA is not to be missed!



CLICK HERE to watch the trailer
CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD

Check out the trailer to Yoshihiro Nishimura's latest film, HELL DRIVER

Fans of Yoshihiro Nishimura (TOKYO GORE POLICE, VAMPIRE GIRL VS. FRANKENSTEIN GIRL) are in for a treat!  Nishimura's newest film, HELL DRIVER, is here!  Check out the trailer below.  It looks to have everything we have come to love and expect from one of this films including gore, sword fights (this time with a chainsaw sword!), dismemberments, cheesy CG effects, and more gore!!  Here is a brief synopsis of the film's plot:

An alien-spawned, mysterious mist blankets the northern half of Japan, transforming those who inhale it into ravenous, flesh-eating zombies hell-bent on devouring the surviving human population.  Hope arrives in the form of Kika (Yumiko Hara), a beautiful high school girl armed with a chainsaw sword powered by an artificial heart. Recruited by the government, Kika leads a ragtag group of desperadoes on a secret mission into the zombie-infected wilds to exterminate zombie queen Rikka (Eihi Shiina from Audition and Tokyo Gore Police) and put an end to the plague of the living dead. But the road is fraught with a thriving zombie culture that, with its own designs on the living half of Japan, refuses to lay down and die.


I am a huge fan of Nishimura's and love his work.  I am really looking forward to this. Japanese filmmakers are making some great Horror movies...I wish American filmmakers would step it up and make great gore feasts like the Japanese are doing!

CLICK HERE to watch the trailer

DVD Review: HARD REVENGE MILLY / HARD REVENGE MILLY: BLOODY BATTLE [Double Feature]

------Review by contributing writer Scott Baker------

HARD REVENGE MILLY/ HARD REVENGE MILLY: BLOODY BATTLE (double feature)
Directed by Takanori Tsujimoto

Courtesy of Well Go USA, Inc.
Released: 2008 / 2009

Let me summarize my review of this double feature with a single sentence: these are two of the best Japanese action films I’ve seen in a long time.

I know that’s a bold statement to make, but I mean it whole-heartedly. Both films are amazing in every aspect. They grab you violently by the throat from the very beginning and don’t let go for well over an hour. I loved every minute of them.

Here is an overall plot summary of both films, from the back of the DVD:

HARD REVENGE MILLY

In post-apocalyptic Japan, Yokohama City has become an epicenter of violence ruled by a vicious gang. The worst of the new breed of criminals are “The Jack Brothers”. When The Jack Brothers viciously murder Milly’s husband and daughter, leaving her to die, she vows revenge. She learns the art of sword combat from a master swordsman named Jubei and eventually sets off to confront The Jack Brothers and fulfill her destiny.

HARD REVENGE MILLY: BLOODY BATTLE

After Milly eliminates The Jack Brothers to avenge her family, a beautiful girl named Haru approaches her for help avenging her own boyfriend. Milly initially brushes her off, but eventually recognizes her passion for vengeance and agrees to train her. Soon, an intense admirer of Jack’s named Ikki and his brother Hyuma arrive to take them on. Milly makes short work of their minions and neutralizes Hyuma, but the cyborg-armed Ikki manages to injure her severely. Will she be able to survive and help Haru exact revenge?

Although the plot has enough material to create an 8-hour mini-series, the films are surprisingly short. The first film clocks in at around 40 minutes, while the second runs a little longer, around an hour and 15 minutes or so. But while their combined length is about that of a standard Hollywood movie, the short lengths of time for each film are perfect. There’s no long, drawn out scenes that shouldn’t be there, but there’s nothing omitted from the storyline, either.

Visually, the films are shot very well. I love the cinematography in both films, especially in the fight scenes. While some of them are room-encompassing far away shots, many of the camera angles are turbulent, shaky shots that put your right in the middle of the action. And for those scenes with no fighting, the stark imagery that is used gives a surreal aspect to almost every shot, giving each an almost Kubrick-like feel.

And speaking of the fight scenes, there’s enough blood and gore in each battle to placate even the most die-hard of horror fans. Even the simplest of flesh-wounds bring forth a crimson fountain. Before long, the floor is so coated in blood and gore that some of the characters have a hard time keeping their footing! It’s truly awesome to watch.

Both films boast excellent casts as well, with actress Miki Mizuno portraying the titular character in each. Mizuno is superb as Milly, giving depth and emotion to a character that would stereotypically be viewed as cold and lifeless. I believe these movies could have floundered in obscurity as low-budget failures if the wrong woman had been cast as Milly. Thankfully, the casting team struck gold with Mizuno.

If I were forced to find a flaw with either movie, I don’t think I could. These films know exactly what they are and they don’t try to be anything but entertaining. And entertaining they certainly are! If you like martial-arts action and can stomach some serious bloodletting, then definitely give these two a go.

CLICK HERE to watch the trailer for HARD REVENGE MILLY

CLICK HERE to watch the trailer for HARD REVENGE MILLY: BLOODY BATTLE

CLICK HERE to purchase the DVD double feature