Naked
Blood (aka Splatter/Megyaku)
1995
76 mins
Director: Toshiyasu Sato
Cast: Misa Aika, Sadao Abe.
Fucked up 17 year old scientist kid
has developed a new painkiller that somehow manages to turn pain into
pleasure. However he needs some human guinea pigs to try it out
on. His mum is a doctor working on a new contraceptive for
women. She has three young women who have signed up to give it a
go. Our young scientist goofball mixes his wonder drug in with
mummy's and then awaits the results by video taping the trio of test
subjects. What our crazy kid doesn't know is that all the women
have an eccentricity; one loves to eat, one is obsessed with looking
beautiful and the last one hasn't been able to sleep since she started
her period (the shock of it apparently). These little quirks have
an adverse reaction to the painkiller and leads to a bloody blood bath
of … erm, blood.
Yeah its called
Naked Blood and you would expect this short (76 minutes for fuck sake)
Japanese movie to be wall to mother fuckin' wall tits and ass smothered
in the red stuff. Well you can forget it; coz it takes half an
hour before this puppy gets out of first gear. You do the
math. After the half-hour mark it does nearly redeem
itself. Anyone who follows Japanese exploitation cinema will know
that it is real afraid of showing pubes, pricks and pussy so what we
get is good old fashioned fun and games involving self mutilation, auto
cannibalism and virtual reality sex that ends in gushing fluids of the
wrong kind. From this you probably think that I don't like this
film, but the gore hound in me thinks this is a pretty stunning piece
of work. The scene where one of the women snacks on her snatch,
nibbles on one of her nipples and for dessert enjoys an eyeball is so
out of left field as to be positively surreal. But it has to be
noted that this ain't a real entertaining flick and you have to have
the patience of a saint to get through it. Either that or be a
real sick fuck. Unfortunately I know which team I side with.
The film takes itself way too serious. This is a big mistake when
making a gore film. It just comes off reeking of
pretension. It's not art (in the snobby elitist sense I mean),
it's a splatter movie. Live with it guys and have some fun with
what you are doing. If a comparison could be made, then a very
thin one could be made with Mr David Cronenberg. The medical
horror that he covered early in his career, together with bad science
and a visceral feel that takes a while to shake off permeate throughout
Naked Blood. However, Cronenbergs stuff is a helluva lot more
fun. Amazingly enough this is considered a step towards mainstream
acceptance for its director Toshiyasu Sato. Hell, Naked Blood and
mainstream were never meant to be in the same sentence together (except
that one!). Previous to this he had made his name making
'pink' movies (one of which, The Bedroom, was shown on Channel 4),
basically Japanese porno movies. Naked Blood is adapted from one
of those earlier efforts, something charmingly entitled Genuine Rape
(don't expect that on Channel 4!).
In summary, graphic to the extreme and must see for splatter fans. For
anyone else though I think a wide berth is not exactly called for, more
shouted through a megaphone.
Review
By Martainn Russell.
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© Owned
Martainn Russell
31/12/2004 19:18.