Ushimitsu no mura (1983) Village of Doom

Directed by Noboru Tanaka

Starring Masato Furuoya, Misako Tanaka

I would never have believed this came from the same director as "A Woman Called Abe Sada", one of the classics of what has become known as Romanporno (romantic porno) or pink eiga. This film is sadly lacking all along the line, we cant blame the probably low budget, Japanese directors are known for creating excellent films with very small budgets. No, this sad lacklustre exploitative flick is badly acted, poorly edited and pretty much a shambles.

As to the story, the village genius (strange because most of the time he acts like the village idiot) is not happy with his lot in life, unlike the other villagers he cannot bravely march away and die gloriously in the war (with China) no, because he has TB he has to stay with his granny and spend most evenings getting off with the wives of the villagers who have gone to war. Hey lifes tough isnt it!

He then finds out his childhood sweetheart is getting married (arranged of course), now with a couple of other irritations and annoyances bugging him, he shows his intellect, he buys a pump action shotgun, a Samurai sword and some knives and rampages through his home village killing men, women and even children before he kills himself.

The only time the camerawork is even remotely interesting is during this final section, handheld chasing around after our heroic psychopath, you at least feel slightly involved (as if you would want to be!) the rest of the time, just as with the acting, editing, script etc etc its totally uninteresting which is a shame in a way because the landscape looks beautiful.

Recommended, not a hope in hell.

Cheers Trev.

BBFC rated 18. 

Available on R2 DVD from Artsmagic.