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Dabide no Hoshi: Bishojo-gari
Beautiful Girl Hunter
Star of David: Beauty Hunting / Star of David: Beautiful Girl Hunter / Exzesse im Folterkeller
Japan 1979
produced by Yoshio Murai, Yoshihiro Yuki for Nikkatsu
directed by Norifumi Suzuki
starring Shun Domon, Natsuko Yashiro, Asami Ogawa, Hiromi Namino, Rei Okamoto, Yuka Asagiri, Hiroshi Nawa, Shohei Yamamoto, Nagatoshi Sakamoto, Noboru Mitani, Bin Moritsuka, Akira Takahashi, Yuko Asuka, Toshihiko Oda, Tatsuya Hamaguchi, Kenji Shiiya, Akiko Hyuga, Hiroshi Ichimura, Bunta Sugawara, Tessen Nakahira, Saburo Shoji, Ryoichi Sato, Tomoyuki Sugata, Eiji Miyuki, Eshiko Ioku, Kaoru Motohashi, Rika Akikawa, Mayumi Nakamura, Hisako Tsuboi, Kazuyo Yamazaki, Keisuke Ihara, Teruo Kuwazaki, Kyoichi Mizuki
screenplay by Atsushi Yamatoya, based on the manga by Masaaki Sato, music by Masayuki Taguchi
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Available on DVD! To buy, click on link(s) below and help keep this site afloat (commissions earned) |
Always make sure of DVD-compatibility!!!
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One night, Tokie Jinno (Yuko Asuka) is raped right in front of her tied
up husband Yasuhisa (Hiroshi Nawa) by serial rapist Genpei (Shohei
Yamamoto), and she later birthed her rapist's child, Tatsuya (Shun Domon).
Thing is, Yasuhisa had a weird reaction to her rape, as it drove him to
torture and humiliate his wife, including having sex with other women
before her very eyes while she was tied up. But both Tokie and Yasuhisa
have since died, and a now grown up Tatsuya has inherited all their
wealth, which means he'll never have to work in his life. He also has a
nice, innocent girlfriend, Yumiko (Hiromi Namino), and even if he keeps
her at arm's length, everybody, especially her father (Bin Moritsuka),
expects them to marry eventually. Thing is, both the actions of his
stepdad and the blood of his real dad have injected him with perverted
tendencies - so eventually, he kidnaps Saeko (Rei Okamoto), a prostitute
Yasuhisa has had sex with in front of his mother, takes her to his secret
basement, chains her up, rapes and humiliates her and ultimately tortures
her to death. Initially this was only intended as an act of revenge, but
it sure aroused him, and before long he kidnaps a high school student
(Hiromi Namino), whom he tortures and humiliates in quite the same way as
Saeko - but she really takes to it, and eventually he lets her, a better
person from the experience, go, and she never spills the bean on
him. Next it's beautiful singer Jun (Natsuko Yashiro) and her assistant
Machiko (Yuka Asagiri), whom he not only humiliates, tortures and rapes
like all the others, he also plays them against each other - but
ultimately they overcome him and try to make an escape. Enter Tatsuya's
dad Genpei, who has not only kept raping and killing girls all those
years, he has also kept an eye on his son, and he thwarts Jun and
Machiko's scheme - and therefore Tatsuya lets him rape and murder Machiko,
while he lets Jun humiliate herself big time by making her get naked in
front of a large crowd of her fans before shooting her dead. Then though,
it's time for Tatsuya to introduce Yumiko to his torture dungeon, Yumiko
whom he's had tender feelings for for all his life - and now Genpei with
his rapist and homicidal tendencies might get in the way ...
Having made movies since the mid-1960s, and many of them
mainstream successes, this low budget S/M exploitation movie from director
Norifumi Suzuki might have come as a surprise for many, and it sure isn't
a film for everybody, as while much of the violence will come across as
exaggerated, its rather misogynistic nature and utter bluntness doesn't
exactly make this film a comfortable watch. And of course, the
psychological undercurrents of the movie are overly simplistic in nature
and strike a few wrong chords. But all the over-the-topness of this film
is exactly what makes it rather entertaining, especially when seen through
a nostalgic lense and not taken wholly seriously. And one has to hand it
to Suzuki, he has sneaked some interesting creative choices into what
would have turned into a dirty piece of sleaze in lesser hands. That said,
not Suzuki's best movie by a longshot but certainly an interesting watch -
if you're into this sort of thing that is.
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