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Directed by: Mark P. Forever

Written by: Ryosuke Oomine

Featuring: Nina, Hiroaki Kawatsure, Kaori Sasaki, Hitomi Usano, Mako Higashio

In Strip Mahjong: Battle Royale, four women are abducted, chained and taken to a dark warehouse where they are forced to play a televised game of, yes, strip mahjong. You heard that correctly. A strip version of the methodical tile game. An electrified collar around their necks assures that they will remain obedient and do as their lecherous host Kato (Helldriver's Hiroaki Kawatsure) requests.

It is eventually revealed that the women were chosen because of heavy debt they have each accrued playing mahjong online. Not only are the women forced to strip when they lose a round, they are put in cage and humiliated as they are taking off their clothing. Balloons are inflated underneath bras, plastic "reach claws" grab breasts and other equally banal tortures are inflicted upon the victims.

Year:  2009

Director:  Koji Shiraishi

Cast:  Tsugumi Nagasawa, Hiroaki Kawatsure, Shigeo Osako

Walking home from their first date together, a smitten young couple is attacked and abducted by a sadistic assailant.  When they awake, they find themselves bound in a dark, menacing basement.  Immediately, they are savagely tortured by their captor in some of the most ruthless, inhumane means ever committed to film.

Grotesque is perhaps the most mean-spirited and cruel film to be released in quite sometime.  This declaration alone will be enough to cause some horror fans to rush to put the film into their Netflix que or order their copy from their favorite online merchant.   Certainly this is understandable, as most wildly successful films have garnered their statuses based on outlandish claims such as being "the scariest film since The Exorcist" or "Will make Saw look like a pre-school picnic."   In fact, Grotesque already has ignited much interest...

A Japanese film in the torture porn, or so-called gorno, sub-genre - made popular by such releases as Saw and Hostel (pictured) - has been banned in the UK.

Film bosses have refused to give a certificate to a sadistic horror movie called Gurotesuku - Grotesque, in English - meaning it's now illegal to release, sell or supply the movie.

Distributors hoped to get an 18 certificate for the 74-minute film, so it could be released here on DVD. The movie's subtitle proclaims that 'Saw and Hostel were just appetisers.'

Most of the film - written and directed by Koji Shiraishi - focuses on the assault, humiliation and torture of a young couple (played by Tsugumi Nagasawa and Hiroaki Kawatsure).

They are snatched off the street on their first date and wake up shackled and naked in a basement where, with seemingly no explanation, a sadistic madman (played by Shigeo...

Billed as "the cruellest Japanese splatter movie ever" (a statement that doesn't do the film's graphic scenes of torture and dismemberment anywhere near enough justice), Grotesque makes the likes of "Saw" and "Hostel" look like about as scary as a Kitten. Written and directed by Koji Shiraishi (Carved aka A Slit-Mouthed Woman) and starring Hiroaki Kawatsure (Chanbara Beauty; Carved) and Japanese porn star Tsugumi Nagasawa (Tokyo Gore Police), the film takes the concept of Japanese extreme cinema to a whole new level. Relentlessly and explicitly graphic, this is definitely not a film for the easily offended, or the faint-hearted. Grotesque (cert. 18) will be released on DVD by 4Digital Asia on 17th August 2009.

Billed as "the cruellest Japanese splatter movie ever" (a statement that doesn't do the film's graphic scenes of torture and dismemberment anywhere near enough justice), Grotesque makes the likes of "Saw" and "Hostel" look like about as scary as a Kitten. Written and directed by Koji Shiraishi (Carved aka A Slit-Mouthed Woman) and starring Hiroaki Kawatsure (Chanbara Beauty; Carved) and Japanese porn star Tsugumi Nagasawa (Tokyo Gore Police), the film takes the concept of Japanese extreme cinema to a whole new level. Relentlessly and explicitly graphic, this is definitely not a film for the easily offended, or the faint-hearted. Grotesque (cert. 18) will be released on DVD by 4Digital Asia on 17th August 2009.

Billed as "the cruellest Japanese splatter movie ever" (a statement that doesn't do the film's graphic scenes of torture and dismemberment anywhere near enough justice), Grotesque makes the likes of "Saw" and "Hostel" look like about as scary as a Kitten. Written and directed by Koji Shiraishi (Carved aka A Slit-Mouthed Woman) and starring Hiroaki Kawatsure (Chanbara Beauty; Carved) and Japanese porn star Tsugumi Nagasawa (Tokyo Gore Police), the film takes the concept of Japanese extreme cinema to a whole new level. Relentlessly and explicitly graphic, this is definitely not a film for the easily offended, or the faint-hearted. Grotesque (cert. 18) will be released on DVD by 4Digital Asia on 17th August 2009.