Shogun's Joy of Torture

#241 Shogun's Joy of Torture - 1968 (This Film Rates a C+ ) Teruo Ishii's Shogun's Joy of Torture is a provocative and unsettling anthology film that explores the darker aspects of human nature. Set in ancient times, the movie presents three distinct stories, each approximately thirty minutes in length, that delve into themes of violence, exploitation, and the objectification of women through scenes of rape. The first story revolves around Mitsu and her brother Shinzo, who become embroiled in a tragic sequence of events involving rape, incest, blackmail, and ultimately, torture. The narrative is marked by a sense of darkness and despair, as the characters are forced to navigate a cruel and unforgiving world. The second story is equally disturbing, featuring a priest who is forced to endure humiliation and torture at the hands of a vengeful woman. A female receives extreme genital torture. Much of the graphics are only suggestive but are effective enough. Meanwhile the priest is decapitated with a crazy little ending. The scene is notable for its use of suggestive graphics, which add to the overall sense of unease and discomfort. The third and final story centers on a tattoo artist named Horicho, who becomes obsessed with creating the perfect work of art on the body of a young woman. The narrative takes a dark turn as Horicho's obsession leads him to commit atrocities, including drugging and tattooing his victim, Hana, against her will. Throughout the film, the acting is often melodramatic and over-the-top, which can be somewhat distracting at times. However, the seriousness of the subject matter and the intensity of the scenes help to elevate the film above its more absurd moments. Shogun's Joy of Torture is a film that pushes the boundaries of what was considered acceptable in 1968. While not excessively graphic, the movie features a significant amount of blood and violence, as well as suggestive sexual content including rape. The intensity of the scenes is well-maintained throughout, keeping the viewer on edge and invested in the storylines. Ultimately, Shogun's Joy of Torture is a challenging and thought-provoking film that explores the darker side of torture and extreme human nature. While it may not be to every viewer's taste, the movie is a significant entry in the early Japanese exploitation genre and is sure to appeal to fans of cult cinema. With a rating of C+, the film is a worthwhile watch for those interested in exploring the more extreme aspects of 1960s Japanese cinema.

Teruo Ishii may never be regarded in the same exalted terms as fellow Japanese cult heroes like Norifumi Suzuki or Koji Wakamatsu (though to be fair much of his work remains pretty rare), but he was certainly no slouch, a solid and stylish contributor to many genres. The Joy of Torture is probably the best I've seen from him so far, the start of his eight strong ero guro series. An anthology film indicting Edo era savagery, while not especially graphic its a classy and even moving work with some memorable scenes.

The first story is the weakest of the three, seeing a woman driven to desperation and aberrant love by her injured brother. Interesting enough but little developed, it's a set up that would have benefited from a full length treatment or at least greater levels of emotional intensity, high melodrama should have been the style but its actually relatively subdued. Still good stuff though and its theme of love binding characters to their doom leads nicely into the next story, a tale of nuns driven wild with lust for a neighboring monk. This one really ups the ante, with escalating hysteria mounting into interesting torture scenes and bloodshed, including a hilarious use of loaches. The best is saved till last though, a dedicated tattoo artist seeks to create his finest work by watching the torture of Christian missionaries. This segment combines interesting obsession with the most protracted torture scenes of the film, lots of beating, wheeling, burning and so forth of a multitude of screaming semi naked ladies to unsettling yet undeniably erotic effect. Plus the close is (relatively speaking) pretty upbeat. So its a decent mix, but at the same time somewhat flawed. Some inconsistencies nag, most notably the aforementioned slightly flat opening story. The film is thematically inconsistent too, flitting from the tragedy of love to the mania of excess to the excess of torture, taking in the harshness of social strictures, cruelty of individuals and passion of torture along the way. Although the stories are united by recurring torturer Nambara and his (relatively) nice guy assistant, there's a slightly scattershot feel to the general critique that detracts from the overall effect. The social justification is a tad cheesy as well, which wouldn't be a bad thing but the film is exploitative enough to seem hypocritical while not exploitative enough to be hilarious in having higher pretensions. There isn't much gore either, but then its still fairly strong for its time. Altogether still a very worthy film, nudity, nastiness, solid plotting and beautiful cinematography, definitely worth a watch for vintage Japanese exploitation fans.

"Shogun's Joy Of Torture" is the first part in Teruo Ishii's so-called "Tokugawa Series".This episode is set in seventeenth century Japan,when members of the Tokugawa clan ruled the country with fear and terror.Punishment for those who broke the rules set by the Shogunate was brutal and severe."Shogun's Joy Of Torture" tells three terrifying stories about guilt,crime,and punishment.The film is loaded with some truly shocking torture scenes,so some unprepared viewers will be offended.Women are decapitated,burned alive,beaten,whipped or torn in two by oxen.The production values are high,the cinematography is polished and the soundtrack is moody and sad."Joy of Torture" spawned seven sequels from Teruo Ishii.All of them are truly sadistic spectacles of violence and misogyny,so fans of Japanese exploitation should check them out.9 out of 10.

Three separate approximately 30 minute stories. Each story is just a normal story but will involve torture at some point. Each story stands on their own tho they are connected by a magistrate that is going through the records of three incidents.

The tortures are the glue that binds each individual story. The tortures shown are historically accurate. The special effects and editing are mostly very good with a couple of exceptions. This is a Ero Guro film, not a Pink Eiga. There is some nudity but it's often subdued. At times when nudity would have fit, they instead covered up. Any sex scenes are definitely not erotic or explicit.

The first story kind of drags a little although still interesting. The second and third are really done well. The sets and acting are above average. Seems like there was a decent budget for this film.

This movie wasn't well received originally but since then has become a well respected classic. It will not be for everyone. For those it is, they will enjoy watching.

Three tales of punishment and torture.

As the title would suggest, this is no Disney film. It's a Japanese exploitation film from 1968 and that's pretty much all you need to know in advance. It is about gratuitous nudity, sex and violence. Plot (well, plots - there's three stories) is basic and doesn't always make sense.

On the plus side, production values are pretty good for the time and performances are reasonably solid for something that is clearly no Citizen Kane.