User reviews

Ultra-auteur (writer, director, DP & star) Kei Fujiwara takes a bold step into a bloody landscape where Cronenburg drops acid with Lynch as D. Argento serves up livermush sandwiches to the late Mr. Fulcio.

Fine. Unfortunately she forgot to bring along some extra flashlights to brighten up her plethora of grainy, murky scenes, and pack a script that was at least halfway finished before production commenced. Not so fine.

Engrossing in some scenes, but infuriatingly obtuse throughout, ORGAN needs at least SOME sort of linear spine to hang its meat hooks on (and more violence would to boot). While watching the film, one senses that many scenes could have been cut in any order, and it still wouldn't affect the narrative much. Sigh. Still, it's required viewing for any blind dates, or first-time meetings with a potential mother-in-law!

After reading how violent this film was and that it had been banned even in Japan, I must admit I was excited about seeing it. After watching it multiple times, I still can't get much plot out of it. I got more from reading the back of the case than from the movie... As for the supposed over-the-top gore, I wasn't impressed. The effects are straight out of a Henenlotter or HG Lewis flick and there are more greens and yellows than red. I saw nothing so offensive that it would need to be censored. Visually, the film was interesting, with very vibrant colors. Is it violent and perverse? Yes. Is it as bloody as it's billing? No. I think it was an incoherent mess, comparable to "Tetsuo".

I just watched this movie last night, and I didn't understand it until I read the Mondo Macabro entry on it by Pete Tombs, and some of the reviews here (evidently, I'm not alone in thinking this film loses power by sacrificing narrative clarity for thematic integrity). The fact that the film is low budget and shot in 16mm (somewhat grainy; it would be great to see a Blu-Ray version with better subtitles) adds to the viewer's frustration. Still, Kei Fujiwara has undoubtedly created a nightmarish alternate universe and managed to get it on film which is at least worth five stars.

Organ is really more of an avant garde art film than straight horror, but then again, if you watch a lot of Japanese horror, you've probably noticed that this island culture takes the genre more seriously than in the west (which tends to see it as a more exploitive, money-making, freshman-director type genre). I can't say I enjoyed watching Organ much, but I do respect the director's unflinching vision and daring in bringing such a brutally dark tale to fruition.

okay, I'm not going to even try to explain the plot of this unique film... instead i will say that "Organ" can honestly be considered one of the strangest, yet also most beautifully crafted, movies that i have ever had the pleasure of setting eyes on. Some will say that the director was just trying to use the back-story as an excuse to showcase graphic violence and gore in an attempt to gross-out and shock the viewer... but this is the furthest thing that i can conceive as being possible. Yes it is extremely graphic in it's depiction of the twisted inner-workings of the human soul, but the gist of the fact is that the director was trying to depict (or at least in my interpretation...) just that... that humans can be sick and perverse... even those who have been deemed to be social leaders. Granted, the first time you view this film, you may get lost. Between all the blood, violence, and distorted dream-like imagery you are sure to become at least a little confused (especially those of us who do not speak Japanese and are held captives to the subtitles). But upon subsequent viewings, i believe you will find that the story represents a masterful vision of the contrast of the conflicting sides of human personalities... even those of us who are trying to do good are not always saints... every man has his own dark side to him. Just please give this film a chance, and try not to be intimidated by the subject matter within. Instead, just allow yourself to take in all of the sights, sounds, images, and metaphors that are rooted so firmly in this film... and try not be overwhelmed... no matter how hard that may be... and i think you will find "Organ" to be as engrossing as I did.

You can only expect something like this from Japan. I really do not think that this movie went for a plot, it seems like a movie that's focused more on showcasing as weird as we can get...

Um i'll tell you that i was very bored the first 20 to 30 minutes, because nothing really made any sense. It's extremely hard to understand what is really going on. If i understand; two police officers are fighting against a black-market gang, and trying to rescue their brother?

That idea sounds fun, but the way they executed it is a problem, because you will not get anything what's going in the start. The movie isn't really that gory, there's a few gore scenes, but that's it. However the movie did began making sense later on, but that's too late for me to care about the hell is going on.

If you are into the Tokyo Gore Police, Guinea Pig Films, Naked Blood, Malformed Men, Concrete stuff like that, this is in your boat.

Well, the first thing about Organ is, that you should not try to understand the storyline too much. This movie is extra-strange yet lives of its trashy and bizarre pictures. If you like purulent ulcerations exerbating and real weird erotics - it is the real thing for you. Don't expect a pure splatter movie but a picture with intense horror... To the story (as well as I can tell it): a biologist with a big mutation (spicy) cuts out organs from dead and alive people to sell them. After locking up the brother of a cop (whom he cuts off his limbs and letting him alive for unknown purposes) he is chased by the cop. And that's it...the rest evolves... Now to the effects: real cool sometimes, but also trashy and funny, butterfly collections, birthings, slimy blood-dripping...yet not state-of-the-art. Nice soundtrack also. For a conclusion, it's a real bizarre japanese splatting horror movie you should not miss if you want it different. I rate it a 7 of 10, but it has deserved a 10 for cult-factor.

I watch somewhere around 500-600 films every year. No matter how bad they are, or how boring they are, I never fast-forward or stop watching because of that. With "Organ", however, I came really, really close. This film arguably fits into the "so-bad-it's-painful" category, alongside titles such as "Troll 2", "Children of the Living Dead" and "They Saved Hitler's Brain". But whereas those movies at least have some schlock entertainment value, this piece of c**p just make you depressed and angry. Sometimes, "Organ" looks more like a parody of art-house films; the story is completely unintelligible, the setting (an abandoned industrial estate for most of the running time) just horrible and the actors and the dialogue are laughable. This definitely hits the top spot of my all-time worst list.

I really like this movie. I think it's really artful but also disturbing. In fact I understand that some people don't like it because the movie is hard to understand, and it has so much story in it, that I can't make a summary. Also is the Japanese filmgenre very different from the American and Europe cinema, and not all people like this. But this is really a must see for fans of movies like Pi, Tetsuo or Tetsuo II. It got all in it, dream scenes, disturbing gore scenes, a good soundtrack and a bad atmosphere, because everything in the movie is dirty, cold, ugly and brutal. So if you like to watch something different then a mainstream Hollywood movie you have to get this cool journey to the insane world of Kei Fujiwara

A strange Japanese film about illegal organ transplants, Medical experiments on schoolgirls, gangsters, blood, puss and confusion. Made by the female star of "Tetsuo", this film is probably too slow and weird for splatter fans, and probably too bloody for the normal cinema goer, nevertheless, it´s a film you will never forget, if you get the chance to see it.(It is released on "Japan Shock Video", Netherlands, Europe.)

Not to be seen by people suffering from depression.

I tried to understand this sloppy horror movie. To me it looked like a bunch of gore thrown in with some characters running around not really doing anything.....like i said i tried.....

I'm astonished at some of the bad-reviews of this film--ignore them. If you love extreme cinema that explores the basis of the human-animal, you have found a home in the cinematic space-time continuum. Ostensibly, this is a Yakuza and detective film, with elements of film-noir and expressionism. It is not a purely genre film at-all, but an art-film with incredible complexity about what it is to be human. Fujiwara is best-known for her role in Tsukamoto Shinya's "Tetsuo: the Iron Man", and her relationship to his work shows here. The human-body is the battlefield, as well as the human-soul. Maybe it took an inspired woman to say this, and a Buddhist at-that. And in many-ways, this feels like a tale by Edgar Allan Poe! It has that feel to it, a very visceral, filth-covered psychology--what much real horror is. In-fact, I'd say it is on-par with Poe and his Japanese-analogue, "Edogawa Rampo" (a pen-name). This is a film I have watched several-times, and it always delivers a new-revelation. One-viewing is not enough to begin to understand it. If it is ugly, it is because life has ugliness. If it has beauty (it does), it is because life does.

There are roughly two narrative-paths in the film: first, the story of the outsider detective searching for his "dead" partner after their uncovering of a horrific black-market organ-smuggling ring run by Yakuza, and secondly, the story of the insiders of the ring, a brother-and-sister. The detective's-half reminded me strongly of Kurosawa's "Stray Dog" (aka "Nora Inu", 1949), and is probably a conscious-nod by Fujiwara. The brother has reanimated the lost-cop and is doing hellish experiments on him, while the sister--Yoko--runs the gang and fends-off the outside world. It's an interesting structure, which makes the film watchable numerous times, but the philosophical-themes of birth-and-death are even more rewarding. Yes, it is extremely low-budget, and shot in 16mm, but it is a well-executed film by a genuine maverick.

At the film's philosophical-center is the relationship with the surgeon-brother in the organ-ring, and the reanimated-cop. As grotesque as the half-dead cop appears, he is more human than the internally-diseased brother. In-fact, he is metaphor for the surgeon's remnants of humanity; Fujiwara makes it clear that the brother and sister were horribly-abused, the origin of their spiritual-decay and sadism. The reanimated-cop is hidden-away by the surgeon in a secret room, and they have an "internal-dialog." The other-half of the narrative is also very powerful, with the outsider detective's obsession with finding his partner taking a horrible-toll on his family. It seems that being a cop hasn't done him or his home any good--even before the body-snatching incident. Fujiwara paints life as-such: birth, mutilation at the hands of others, and finally, death. Sadly, this is the fate that awaits many human-beings in this inhuman era we inhabit. Out of this, one could surmise that Mrs. Fujiwara has a strong-ambivalence to motherhood. What is puzzling is why many women do not. This film is a contemporary-masterpiece. "Organ 2" has been completed, so expect more-of-the-same!

01.21.06 PS: It's hilarious how people don't get this incredible-film, but I believe it is still ahead-of-the-pack. American-audiences are used to a more linear-narrative structure, whereas audiences in Japan and Europe understand a film that is primarily thematic.

A typical story of rape, mutilation and organ theft. Set in a girls school, a teacher is involved with organ stealing, torture and murder. Unfortunately many of the effects are hard to make out.

Title: Organ (1996)

Director: Kei Fujiwara

Review: I wanted to like this movie, after reading so much about all the gore in it, I was expecting to have some decent fun with this one. Unfortunately I couldn't understand what was happening on the screen most of the time so the fun factor went right out the window.

What I could grasp, from the little bit I could understand is that some Yakuza gangsters are selling humans to a demented doctor and his one eyed sister because they take human organs from the bodies and sell them on the black market. Only problem is that they Yakuza are selling them people who ain't dead yet.

I tried to understand what this muddled mess was about, I really did. In fact, I thought maybe I was too tired to understand it and decided to watch it the next day when my head was clearer, but unfortunately, that didn't help one bit. Seriously, I like movies that are hard to understand. Heck I love films like Mullholand Dr. and Lost Highway. But I just couldn't get what the rest of the film was about.

It starts out quite promising with these gangsters bringing in these bodies into a slaughterhouse for the doctor to open them up and take their organs. And the atmosphere through out these first few minutes is very dark, bleak and dirty. I liked that. The first 10 minutes really pull you into this messed up world. But a few minutes after that the movie gets way to abstract and hard to follow.

This is where I learned that without a good story...lots of gore is worthless. I mean there were some cool bits of gore and guts. Lots of gooey, slimy tentacles. Lots of human entrails. But somehow it didn't really matter. The only thing I got besides the overall premise was that the two people doing the black market selling of the organs had a really messed up youth and so they ended up being the crazy people that they were. But aside from that, its all to abstract.

The only good points on the film are that its got a dirty atmosphere. Bleak, rusty, dirty. I liked the realistic gritty look of the film. The gore for the most part was well executed. But thats about all the good things I can say about this movie.

I wouldn't recommend it to anyone out there, unless of course they liked gooey, green muck and gore with no story.

Rating:1 1/2 out of 5

If you want to see a bizarre film then you can't do any worse than this quickie from japan, this film resembles the likes of Brain Damage and Videodrome. The music will stick in your head long after the film has finished.

If you are seeking the japaneese David Lynch then look no further than the director of Organ

This movie desperately needs a sense of purpose. What is the point, what's the message? Where is this film taking it's audience and why? The story involves some guys who remove organs and sell them of the black market. But no one will judge you if you fail to even extract that much from the muddled plot. Like many J-horror films, everything is served with a side order of super-weird.

Social metaphors are laid under the film, but they are never particularly clear and thus aren't all that compelling. Every scene is needlessly surreal; it's obviously meant to be dream like (or nightmare-ish if you will) but it comes off pretentiously instead. Some good, quality violence could have at least made it a gore pic, but not even that happens; whether you see the violence as to artsy or the art as too violent, it just doesn't work.

Credit has to be given for the visuals, they are indeed imaginative and unique (the cocoon birth stuck with me for a bit). And while the actors failed to leave an impression, they were never a hindrance either.

Hardcore J-film fans should check it out, if just to see something different. Just don't expect to be entertained.

4/10

The plot of "Organ" is as follows:a Tokyo police officer falls victim to a Yakuza body-parts selling syndicate.Numata,the officer's brother investigates and discovers the evil Yoko,leader of the syndicate.The alternate plot line involves Seaki,Yoko's Biology teacher brother as he conducts experiments on the reanimated,limbless body of the missing police officer keeping him alive with the blood taken from high school virgin girls.Kei Fujiwara,the female lead from "Tetsuo"(1988)directed this crazy Japanese gorefest in 1996.Great industrial soundtrack,lots of violence and gooey gore and some truly impressive make-up and special effects.Some of the sub-plots are confusing,but the film is splendidly shot.Great use of sepia during the scenes of children abuse."Organ" is especially recommended for fans of Shinya Tsukamoto and David Cronenberg.8 body horrors out of 10.

The premise catches one's eye, certainly, promising all the blood and gore a fan of horror cinema could want. But it was reading about the production that piqued my interest. It's one matter to note the experience Fujiwara Kei boasts in her career, both in her collaborations with Tsukamoto Shinya and elsewhere. It's another matter to learn of the extremely low budget; the personal involvement of the cast to also serve as crew members while effectively funding the endeavor themselves; the sets and materials that were quite literally cobbled together; and the apparent necessitated frugality of shooting only one take for any given scene so as to conserve film stock. Some terrific movies have been made with little more than earnest care and hard work, and the nitty gritty of this project is endearing, and even kind of inspiring. I admit that without particularly thinking about it I formed high expectations on the basis of these factors; 'Organ' seemed to be primed for a good time.

I'm therefore sad to say that my expectations have been only party met, a mixed success, and I'm a little disappointed. I really do admire the effort that all involved poured into this flick, and they are to be roundly commended for their contributions, including committed acting. Nasa Kenji's music is applied somewhat unevenly, but the synth-driven themes are nonetheless a treat for the ears, lending to the dark aura about the proceedings. The production design and art direction are splendid, being drab and dreary and full of detail, and in my opinion they never betray their humble origins. The costume design, hair, and makeup are sharp. Sometimes Fujiwara's direction or cinematography are particularly striking. There really are some swell ideas on hand. And there's certainly no mistaking that the blood, gore, special makeup, and otherwise practical effects are excellent, and decidedly nasty; it's evident how much attention went into this foremost attraction of the picture, and all involved turned in fine work to being the seedy tableau to bear in the most vividly disgusting manner.

Unfortunately, not everything in this feature received the same degree of focus. While some examples are great, at other points I'm distinctly unimpressed with how this was shot, and at some points the direction and cinematography come off as sloppy. Nasa's music is appreciable, but his editing is surely less so, and some of the sequencing plainly raises a skeptical eyebrow as it dubiously chops up the proceedings. And for as strong as the effects are, the narrative that sets the stage for them is simply a mess. There are good ideas, yes, but from the very start the storytelling is wildly incohesive, and almost incoherent. 'Organ' is so-so about identifying its characters, and the scene writing struggles to cogently convey the beats and underlying notions that one would suppose should advance and enrich the story. Under all these circumstances the plot development is desperately scattered, and all we can hope for in terms of a narrative is not concrete information, but broad vibes imparting a very loose idea of the course of events. I can tell you some of what happens throughout the runtime, but that's in no small part thanks to the outside context of a synopsis that someone else wrote. This title is not an abstruse mind-bender; it should not be necessary to trust in someone else's description to help discern what is transpiring.

It's hardly that the film is outright bad. It doesn't quite seem right to criticize it for being generally unpolished, either, because that's just the nature of how it was made. Yet there's no question that for all the skill, intelligence, and passion that genuinely went into the production, the least of it all went into the writing, and in turn to ensuring that the plot was meaningfully established in execution. Granted, on the one hand one could argue that plot isn't specifically integral to a flick about murder and illicit organ trade; on the other hand, Fujiwara obviously meant for this to have solid storytelling as an anchor for the gruesome madness, and that is absolutely not what happened here. If all you want out of genre fare is crimson and viscera, you'll get what you came for, but it's apparent enough that on account of her own shortcomings as writer and director Fujiwara's vision fails to fully crystallize, and as far as I'm concerned the violence and ugliness in and of itself just isn't enough to compensate. I don't dislike 'Organ,' but it altogether comes up short in what it was meant to be, and any recommendation I might offer is only a very soft one tempered with caveats.

For the first half, I was actually enjoying this quite a bit. I appreciated the gore (the hallucinatory sequence of one of Saeki's victims emerging from a cocoon-like object is easily the highlight to the film's gore) and found some of the disturbing bits to the film quite promising. For instance, Saeki having a secret room in his school office where dead and mutilated bodies were stored (Numata's brother, for instance) was a disturbing concept. I also found Numata's investigation of the gang compelling since it came with emotional stakes. For the first half of the film, I was on board with the film and eager to see how everything could culminate. Unfortunately though, somewhere around the halfway point, the film gets increasingly harder to follow. With so many characters and motivations being added, it became more and more difficult to keep track of who was who and what the motivations of everyone was. Eventually, many scenes in the second half made me ask "Where did this come from?" repeatedly. This culminated in a messy and ponderous final act which took all kinds of confusing fates to the various characters and crammed them into each other in a very unpleasant way. The final fight in Saeki's school office was horrendously messy, in particular. Also, while I enjoyed the gore at first, it didn't ramp up as the film went on and eventually got to a point where I kept asking "Didn't they already repeat a similar effect several times?" as I watched it. So yeah, just a big letdown overall. I wouldn't quite call it a bad film though as the first half contained enough potential to prevent it from being a complete waste of time and, in spite of what I said about the second half, there were a few promising moments thrown into the mix (that was few and far between though) that gave me brief breaks from the second half's mostly ponderous tone.

Organ is one of these movies, that are so far away from "common filmmaking", that you have to spend some time on it. After watching it on the big screen I discovered a certain "beauty" deeply buried in Kei Fujiwara's film.

Please give "Organ" a chance, it's one of the most original movies I've ever seen.

I recently bought this film on DVD. If you are into cult films, this is a great one for your collection! From the director of Tetsuo, The Iron Man, comes another series of disturbing, yet captivating images. This guy reminds me of a Japanese David Lynch, and Organ fits in quite nicely with the likes of Eraserhead.