Kichiku dai enkai

Ever read a novel with missing pages? Perhaps a vague abstraction confused you... Whatever the circumstances, ambiguity resides in relation to this films details and lack thereof; so, if you find yourself asking a lot of questions--especially during the opening half--then don't be surprised. Whether it was deliberately done or not is another debate, but this is a "student film" apparently.

Let's hack into the meat of the celluloid now, shall we?!?

After losing their leader (Aizawa) to jail time, A group of leftist stalwarts (whose true cause we're never quite sure of, aside from the fact they're seemingly at odds with the prevailing authoritative paradigms, and who may be displeased with the Vietnam war, as one reviewer mentioned), set forth on what becomes a violent power struggle with catastrophic and sanguinary consequences. The aftermath of the aforementioned imprisonment results in an order from Aizawa that his girlfriend is to head the group until his release. A decision that's met with some resistance, but things really turn when the head of the snake is cut off, so to speak. Witness the descent spiral into the abyss of oblivion (barring, you have the patience.)

Character-wise, a somewhat diverse ensemble, the rebels are made up of. A nerdy fellow newcomer, A strong silent type with a sword, an annoying female lead with an unsightly countenance, one underling to the incarcerated who asserts his bravado, and a few tag-alongs.

*Urgent bulletin*: The first hour is S-L-O-W. *End bulletin*.

Well, with the introductory information out of the way, you're probably wondering about the political allegory, symbolism, and profuse gore Kichiku is noted for. Fret not, for there are some impressions--a few drenched in crimson--that this reviewer would like to notify the reader about.

-The last member to join the group before its complete and utter combustion seemed to represent traditional values, to an extent. The mute observer seemingly skirting the precipice. Somewhat like he belongs to a bygone samurai age (He wields a nice blade), while those around him represent a new-world pariah mindset. One of youth & contempt for control/authority. Perhaps a product of what they hate (the latter); thus, making them mere reactionaries unsure of what they really want. Are they confused? Eh, maybe.

-A Japanese flag with a bloodstain on it, subject to 'stabbings'. I don't think I need to explain that...

-Related: Anarchists? Anti-war demonstrators? Te**o*ists? You figure it out.

-You'll be forced to reconsider the context of rifles in relation to female genitalia. Heh.

-Related: A scene in the mountains, it reminds of Scanners. What a mess of that cranium! Bloody hell! Literally!

-Lastly, We see the self destruction of powermongering and the hysteria it brings. Regardless of status or political persuasion, the cycle always ends the same way. Leftist, Reactionary, Staunch Right-Winger, it's all the same when infighting & an inherent lack of discipline clash with egodrama over that elusive thing called control. The affiliations and labels of such cabals render themselves irrelevant in the face of human savagery and animalistic thrashings.

Anyways, Kumakiri made a decent flick with both shock appeal and political leanings. Give it a look you cast iron stomachs, you.

An impressive student work, made over a period of two years by Kazuyoshi Kumakiri, also its writer and editor. The storyline is inspired by the so-called 'Asno Sanso incident', a widely televised event when members of the United Red Army took a hostage and seized a mountain lodge near Karuizawa. (The film 'A Choice of Hercules' (2002) reconstructs that crime more factually.) Kumakiri took from this the idea of radicalism in moral collapse, and group violence escalating out of control. Amplifying matters stylistically, some use is made of what looks like contemporary news footage, grounding the narrative in the radicalism and feel of the 1970s, when the Japanese student revolutionary movement was at its height.

With its peculiar combination of dialectic and dismemberment, at times Kumakiri's film resembles Nagisa Oshima doing Herschell Gordon Lewis, and certainly contains a self-awareness which, in their own different ways the two directors also share. The first half is almost entirely taken up with claustrophobic and sweaty scenes set indoors as the group stresses, then fractures, under the leadership of the newly elevated girlfriend Masami (Sumiko Mikami). In addition to subjugating her crew with her dubious charms she also sends them out robbing, before organising a limited invitation wild party where she dances and seduces wearing a ceremonial mask. Trapped thus behind the metaphorical bars of their ideologies and allegiances the radicals are, arguably, just as imprisoned (and ultimately, as doomed) as their leader Azawa proves to be in his prison cell.

Its been suggested that at the heart of the film is a demonstration of what can happen when strong leadership is removed, creating a power vacuum, thereby reducing a body of followers to nightmarish dissolution. This being so, it appears to posit a dictatorial solution to contemporary Japanese social problems. However, one can also argue that the narrative demonstrates reactionary bias in other ways, for instance by demonstrating that females are unable to control a radical agenda, even with the lowest persuasive denominator, the drastic application of sexual wiles. As critics have pointed out, a weakness of Kumakiri's story is that it fails to provide the radicals - and the audience - with a clear agenda for their actions. We never know about what they are protesting, let alone the philosophy that presumably binds them.

For many viewers, the lack of any real social dynamic means that the first part moves very slowly indeed and, while initially the too-vague motivation of those we see is intriguing, by the end of the film such lack of sympathy is telling; we are left simply with unattractive people doing bloody things to each other.

It's the violence of Kichiku that has made it so notorious. Tagged a 'political gore' film, the film has divided viewers into those who have dismissed it as alternating confusingly between boring and violent, and those others who see between these extremes a pertinent political allegory. For the latter camp at least, as one of the characters says, it is a case of having to "face the reality and get the message." As part of the special features to the Artsmagic edition (it has formerly appeared in a far less grand single disc release on the continent) critic Tom Mes does a good job of special pleading for a narrative scheme to which some credence at least can be given, and some of the film's obscurities can certainly be ascribed to the first-time nature of the project. Mes is too kind though to mention the weak performance by lead actress Mikami, whose manic laughter is especially unconvincing in her central, if underwritten part, even while he allows for doubts as the film's occasional obscure play on the theme of chickens (sic). But at the very least Kumakiri is to be congratulated in producing a work that at least raises the discussion of gore films above the techniques of grisly special effects, while his film has been widely exhibited around the world, including the festival circuit.

The problem with the last part of Kichiku is that much of the bloodletting is so gratuitous and occurs after such unfocused interaction that, if it intends to make a point, then it is a very blunt one indeed, and hammered home insistently. Some have theorised that the student rebels are a microcosmic version of Japan's ultra-conformist society at large, and that ultimately all they have done is recapitulate all of its worst tendencies. Conversely it might also just as easily be argued that the final internecine devastation ironically reflects the only violent 'revolution' of which they are really capable, while Azawa's former cell mate (the independent witness to the group's last days) samurai sword and all, reflects the mute judgement of traditional values.

The newly enlightened BBFC clearly believes it all has some merit too, as the new Artsmagic two-disc DVD set apparently reaches UK viewers uncut, despite the inclusion of what one fansite has gushingly described as "the greatest head explosion of all time!" - not to mention one notorious scene involving a shotgun barrel's penetration, and discharge, into a very delicate female anatomical area. It has even been suggested that the 'boredom' of the first part is a deliberate attempt to balance and contextualise the extended mayhem that follows. It's an idea which has been applied, but in reverse (and to my mind more successfully), to Takashi Miike's Dead Or Alive where the kinetic editing of the opening and extreme comic climax bookend a more leisurely main section. Certainly for a more robust 'political gore film' one may look no further than the scenes of consumer zombiedom which make up Romero's Dawn Of The Dead.

Whatever the case, gorehounds have been, and will be, content to fast-forward through the first parts onto where the body count begins to mount, while those who are content extracting a more thoughtful framework from Kumakiri's broken backed scenario will hesitate at calling his scheme a complete success.

Those who check out director Kazuyoshi Kumakiri's ambitious student film Banquet Of The Beasts (two years in the making) expecting a non-stop gore-fest might find themselves struggling to get to the good stuff, which only arrives after an hour of extremely tedious interaction between members of a radical political group, whose leader, Aizawa, is banged up in prison. Aizawa's mentally unstable girlfriend Masami takes control of the group, but her leadership is poor, resulting in tension that finally (finally) erupts into violence.

Make it past the first hour, and things do get better (and by 'better' I mean bloodier), as the action moves to a forest where Masami deals with trouble-makers in brutal fashion. It is while two men are getting a beating that the first (and best) gore effect happens: Masami shoots upstart Yasame in the head, leaving only the lower half of his face intact. As if obliterating his cranium isn't bad enough, she then fondles the brain matter oozing out of what's left of his skull. Juicy! The other guy doesn't get let off lightly either: he has his penis cut off, although this is far less graphic.

More gore comes when the group takes shelter in an abandoned building: Masami bites a man's junk off while giving him head, so he stabs her in the crotch, takes a gun, shoves it between her legs and pulls the trigger, causing her insides to explode. Then, while that guy is messing around with her entrails, another bloke enters the room and decapitates bloke #1 with a samurai sword. If this is the kind of stuff you're hungry for, then it should satisfy your cravings, but just be prepared for a long and arduous slog to get there.

3.5/10, rounded up to 4 for IMDb.

Oh man, this one took me by surprise. I bought this movie because I heard it was one of the more graphic movies in the past 10 years. That kind of talk always peeks my interest since I love action and horror films. I was bored after watching the first hour or so of this movie. I was thinking about sending it back and demanding a refund (even though I knew that would never happen). I was told to be patient, most of the gore was at the end of the movie. Well, that was totally correct. What I didn't know was that the gore was so over the top. I have a very strong stomach, and this movie made me want to turn away. I don't like to write a movie comment with spoilers so I wont get into the different things you could see at the end of this movie. I will say after I saw this movie to completion, I felt like I needed a shower. This movie makes you feel dirty. I makes you feel nauseous. I really cant see myself watching this movie again, but I don't think I will sell it to anyone either. I think I will keep it and lend it out to friends. This way I can be the guy who has one of the most graphic and disgusting movies ever made. I want to see my friends faces when the return this movie to me. I'm sure I will get a phone call right after they watch it, with them telling me how nasty it is. Thats why I will keep it, because it is the nastiest, most vile movie I have seen in a long, long time.

this movie is as violent as it will get. if you really want to get rid of somebody, show it to them. except if they like watching people eating other people's brain out after having them tortured to death. but, IF you can stand it, its a great movie. it was first shown on a film festival with a good reputation, and like everybody walked out. afterwards, the director of the festival apologized in public and said that they had not seen the film before.

among other things, kichiku shows some aspects of japan that maybe you did not realize before.