Naked Blood

I watched this film thinking it would be another gore fest like the Guinea Pig series and in some ways it is. Yes, there are disturbing sequences of mutilation, including the much talked about nipple slicing scene. But, there is an intelligence to this movie that lifts it out of the run-of-the-mill splatter territory. The plot involves a teenage boy genius who has invented a mystery potion he names My Son. His mother is a scientist performing contraceptive experiments on three different women, he spikes a harmless contraceptive drug with My Son and films the results, along the way falling in love with one of the subjects. This is an interesting and intelligent movie, while some of the more out-there sequences will put off many it is a must see for people looking for something different.

A movie that is supposed to be 100% gore, 100% bloody and 100% extreme(as the Japan Shock DVD cover modestly states), is a movie I gotta see. I love gore movies, and with all the praise Naked Blood had been getting, well, I just had to check it out. Pity to say, I was disappointed.

Hisayasu Sato is, of course, one of the biggest names in extreme Japanese cinema, responsible for movies such as Lolita: Vibrator Torture and Rape: For Real. Naked Blood is a step away from these mainly sex-driven movies, and even tries for some sort of plot. Kid scientist invents new painkiller, tests it on three girls who then start to experience pain as pleasure. With all the horrible results you can imagine.

Now, the gore in the movie is definitely gory, although it's all very bearable. But where does this movie go wrong then? Imo, its problem lies in the fact that it's overly pretentious. A plot is one thing, but a Freudian hyper-bizarre moronic plot is another. The worst thing about the whole story though, is how generic it is - in all its bizarreness, it's never complex. Basically everything is predictable and, to be honest, boring. This movie has a runtime of 76 minutes, but it isn't even able to stay interesting.

In the end, the overall feeling you get from this movie is a 'wtf' one. Whether that's because of the fact that you couldn't stand the gore, found the story immensely complicated, or, like me, found it a moderately enjoyable waste of a good 76 minutes, I don't know, but wtf it shall be.

Leaves me to say that the old Super8 film Eiji's mother is watching is strangely intriguing, and possibly the highlight of this movie. Its faded colors and bright tone, combined with a mysterious 'plot', makes for a seriously interesting movie-in-a-movie. At this points, Hisayasu Sato displays a hidden genius. However, the rest of Naked Blood still is nothing but 100% mediocre.

Eiji,a young scientist invents serum called Myson which transforms the pain into pleasure.His mother is conducting medical experiment on three young women.Eiji decides to mix his serum with the experimental product that his mother is working on.Soon the girls start to hurt and mutilate themselves with a strange pleasure at doing it.The three main female actresses are truly interesting characters-one is obsessed with eating and her obsession later results in incredibly graphic and shocking self-cannibalism scene,another is obsessed with her image.The third,Rika Mikami suffers from extreme form of insomnia-a condition brought by the trauma of her first period."Naked Blood" is a slow-moving film filled with moments of totally extreme gore.The scene where one of the girls slowly eats her own nipple and eye has to be seen to be believed!Still the film is pretty difficult to understand,so fans of mindless Hollywood's horror should avoid it.A must-see for fans of Japanese extreme cinema.10 out of 10!

Sato's extension of his earlier GENUINE RAPE is an incredible transgressive horror movie.A teenage boy sabotages his mother's anti-pregnancy experiments by spiking the test injections with his own endorphin called "Myson".Myson is his own concoction which turns pleasure into pain.The greater the pain,the greater the pleasure.Without wanting to spoil any surprises,i can warn the more weak hearted that there are some shocking scenes (a woman eats her own vagina lips with a knife and fork).But for viewers up to it,it's a fascinating,intelligent dissection of a movie that unwaveringly follows it's own premise no matter where it leads (like prime David Cronenberg for example).And it's a top notch exploitation classic. Sato is a very prolific director who's made countless movies (usually in the areas of sex and violence) since the 80's-but as far as i know,only this and THE BEDROOM are available subtitled in English. Did i mention the Virtual Reality cactus?

There are some films I've put off viewing for a long time as I've been informed they contain material that is simply too strong, too offensive to be tolerated. One of these films is "Naked Blood". Imagine my surprise, then, when I finally sat down to watch the recent US release of this cult movie last night and found the film to be both intelligent and well-made. Yes, it contains some graphic scenes but they need to be put in context with what else is contained within the horror genre. While some of the scenes in "Naked Blood" are, I believe, unique, there's nothing here that will corrupt the viewer or overwhelm him / her with its content. In terms of violence, the bloodshed in "Naked Blood" is no worse than many other underground horror films.

What "Naked Blood" delivers is a thoughtful, almost fly-on-the-wall, unfolding of events as a young doctor's son, Sadao Abe, creates an antidote to pain. When he tampers with his mother's experiment by including his special pain-relieving fluid with her new contraceptive, things go very wrong, very fast.

I knew details of most of the horrific scenes before I watched "Naked Blood" but the movie did contain a few surprises. The effects work is excellent but the film succeeds because of its atmosphere and performances rather than elements of "gross out" horror.

Even with its bizarre ending, I enjoyed "Naked Blood" and would recommend it to genre fans.

7 out of 10.