XX: Beautiful Prey

"Beautiful Prey" is the first DVD in a LONG time that I immediately threw away right after watching it, feeling that it did not need to (dis)grace my collection. Just to prevent the same thing from happening to any of you, I'll just mention that:

• There is almost no action in the entire movie

• It is slow, dry and cheap in the style of the "Zero Woman" series, but without its redeeming elements

• About an hour in, the heroine, a cop, goes alone, in the middle of the night, WITHOUT HER GUN, to catch a sadist that she suspects is responsible for at least 2 murders. She is captured more easily than a civilian would, and doesn't even try to kick her attacker in the balls or something. For the next 10 minutes, she is raped, abused, and tortured. If this sounds "cool" or "challenging" to you, you'll probably love this film. If it sounds sick or disgusting, you'll probably hate it.

To be fair, in its first half "Beautiful Prey" does raise some interesting points, especially about who is the controlling half in a sadomasochistic relationship. However, the moment it switches from the kinky to the sick, its fate (ie. the trash can) was sealed for me. (*)

BEAUTIFUL PREY (1996) AKA: XX: Utsukushiki Emono. Butchy-pretty, sexually naive cop Noriko (Makiko Watanabe) falls under the spell of the rape victim Yu (Kei Marimura), a disaffected masochist who slowly knocks down her inhibitions while simultaneously turning her partner into a willing sadist.

Meanwhile, the original rapist is still on the loose, but does Yu really want him brought to justice or is she setting Noriko up as the next victim? Noirish pink movie from director Toshiharu Ikeda, he of the overrated EVIL DEAD TRAP, like so many others, offers a curious insight into the darker side of the Japanese sexual psyche, albeit not an overly deep one. The sex scenes are standard no-pubes nipple/navel/leg expeditions with crops and chains thrown in for good measure, but it all plays rather perfunctorily and, since it's a Japanese movie, you just know everybody's gonna turn out to be firing on deep-seated sexual repression. Decently made, one supposes, and hardly the nastiest such film to come from this arena of Japanese film-making, but probably worth seeing only if you haven't seen others like it, just so you can say you did. I give it a 5.

I don't think you could make this movie any worst if you tried. I figured a policewoman going undercover to bust a S & M pervert would have some interest for me. But nothing much happens, as she lets it happen to her without much resistance. Her vacant expression never changes throughout the movie. Is this acting? Please do something, say something, anything to give us a reason to keep watching. No action, no acting, no suspense, no movie.

I would like to do a better review, but it was difficult pay much attention, when nothing of interest was happening. The girls are lightly whipped but sport these big ugly scars, nothing much else happens. Not only was her back-up missing, but the budget was missing as well. Ultra cheap looking. Thankfully, very few people have seen this time waster and neither should you.

This movie begins with a beautiful woman named "Yu Makimura" (Kei Maramura) being brutally raped in her apartment while her husband is out of town on business. While being treated at the hospital the accompanying female police officer by the name of "Noriko Katase" (Makiko Watanabe) notices that Yu has a long welt across her breast which appears to be a couple of days old. Since it wasn't obtained during the rape it is then surmised by her boss "Inspector Tagami" (Ren Osuga) that Yu might have masochistic tendencies which might then shed some light on the perpetrator. However, the deeper Tagami and Noriko delve the more confusing and dangerous it gets for both of them. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a film that may have had potential if it hadn't gotten so bizarre and illogical toward the end. Additionally, although there were several scenes of a sexual nature, most of them completely lacked eroticism which certainly didn't help either. Again, this movie could have been better but apparently the director (Toshiharu Ikeda) was more concerned with stretching certain boundaries than producing a worthy product. Because of that I have rated the movie accordingly. Slightly below average.

Cult Japanese director Ikeda's take on the Basic Instinct premise: a cop investigating a seductive woman is drawn into a dark world of sexual role playing.

Most wannabe erotic thrillers fail to be much of either, but Ikeda manages through excellent use of his angular glass and steel sets to create a cinematic landscape of voyeurism and entrapment. Characters are either watching each other through glass like zoo animals or seeing themselves in mirrors wondering how others see them. Mirrors become symbolic of public opinion and especially censure, and the geometric boxes people live in become cages to entrap their individuality without protecting them from dangers without or within themselves. Very watchable.