A movie I suggest you all see

[nurbldoff]

I agree that movie violence (like many things) is often best when it's just implied. But in the case of Irreversible I think it was necessary to really show it, in order to drive the point home, so to speak. Of course, I can't really know what the movie would have been like without it the rape scene, but it probably wouldn't have left such a deep impression as it did.

The movie is not about rape, it's about the inevitability of bad things happening to random people. Not showing the bad things explicitly would lessen the psychological effect in this case, IMHO.

[Z³]

Irreversible! and Baise Moi (one you referred to earlier, LMNO) are both quite uninteresting in opinion. They're like the french versions of Ichi the Killer/Visitor Q/other weird shit from Takashi Miike. Baise Moi was filmed with crapquality DVcams and are nothing but fetish-films released for the mainstreams. See one fake snuff movie, see them all. Irreversible! was trying too hard to be interesting, like a retarded kid screaming look at me and the 12 min rape scenes/all the other filth wasn't the best vessel to get their points across imo.

At his best moments, Miike has a way of blending graphic violence with absurdity and surrealism. I havent seen either of these french movies so I dont feel like I can really comment, but so far the description of Irreversible has piqued my curiosity.

As for Miike, its rumoured that he got his film start by laundering money for the Yakuza... and considering the prominence of organized crime in japan, this doesn't sound too far fetched. Miike's glorification of the 'tough-guy' culture of Osaka (where he's from) in the Young Thugs movies gives me the impression that this is probably true, as well as his remakes of Fukasakus mob movies (notably Graveyard of Honor). Beat Takeshi said in an interview that it is a little known fact outside of japan, that part of the reason the Fukasaku movies were smash hits in japan was literally because the Yakuza used strong-arm tactics in order to promote them (kind of reminds of the way voting worked in the days of old). They'd literally sell people tickets on the street by force, and once you had it you could either go see the film or not. Although, I doubt that they did this with any endorsement from Kinji Fukasaku, this is probably just a case of the Yakuza wanting to see themselves portrayed in film... so they did their best to get the genre off the ground.

Whether or not one wants to take Takeshi's claim seriously is a matter of personal choice, I suppose... he's done a lot to try and distance himself from the Yakuza, even though its kind of his niche as an actor/director.

I'm not sure what Miike has to say on the subject, but I'm sure I'll eventually see an interview where he addresses it. Either way, I'm a fan of his works (both his earlier, more serious films, and his later absurdities.) Still, he has directed his fare share of crap, so you never really know what you're going to get.

I'm pretty sure that none of us can get behind the romantization of rape, but how do we feel about organized crime? Actually, I must admit that I got a good laugh out of the mayor of Nagasaki being shot by a member of the Yamaguchi-gumi. Also, I'm a big fan of the Yakuza Papers series by Fukasaku, his extremely narrative story-telling style lends itself well to being able to tell a story that spans the course of several decades... even if it drags on and on and on and on and on.

The ending of Battles Without Honour or Nobility literally made me scream with pure ecstatic joy, perhaps not as much as Sword of Doom, but it was still a cacophonous shriek of unparalleled joy.

Here is a french movie to be avoided: High Tension. Spoiler: the killer is actually the main character, who spends the whole movie trying to avoid being killed, as it turns out she's schizo-affective and has been the killer the whole time... this plothook is executed with blatant disregard to the movies setup, and makes absolutely no sense.  There is, however, an ok female masturbation scene towards the beginning.

RAPE

I Spit on Your Grave: A gang rape scene towards the beginning is used to justify killings later in the movie.

Rubbers Lover: A rape scene towards the middle of the movie is meant to portray a particular character as a sadist, the victim is later 'redeemed' by the deaths of almost everyone involved and is one of the only survivors of the movie. Of course sadism and torture are primary themes of the movie, and an excuse for the director to incorporate a latex body suit into the film. The redeeming factor of this movie is how fucking loud it is.

Graveyard of Honor: the main character of this film is kind of an anti-hero, in that he is the main character but basically just an amoral piece of shit. In this case, he breaks into a womans house in order to hide from the police, forces himself upon her, and this becomes the basis of an ongoing relationship. (if I remember correctly they actually get married.) Anyway, later on in the film, he eats her bones to intimidate his old boss into giving him back his territory... which is probably the best scene of the film.

Immortal: another french movie, very bizarre sci-fi. Basically, the premise of this film is that the egyptian god Horus posesses the body of a man in order to try and procreate before he's sentenced to death at the hands of Anubis and Bast. He then forces the man to rape an Alien, which is in fact mutating into a human being, and is one of the only creatures in all of existence capable of carrying the seed of a god. The sex scenes in the film vary in their consentuality, even though they are all between the same two (three?) partners. This is a very strange film, and worth seeing at least once.

A Clockwork Orange: Everybody has seen it, but its worth mention. The rape scene is actually pretty brutal.

Silent Hill: besides being a terrible fucking movie (although kind of ok, in terms of movies based on video games... I mean it was better than Super Mario Brothers) this is probably the origin of the Pyramid Head RAPE meme. Although I dont know if there are any actual rape scenes in the film itself, since I couldnt stomach more than twenty minutes of this piece of shit, Pyramid Head does rip a womans clothes off... followed immediately by her skin.

Deliverance: A classic, for being one of the few movies to portray man on man rape.

Penitentiary: I'm not sure which one has the violent shower rape scene, I always confuse it with the one that has Mr. T.  Anyway, you can chalk this one up as a terrible Blaxploitation film.

The Streetfighter: I'm referring here to the Sonny Chiba movie. In this film there is an implied gangrape scene with one of Terry Tsurugi's (Sonny Chiba) clients sister, after she is sold into slavery by Terry Tsurugi because his client couldnt actually pay Tsurugis fee. This is done entirely to show that Terry Tsurugi is an asshole with no regard for human life, and to the best of my knowledge that character never comes up again (which leads to an inside joke between myself and my friend Will, with whom I first watched the film, "Do you think they're still raping that chick?")

Ichi the Killer: in the very beginning of the movie a woman is beaten severely, and is about to be raped, before Ichi intervenes. As it turns out, Rape is one of the central themes of the film, big surprise.

Boys Dont Cry: based on the true story of Brandon Teena, the movie is about a transexual who is raped and murdered after his male friends discover that he in fact, has female genitalia. Aside from misleading people into thinking that Nebraska looks exactly like Texas, the movie does not mislead people into thinking that rural Nebraska is, in fact, a terrible fucking place to live. (while not nearly as bad as the Deep South, or the Bible Belt, IMO.)

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me: I wont spoil this one, but RAPE is central to the entire plot of twin peaks.

Sonatine: Takeshis character interrupts a rape in progress, shooting the potential rapist in the stomach, which leads to a relationship between himself and the victim throughout the film.

Visitor Q: A woman is killed, and there is a pretty graphic scene of necrophilia... which leads to the question, can necrophilia be classified as rape?

In truth, there are many many more movies that could go on the list, I'm sure I'm leaving out a pretty big chunk of Miike films, as well as japanese shock movies in general... the All Night Long movies specifically, but I am trying to limit this to stuff that I've seen. I'll modify it later if I think of anything I missed.


...



Do you think they're still raping that chick?

[nurbldoff]

That's an... informative... post, Z3.

I love Takeshi Kitanos movies, btw. Miike is just a bit too much for my tastes, judging from what I've seen (Ichi, Audition, and something more).

[Z³]

That's an... informative... post, Z3.

I love Takeshi Kitanos movies, btw. Miike is just a bit too much for my tastes, judging from what I've seen (Ichi, Audition, and something more).

GOZU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJ9b1iMqNiU&mode=related&search=

This is probably my favorite one so far.

[The Apex, The Harmony Of]

One of my friends showed me the rape scene from that film. We also recorded the sound, slowed it down and made it sound like ogre screams.