Rating: 
Summary: Female director + extreme horror = interesting combination.
Review: Organ (Kei Fujiwara, 1996)I get the feeling, reading many reviews for Japanese extreme horror films, that a lot of people just don't get it. Yes, it's about the gore. But there's more to it than that. Just as Romero's Night of the Living Dead trilogy is as brilliant as it is because it's a satirical attack on American consumer culture, the best of Japanese extreme horror is as good as it is not because it's full of disgusting (and thoroughly cheesy) special effects, but because there's something underneath, holding them together. Such is the case with Kei Fujiwara's extreme horror film Organ. Fujiwara, like Hideshi Hino before her, uses the disgust she creates as an allegory of the disintegration of the Japanese soul; Fujiwara is far more up front about it than Hino ever was (though Hino had his manga in which to really get into the degradation-of-the-soul angle, and could concentrate on more subtle approaches in the Guinea Pig films). In Organ, three police officers, two of them brothers, get involved in an investigation of the black-market trade in human organs in Japan. The operations is blown, and the messy ending to it has two of the officers suspended and one of them (Tosada, one of the brothers) missing and presumed dead. The two suspended officers, now deadly enemies, pursue the doctor at the head of the operation; both are convinced that Tosada is still alive and that the doctor is continuing his organ harvesting. As with an increasing number of films both in the extreme horror genre and Japanese New Horror, Organ starts out with a major punch to the gut (the botched undercover operation), then slows down and allows the mystery to develop before picking up the pace with the gore factor again. (Guinea Pig fans will recognize a good deal of the effects used in the climax.) This has a tendency to turn the gorehounds off, and the gore has a tendency to turn the atmospheric-horror fans off. But at least nothing blind-sides you the way it does with Audition (still the only romantic comedy-extreme horror hybrid in existence, to my knowledge). You know what you're getting after ten seconds with Organ. All of which would lead to Organ being pretty much a more-of-the-same film of not for the allegory therein (the doctor's diseased soul is physically represented in the diseases that ravage his body, for example) and the sucker-punch ending. It's one of those things where you have to rewind a tad and re-watch, because you can't believe a director would do something quite that nasty. (And no, we're not talking special effects here. This is an emotional jab, and quite an ugly one.) While it doesn't quite hold together in the way Dawn of the Dead or other brilliant allegorical films do, that's not necessarily surprising in the world of Japanese cinema; you expect a certain level of impressionism. There are times when Fujiwara does carry it a bit far, but a few moments of reflection after the film is over should enable the astute viewer to put it all together. Fun stuff. Not for the weak of heart, or stomach. *** ½
Rating: 
Summary: Better than Nyquil for those restless nights !!!
Review: This is a real snooze-fest. Gore-hounds looking for a fix should really think twice before picking up this one.... at least rent it before you buy! The effects are mostly of the "fantastic" variety (goo, slime, pus), etc. and there is nothing remotely realistic or disturbing about any of it at all. The most vile scene in the entire film is a shot of someone puking! Don't know what the fuss was about in Japan upon it's original release (had to be edited for release there) because this Uncut version on DVD from Synapse is pretty tame and wouldn't shock any die-hard horror fan. Maybe the fuss was the scene where a young boy loses an important appendage (you don't see anything) in a flashback --- but it beats me! Along with all the talking, bickering and fist-fights, there are even more stupid scenes including a woman emerging from a cocoon or such and an amputeed man who lives in a box with a plant....OK---next! The plot is strictly comic-book and uninteresting, there's bad dubbing (it's been looped in Japanese for some reason), it's talky and repetitive and there's absolutely no style or substance although apparently it was directed by the star of "Tetsuo". At 105 minutes, it was a real ordeal for me to stick through it to the end (and I'll sit through anything!). The Synapse DVD is a nice presentation and includes a "Behind the Scenes of 'Organ 2'"--(Please Spare Me!!!) but, all in all, this is one organ I want amputated. Horror fans proceed with caution!
Rating:
Summary: Better than Nyquil for those restless nights !!!
Review: This is a real snooze-fest. Gore-hounds looking for a fix should really think twice before picking up this one.... at least rent it before you buy! The effects are mostly of the "fantastic" variety (goo, slime, pus), etc. and there is nothing remotely realistic or disturbing about any of it at all. The most vile scene in the entire film is a shot of someone puking! Don't know what the fuss was about in Japan upon it's original release (had to be edited for release there) because this Uncut version on DVD from Synapse is pretty tame and wouldn't shock any die-hard horror fan. Maybe the fuss was the scene where a young boy loses an important appendage (you don't see anything) in a flashback --- but it beats me! Along with all the talking, bickering and fist-fights, there are even more stupid scenes including a woman emerging from a cocoon or such and an amputeed man who lives in a box with a plant....OK---next! The plot is strictly comic-book and uninteresting, there's bad dubbing (it's been looped in Japanese for some reason), it's talky and repetitive and there's absolutely no style or substance although apparently it was directed by the star of "Tetsuo". At 105 minutes, it was a real ordeal for me to stick through it to the end (and I'll sit through anything!). The Synapse DVD is a nice presentation and includes a "Behind the Scenes of 'Organ 2'"--(Please Spare Me!!!) but, all in all, this is one organ I want amputated. Horror fans proceed with caution!
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