Friday, September 14, 2007

Bohachi: Clan of the Forgotten Eight

What a sad world this would be if Teruo Ishii hadn't been born. One of the craziest - if not the craziest - directors of Japanese exploitation movies, he always showed as much style and humor as madness.
Bohachi is a mixture of chambara and Ishii's patented ero guro style. Tetsuro Tamba plays the psychopathic assassin Shiro, who is hired by the Bohachi clan, a kind of prostitution monopolist. The clan's boss (proudly wearing the biggest, purplest circles under his eyes) instructs Shiro to kill the competition. Shiro does, and while we are watching his progress marks of picturesquely spurting blood and low-but-far-flying body parts, we also get to see breasts, torture, breasts, naked fighting, very black teeth, breasts, ropes, the most striking colors and breasts.
The mood of the picture is as bizarre as one could wish for; the grand finale, an opium-drenched orgy that transforms into an epic and completely over the top, color-drenched fight scene, is worth the price of admission alone.

Darlings of the Day:
"Driving spikes between the nails and flesh...How will she cry?"

"The sex with a woman with Syphilis can be fun."

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