Showing posts with label rape. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rape. Show all posts

Monday, July 11, 2011

Bedevilled (Review)

Bedevilled

Bedevilled aka Kim Bok-nam salinsageonui jeonmal (2010)

Directed by Chul-soo Jang

[part of the NYAFF 2011]

According to the dictionary, the word bedevil means:

bedevil

vb -ils, -illing, -illed US, -ils -iling, -iled (tr)
1. to harass or torment
2. to throw into confusion
3. to possess, as with a devil

If a word ever fit a movie perfectly, it'd be this one.

The masters of revenge are at it again. Korea is clearly the king of revenge cinema and after seeing Bedevilled, one can only conclude this will continue. From Chul-soo Jang, a former assistant director of Kim-Ki Duk who made his debut as director with Bedevilled, one can see his talent and style through and through.

Bedevilled is revenge cinema that will drive you nuts, pull at your emotions and above all make you think that all could have turned out differently if one only helped in a time of need. Sometimes lost in a tale of revenge is the fact that the victim hopes to solve their problems with help from the outside be it friends, family or the police. But when no help comes, they take it upon themselves to solve their problems. Bedevilled's Bok-nam our victim turned revenger illustrates this to a tee. In a world where bystanders do nothing to help her, are they worse than the man who abuses her?

It's these themes that make Bedevilled not just a good film but a great film. I haven't yelled out "Kill those motherfuckers!" at a film in a very long time. My emotions were rollercoasting all over the place and when you see it, yours will to.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Ice-cold bank clerk, Hae-Won, knows she must be pitiless to live in a pitiless world. Let the punks muggers slide, it’s not your problem; let an old woman lose her new house because of a clerical error, you’re not on overtime. She’s stunning, she’s brilliant, and she’s finally figured out how a woman can get ahead in business: by being colder than the men. Now she’s going on vacation.

A hellish “women’s picture” from the wrong side of the mirror, BEDEVILLED is a harrowing tale of women, culture, society, humanity, and what we can become. When Hae-Won ventures back to her grandfather’s home on remote Moo-do Island, she finds it much like she remembers it from her childhood: an untamed hellhole populated by a handful of ruddy-faced men and old women bleached orange by the sun. Her childhood friend, Bok-Nam (Seo Young-Hee), eagerly awaits her arrival, desperate for human contact.

All is not well on Moo-do Island, a misogynistic anti-Eden where the women work in the fields from dawn to dusk and prey on each other in competition for the savage, square-faced brutes they call their men. When her vicious husband begins eyeing their young daughter, Bok-Nam turns desperate, begging the cold-hearted Hae-Won for help escaping to civilization, but when tragedy strikes, their sick little island paradise will never be the same.


Awesome Review-O-Matic

Well let's break this down by the definition shall we?

1.) to harass or torment

In any revenge story, there has to be a level of abuse. However, in Bedevilled the abuse is not just done by one, but by many. A collective of rural farmers and islanders inhabit Moo-do Island and they are pure, uncaring evil.

But as the story starts out, we follow Hae Won who gives us a taste of what living in Seoul, South Korea is like. As a woman, one must beware of the evils of men be it on the streets (where she witnesses a crime or the office). As she vacations on her grandfather's house in Moo-do Island, it suddenly becomes clear the same problems she was trying to escape from are here as well.

Her friend, Bok-Nam who has relentlessly plea-ed with Hae Won to visit is more than glad when she does. But soon we and her see the level of torment she must go through everyday. Her husband physically abuses her and sleeps with whores, the "aunties" believe men are far superior and they do all the farm work. She's raped by her husband's brother and her daughter is clearly being pedophiled as well. When she's stung by bees antagonized by her husband he retorts "put been paste on it".

It's a hellish life and we see it in all its distasteful glory. It's hard to watch and we the audience become angry. I felt intense flames from the side of my face and I wanted Bok-nam to "kill those motherfuckers". Like I said I've never felt this angry in a while. Bedevilled effectively makes you feel for Bok-nam and her plight. We also question why she just doesn't leave the island. But like an inner city youth stuck in his/her neighborhood or a person who lives in rural America, it's not that easy to leave the only life you've known.

2.) to throw into confusion

After more abuse Bok-nam and her daughter try to escape which leads to a tragedy. A conspiracy is employed by all the islanders with the husband, his brother, the boat driver and the aunties to cover up the crime. Hae Won now tries to escape as well seeing her vacation paradise become hell.

The performance of Yeong-hie Seo as Bok-Nam is utterly brilliant. She displays a level of talent going from hopeless victim to despair to psychopathic assassin. It's no wonder why she's won tons of best actress awards from various film festivals. She acts as one would act when under the thumb of an abuser, displays a few moments of levity and weeps as a mother would weep.

It's no surprise that when she snaps, we see her working in the potato fields and looking up at the sun. As she has a moment of clarity she says to her aunties: “I stared into the sun for long, and it spoke to me.”

Cue the death metal music.

3.) to possess, as with a devil

As Bok-nam goes all killer incarnate armed with a scythe, there is no way any sane person didn't want her to go all Terminator. It's pure revenge envy and probably the most enjoyable murderous spree you will see onscreen. I really can't believe I wrote that last sentence. Bok-nam is possessed to kill all who's done her wrong and as her victims beg for mercy and curse her with their last breath, we want her to taunt them right before they're executed.

Revenge cinema is the only time we side with one person throughout the entire film. We are Bok-nam's guardian angel hinting her to kill em all. That's the objective of revenge cinema, to have the audience throw out logic and order (like the law and the moral objections) and to root for the victim turned victor as she slaughters the torturers.

It's all about emotion and the one thing that Bedevilled does well is play with ours in the most rawest of ways. Bad people do bad things (MAKES US ANGRY). Good people do bad things (MAKES US HAPPY).

If your looking for Bedevilled to have a look and feel of Chan Wook Park, you're not to far off. But Korean cinema never makes a mockery or satire out of the revenge-sploitation. It treats its material with respect with and with a level of humanity. In some parts, it becomes a Lifetime Movie of the Week and the ending is a double whammy of sorts. I think I counted 3 or 4 potential scenes where I thought it would end but it kept going.

My only other gripes is figuring that the evil people who abuse Bok-nam are one dimensional characters designed to trigger Bok-nam's metamorphosis into a methodical killer.

Bedevilled is a magnificent piece of Korean revenge cinema that poses a question of whether or not doing nothing when witnessing evil is equal to or worse than the evil doer themselves. It's a question sociologists have tried to figure out for years, and one where nobody really has the answer. But you won't be shaking your head after you've seen Bedevilled. You'll be wanting bloodlust and revenge and you'll get it.

Nude-ipedia

Some light nudity via a perky prostitute

Gore-ipedia

Savage brutality via a scythe.

WTF moment


The ending

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

NYAFF 2011 film festival opens on 7/1. I've created a list of films to check out at this year's festival.

Head over to the official site for more info.

Bedevilled is no longer screening at the NYAFF. But if you have a chance to see it, it's your obligation to do so. Also, Hollywood is planning on remaking Oldboy. Fuck that.

The Vitals
Rating:
1/2

Check out the trailer.



(shhhhh the whole movie is on YouTube. Check it out here)

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The Taint (Review)

The Taint

The Taint (2010)

Directed by Drew Bolduc and Dan Nelson

I think we have record for fastest shot of a pair of titties in a movie.

3 seconds.

That's how long it takes The Taint to whip out some boobies for your viewing pleasure. It's a hell of an opening for this lowest denominator flick however if you're an alpha male with a pulse, you know something moved.

I hate to be crude with my review but when you view this soon to be cult classic, you have to describe it as openly as a gay 80s montage (which we have in this flick as well).

The Taint is the next evolution of the Troma movie. I think Troma has lost touch with it's extreeminess but directors Drew Bolduc and Dan Nelson have spawned a new genre of low budget horror comedy. The American WTF movie. That's what The Taint is. It's got a mild plot, some easily identifiable characters and lots of WTF. I've never seen so much WTF in my movie viewing history. That and a lot of penis. Yes folks, this movie has more penis shots than a Playgirl pictorial.

I've seen some indie budget horror coms that fall in line with The Taint. But the others never had the amount of gore and splatter this flick has. In the same vain as Black Devil Doll, Isle of the Damned, Hanger, Gutterballs and John Waters flicks it's 110% offensive and 200% fucked up fun.

Running at an unbelievable 70 minutes, you'll need to take a long cold shower after seeing this filthy filth. If you have a wife or GF, send them to movies to see a rom com because they may "Bobbit" you if they catch you watching The Taint.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

THE TAINT is an intellectual experience. It is a violent and misogynistic film about violence, misogyny, and entertainment. It features sadistic violence, gratuitous sexual content, and scenes of spellbinding dramatic interest. It also contains more cock explosions than any other movie ever. It’s the ultimate sexually-frustrated-male-nerd-emotional-masturbation-release film, done in the style of an 80’s horror-comedy.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

The opening credits are done VHS special effects 80s style which time travel you back to those 80s gorefests we all loved. After the boobie montage, we meet Phil O'Ginny, a blonde hipster slacker dude who seems to have found himself in the middle of a misogynistic crazy men massacre. The men, with full frontal penis dangling are attacking the scantily clad women all across this small American town. That's some heavy duty WTF don't ya think?

Suffice it to say, Phil's high as fuck and encounters a few interesting people along the way. He first meets Misandra who goes all flashbacky as she tells him her marriage was destroyed by the water supply that's now tainted which has caused all the men to be misogynistic maniacs. It's filled with 80s staples such as montagy picnics in the park and mooshy face cave ins.

Later Phil and Misandra meet up with a Phil's old PE teacher and his bunch of cronies who also go all flashbacky through a Rocky style 80s montage which is filled with gay innuendo at its extreme. Seeing a dude pumping iron and wrestling seemed so innocent to us back in the 80s. Not so much today and the parody of this is hilarious.

Now almost beaten to a pulp, Phil is saved by a masked stranger who in his former life was a scientist who with his science team (complete with fancy gizmos and calculators) try to create cockzantium (a drug so that all dudes can get BJs). The Nazi propaganda commercial devised for this fucked up Viagra is LOL funny.

So it's up to Phil to save the day and as the plot-o-matic says, we get more cock explosions than I've ever seen in a movie.....ever.

Stuffed into the flick is a funny bunny cartoon and tons of naked women getting slaughtered in all sorts of ways. Slice and dice, large rock to the face trauma and more penis oozing than a porn movie. Bodily fluids are evacuated from every orifice in The Taint. Don't say I didn't warn you.

For a low budget flick by some Virginia college students, The Taint is a high value production. They could have easily dragged this to 90 minutes but I'm pretty sure they didn't have that much footage. The acting is self parody edging on corniness but that's not really the point of the flick. Plot, acting, soundtrack are secondary to what the film ejaculates on screen. It's pure simple WTF and they have tons of WTF money shots for your viewing pleasure.

You can't beat this flick in that department if you cloned Waters and Kaufman together. The Taint is a 21st century fetus of 80s splatter comedy. It's totally fucked up but in that good, punch in the face sorta way. Every dude on the planet is easily mesmerized by seeing a pair of tits, but also easily traumatized by seeing full frontal cock.

You're going to see the best and worst of both worlds in The Taint and you're going to keep repeating in a loud, happy voice.....WTF!!!!!

Nude-ipedia

Tons of full frontal nudity by hot women
BBA trifecta (boobs, bush and ass)
Full frontal penis

Gore-ipedia


A shitload of practical and digital gore effects.

WTF moment

The cock explosions at the end


The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis


There is always one film a year that is so offensive, so fucked up and just pure trash that it makes my Top 10 list. Last year it was Black Devil Doll. The Taint has made a case for being on that list this year.

I can say, it's one of the funniest horror comedies I've seen this year.

If you're inner gorehound needs to be fed and if you're inner misogynist needs to be jerked off I highly recommend The Taint. You won't be disappointed by this throwback 80s splatterfest.

The Vitals
Rating:


Check out the trailer below.


The Taint Trailer (NSFW) from Dan Nelson on Vimeo.





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Thursday, October 07, 2010

Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives (Review)

Ticked-off Trannies with Knives

Ticked-off Trannies with Knives (2010)

Directed by Israel Luna

Well ain't that a title huh?

It's quite odd that I review a movie that coincides with certain coincidental current events. Recently at Rutgers University a man committed suicide after he was webcamed by his roommate having relations with another man.

Because of this there has been quite a news buzz on the plight of gay men and women who've been victimized by society at large. GLAAD and other groups have gotten more exposure because of these horrific events.

So its timely that Israel Luna's movie comes out during this climate. It's a pure revenge throwback circa the 70s and 80s that's quite literally over the top. The top of what? Who the hell knows?

During its run at the Tribeca Film Festival, it made waves with GLAAD protesting its portrayal of its transgender vixens. I'll be the first to admit, I have no idea why they thought so after watching the movie. Of course I'm not gonna think every "tranny" is a knife wielding, man hating diva. But you'd think from the backlash, that's what GLAAD thinks will happen.

Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives is glamorized exploitation trash with a "Hey Girl" attitude. It's a little catty at times (probably had jokes I didn't get) and its only until the last 20 minutes do we get the title being accurately portrayed. But exploitation comes in all forms and this one is as odd as it comes.

Boring Plot-O-Matic

Revenge takes balls, and no one knows it better than the ladies of "Ticked-Off Trannies with Knives", Israel Luna's over-the-top tale of sisterhood and cold-blooded, high-heeled vengeance. When the innocent and likable Bubbles Cliquot shows up for her nightly stage performance with a black eye, her transgender sisters suspect foul play from her latest boy toy.

In an attempt to get Bubbles back to her bubbly self, the girls take her out for a relaxed night of cocktails at a local gay bar. After a few drinks, the ladies' troubles seem far away, and Bubble's friends Emma Grashun and Rachel Slurr convince her to join them for a triple date with a pair of charming boys. Sadly, not even three tough-as-nails vixens could be prepared for the ambush that comes next. It turns out the blind date is set up by Boner, the baseball-bat-wielding, tranny-hating rapist who gave Bubbles her shiner.

After luring them into an abandoned warehouse, Boner and his two beefy minions unleash all their hatred on the unsuspecting ladies, leaving them bashed and bruised, but not broken. After waking from her coma, Bubbles enlists the aid of her friends- the sharp-tongued Rachel and the fiercely protective Pinky La'Trimm - to bring her attackers to bloody justice. The ladies get in touch with their inner Zen before arming up with an assortment of bladed weapons and dressing in their finest dominatrix gear (if their knives don't kill, their looks surely will). Not even a man as psychotic as Boner could imagine the well crafted and ingeniously planned bloodbath that ensues.

The moral of the story: Hell hath no fury like a tranny scorned.

Awesome Review-O-Matic

Holy trannies that's a hellalong synopsis. Obviously the flick follows the same formula as the rape revenge flicks you've all seen before. Girl meet guy, guy hurts girl, girl recruits her crew equipped with knives to kill guy. Nothing new here.

But let me say this. Most of America is not familiar with transgender people and I am part of this group. I've never seen "trannies" on the big screen before and oddly it was a little mesmerizing. Was this common in the 70s during the Times Square days?

With all due respect, I am totally ignorant of the transgender world. Men dressed as women? I wasn't sure if I was getting the jokes as I watched. Nutshelling the flick it went like this:
  • First 30....Getting to know your trannies
  • Next 30....Homophobic, racist alpha males fuck up the trannies
  • Final 30....Trannies fuck up Homophobic, racist alpha males
The blending of the movie had some grindhousey moments. The movie had missing reels, staticky static and a few disclaimers. It makes the movie feel grimey Times Square-ish and Israel Luna definitely did his homework to give it that feel.

The torture and the revenge are amped up with low budget gore and splatter. Full knife arsenals are on display as are the most diva like outfits worn by our revenge bent heroines.The ending is clever, oozing of irony and mucho sexual innuendo.

I can't say I uber dug the film but it did keep me slightly entertained. The cast is a little amateurish at times with Krystal Summers as Bubbles having the bulk of the one-liners and screen time. The movie drags at times filled with quirky one liners which I found un-funny and the montagy Mr. Miyagi interlude seemed out of place. Sometime the movie would play as straightforward revenge and then go straight into camp. It was a pure tone pacing weirdness.

But Kelexis Davenport as Pinky La Trimm a hulky black mama has gotta be the standout. How far these characters are from real life transgender Americans, I do not know. But stereotypical characters steroided up are always fun to watch no matter what orientation, race or gender you are.

So should you slice and dice your way to seeing Ticked-Off Trannies? It's got a few WTF moments in that anti-political correctness sorta way. Back in the 70s, nobody fuckin cared out what the hell was on the screen. Africans were portrayed as savages, Asians as tribal and cannibals and rednecks were portrayed as well.... rednecks.

What Trannies does is fuel the exploitation fire of making you view a world you'd never thought you'd ever see. Throw in some cleavage and gore and a few WTF moments it'll have you smiling at the end. I mean this isn't Boys Don't Cry or Brokeback Mountain here. Jeez.

I mean honestly who can really get a message out of a movie with a title like that?


Gore-ipedia

Knife trauma
Slice and Dice

Nude-ipedia


Nada

WTF moment

Umm trannies with knives?

The Jaded Viewer's Final Prognosis

The film was shot entirely in Dallas/FT Worth and Austin, Texas.

The movie will be in theaters in both NYC (starting 10/15) and LA (starting 10/22. It comes out on DVD 11/9. Here's the info on the LA screening.

OPENS OCT. 22, 2010
LAEMMLE'S SUNSET 5 THEATRE
8000 W Sunset Blvd
Los Angeles, California 90046
(323) 848-3500
TRT: 90 minutes

Purchase tickets at: http://www.laemmle.com/viewtheatre.php?thid=2

Rating:


Check out the trailer below!


Friday, March 13, 2009

Top 5 Rape and Revenge Movies of All Time


With the remake of The Last House on the Left coming out today, I'd figure I'd get you noobs caught up on this subgenre of exploitation films. For you jaded viewers, move along, these aren't the droids your looking for.

There seems to be a reimagining boom for this genre. Run Bitch Run comes out this year, plenty more will probably come up if Last House grosses a jillion dollars.

There's a few on this list that I'm not covering from what you can read here. I love how Wikipedia summarizes rape and revenge movies in the same ole 3 act structure:

  • Act I: A woman is raped/gang raped, tortured, and left for dead.
  • Act II: The woman survives and rehabilitates herself.
  • Act III: The woman kills all of her rapists.
But check out the trailers below to see whats come before.

Honorable mentions: I Spit on Your Grave, Dogville, the Virgin Springs

Also, House on the Edge of the Park should be on this list as well as it was #2 on my Top 10 Ruggero Deodato Movies of All Time. I've placed that as a bonus trailer at the bottom.

On to the list!

5.) Freeze Me (2000)

Why it kicks ass: Haven't seen it. But its directed by Takashi Ishi so its gonna be crazy right?


4.) Irreversible (2002)

Why it kicks ass: Gasper Noe's reverse chrono flick features Monica Belluci in a sick 20 minute plus rape scene and the most fraked up use of a fire extinguisher as a deadly weapon.

3.) They Call Her One Eye (aka Thriller a Cruel Picture) (1974)

Why it kicks ass: Starring the beautiful Christina Lindberg, this movie has everything you need in your revenge bent vixen: an eyepatch, a shotgun and she's frakin mute. What more needs to be said?

2.) The Last House on the Left (1972)

Why it kicks ass: Wes Craven's first movie delivers the exploitation goods. It should be watched in all its grindhouse glory and not in a shitty remake.

1.) Ms. 45 (1981)

Why it kicks ass: Abel Ferrara's masterpiece of NYC slime and crime. Zoe Lund plays Thana who gets raped twice and then goes all revengy armed in a nun's outfit and a .45. The ending is like an LSD trip of awesomeness.


IT'S A BONUS TRAILER!!!

House on the Edge of the Park which is a glorious #6.



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Monday, June 09, 2008

All Night Long Trilogy (Japanese Horror) (Reviews)

Ooru Naito Rongu aka All Night Long Trilogy.

Three movies (or 5 if you want to keep count) Matsumara's All Night Long Series is all about the very real and disturbing problem of bullying in Japan.

Each of the movies deals with the problem in some way.

Here are my and Insano Steve's original reviews:

All Night Long

All Night Long (1992)

Directed by Katsuya Matsumura

Japan is all fucked up. In a good way. Released in theatres in Japan this one shocked the fuck out of people.
Out of the trilogy this one has actual plot.

Three geeky students (one who even has Urkel glasses)
witness a brutal killing (great FX) of a classmate and are all traumatized by the experience.

They hang out, try to meet some girls and one of the guys girlfriend's gets tortured and raped.
Booyah! It's revenge time.



All Night Long 2: Atrocity (1995)

Directed by Katsuya Matsumura

Holy fuckin cow. This shit hit my top 5 movies on my all time disturbing list. NO PLOT! Sorta follows same revenge theme from ANL1.

Geeky kid who likes to grope Manga dolls gets bullied by this gay (y'know gay) ass kid and his hysterically crazy gang. Utilizing the Internet he tries to get help from some other hackers.

One of the most violent flicks I've ever seen. So many disturbing scenes, I shiver just thinking about them.

Sex slave torture, Samurai stabbings, Barry Bonds power blood swings with baseball bats...more blood and guts then you can handle.

All Night Long 3: Final Atrocity (1996)

Directed by Katsuya Matsumura

Fucking crazy Japanese at it again, this time with nerdy teen working in sleazy motel and collecting woman's trash including condoms, maxipads, food and other junk. Boy becomes obsessed with girl but can't talk to her because he's fucking nuts.

Using girl's garbage he creates a montage including pubic hair (!). Eventually as you'd expect, boy kidnaps girl and proceeds to express his love to her psychotically.

Not as pulsating as part 2 but has it's good share of moments.

Urination, sex, degradation, torture and rape (Japan loves their rape).

Rating (for all 3 movies):

The Trailer:



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Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Rewind: Ms. 45

Before there was Death Sentence or the soon to be released The Brave One, there was one vigilante movie that broke the mold. Straight out of NYC's grindhouse reels was Ms. 45.

Abel Ferrara's rape-revenge masterpiece is classic 70's grindhouse at its best.

Plagiarizing from the IMDB plot summary:

Plot:

A mute woman gets raped twice coming home from work and decides to take matters into her own hands. She dresses suggestively and roams the streets alone, reaking vengeance upon anyone who tries to take advantage of her. Eventually her secret life spills over into her regular life in the fashion industry.

Trailer:



Rewind the Insanity:

This movie is such great fun. Ferrara made this movie after Driller Killer (his NYC slasher killer masterpiece) and he goes into Repulsion, Last House on the Left (1972) and I Spit on Your Grave (aka Day of the Women) (1978) territory. Made in 1981, its full of vague vignettes and gritty NYC dialect conversation. Hoodlums, thugs, lowlives, pimps and degenerates. You gotta love NYC back in the late 70's early 80's. You get the feel for the times and the utter piece of shit decay of Gotham.

It's as fucked up as advertised. She does get raped....twice. Our killer protagonist Thana (played by the sexy Zoe Lund) kills her second attacker and grabs his gun and then she starts to go all Charles Bronson. Never has seeing a sexy fashionista mute woman holding a hand cannon look so good.

The ending is completely nuts and should be viewed multiple times. Decapitated head and all.

The Ending:



Rating:


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