Fresh and Exciting

Best movie ever!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

One movie I keep going back to time and again is Yasuharu Hasebe's Assault! Jack The Ripper (Boko Kirisaki Jakku). It's one of those films that I really get drawn into from start to end, as the storyline IMHO is so much more than the standard Pink Violence fare. Setting aside the assaults and murder it really is a bit of a romance. Meeting each other while employed together at a French themed coffee house, the tiny yet comforting apartment, spaghetti dinner and watching B&W telly....and oh how I miss Coca Cola in the hourglass bottles! Dunno, maybe it's just daily life during the late Showa era that holds so much fascination for me. But the film is so very much 'atmospheric' in other ways as well. The rainstorm during the drive home (along with the memorable squeal and chatter of wet drum brakes and distinct whir of a Datsun gearbox in reverse), hanging the wash out with a light evening breeze rustling through the balcony doorway, picnic and lovemaking on the invitingly lush grass-plot of a....um....cemetery, and at the plaza overpass you can practically feel the cool night air mixing with the remaining warmth rising up from the asphalt and traffic below. This truly is a visually beautiful film and one that stirs many nostalgic memories of 1970s Japan. There's such a connection drawn with the two main characters portrayed that they have my affinity throughout, irregardless of their savage calling. I take delight in how their individual personalities clash yet blend so well at times. Opposites can attract (23 years with my lovely missus will attest to that). Yutaka Hayashi and Tamaki Katsura were the perfect pair for this film both in presence and appearance. Even the busty but rather plain Tamaki is especially cute with her 'poodle' hair cut! Needless to say further this is very possibly my favourite film, whether part of an all day movie marathon or just on in the background while milling about with household chores =^.^=

Assault! Jack the Ripper (1976) ** (out of 4) Original Title: Bôkô Kirisaki Jakku Perversely sexual and violent, this Japanese film has a reputation as being one of the stronger "pinku" movies out there. The story centers on a cook and a waitress who one night accidentally run over a crazed hitchhiker. The two find themselves being turned on by death and blood so they keep killing women and borrow the trademark of Jack the Ripper by cutting them from their private areas on up. I just recently became aware of these pinku Japanese movies so I' doing research on which ones to start with and this here seemed to have pretty good reviews but in the end I was somewhat let down. The one part of its reputation that it lives up to is the rather bizarre sexual nature of the film. There are quite a few sex scenes here, which come off very perverted and sleazy even though nothing hardcore, or really softcore for that matter, happens. The lead actress, who's name I can't find anywhere, has a rather amazing body so seeing her strip off certainly wasn't a negative thing. Her round face also comes in quite handy because she looks so innocent yet is as deadly as they come. Her performance is quite good as is her co-star but yet again I couldn't find his name among various reviews I read. I think the most disappointing aspect is that the film really isn't all that violent. Yes, the aftermath of a woman being sliced up and down is pretty grim but very little of it is actually shown. Usually we see a minor stab wound and then the rest happens off camera and then we go back for the aftermath. I've read reviews saying the film was ultra violent and downright raw and nasty but I didn't find that to be the case. The biggest problem however is that the film runs 71-minutes and really doesn't have enough of a story to fill that short time. The movie starts to feel rather long because we keep going through the same thing of a murder, sex, a murder, more sex and so on.

Everyone with an eye to see this film will no doubt have heard about how brutal, violent and shocking it is; and after seeing it, I've got to say that Assault! Jack the Ripper lives up to its reputation. I've no idea what the title is alluding to, but to surmise the film; it's an unflinching depiction of murder and rape that is all the more shocking because of the fact that most of the film is really quite realistic. The film is a part of the 'pinky' genre that was popular in Japan around the sixties and seventies, but unlike many of these films; this is not amusing or 'fun' - Assault! Jack the Ripper goes straight for the jugular! The plot focuses on two restaurant employees. While out together one night, they accidentally murder a hitch-hiker. The pair soon realise that murder is their mutual aphrodisiac, and from there the murders continue as the restaurateurs begin an unflinching rampage of rape and murder, with any random stranger unlucky enough to be in their way the victim! Naturally, this relationship doesn't last too long...The only place the film is lacking is on the actual 'money shots' - we don't get to see the protagonist stab his victims in the crotch, and the reason for that is down to the Japanese penal code - which states that no full frontal nudity can be shown in films. This is a shame both for this film and just about every other Japanese exploitation film ever made. However, director Yasuharu Hasebe doesn't let that stop him delivering the shocks. The lack of full frontal nudity is more than made up for by the brutal violence and the film features plenty. It's not a particularly gory movie, but there's plenty of stabbing and butchery going on to please the gorehounds. The atmosphere is dirty and sleazy throughout and this compliments the brutal action nicely. The film is very short at just seventy two minutes, but this is not really a bad thing. The plot is very thin and while there's more than enough to keep the audience entertained for the time that it's on for, any longer and the film may have ended up grinding to a halt considering the thin plot line. Overall, I'm not raving about this film; but it lives up to its reputation and I wasn't disappointed by it.

It certainly isn't love at first sight when two restaurant employees meet each other on a rainy night. She's an arrogant waitress who yells at customers and he's a shy and introvert cook who's reluctant to drive her home after work. But when they accidentally kill a crazed hitch hiker and hide her corpse, they discover murder is a mutual aphrodisiac and fall head-over-heels in love. However, their sex-life only properly functions when the blood of innocent women is shed and thus they start a vagina-stabbing killing spree across the city. Things get even more out of control when the shy cook turns into a unstoppable psychopath who goes out vag-stabbing all by himself. "Assault! Jack The Ripper" definitely is a mean-spirited and tremendously sleazy pinku classic, but in all honestly, I expected a little more spectacle considering its rough reputation. Due to budgetary restrictions, we sadly don't see how the women get stabbed in the crotch with the razor-sharp buttering knife, but the uncanny thrusting noises as well as the women's agonizing facial expressions leave very few to the imagination. The multiple sequences in which defenseless ladies are pursued, beaten, raped and eventually stabbed quite rank among the most misogynistic and relentless images ever shown on motion picture. I can't wait to see more movies from director Yasuharu Hasebe, as he seemed to specialize in ultra-violent pinku film, such as "Rape! The 13th Hour" and "Black Tight Killers". The two leads give away splendid performances and provide the film with steaming hot sex sequences, demented dialogs and blackly comical undertones. The odd and rather inappropriate disco-soundtrack is awesome and the cinematography is steady. The outrageous finale, in which the guy completely goes berserk and literally butchers a room full of young nurses, will be loved by all us depraved fans of extreme cinema.