Daddy's Pride and Joy

A father seriously lacking intestinal fortitude has a tough time dealing with his daughter's murderous nature.

Although he finds a solution to his 'problem', the solution, like many solutions, creates many more problems.

I'm going into production on this film towards the end of the year. I'm very excited by the prospect.

Righting Wrongs Via Mutilation (Pond Scum)

The Pond Scum (CineNature; 2013) shoot is coming to end.

This past weekend, force of nature Renae Boult finally addressed a very murky chapter in her character's checkered life. 

It was definitely 'Ladies' Day' on the Pond Scum set, and these ladies finally faced a rather shocking truth about their pasts.

More than a year in the making, the film has been blessed with stellar performances from Renae Boult, Paul Fanning, Ward Boult, Vida Gaffari, Jacqui Fanning, and the indefatigable Marc Edward Heuck 

The Delicious Hell of Jun Hayami

Extraordinary imagery from Jun Hayami's BLOODSTAINED ANGELS (2011), available in the US from akatako.net

Perhaps better than any other Japanese artist, Hayami captures intense, cruel, vile, sociopathic sexuality that also has its opposite, an opposite rarely allowed by mainstream media.

The artistry is absolute, consistent, and troubling in the very best way.

Definitely not for all tastes, each work is a voyage into illustrated hell.

Thankfully, the only real hurt is to the trees from which the paper comes.

The Saddest Labyrinth of Grim Life

 

Jun Hayami's  Beauty Labyrinth of Razors has been somewhat of an untouchable, Holy Grail publication for me. It is said that Creation Books released a version of it limited to 69 copies, but I've been unable to acquire it because I refuse to pay the current eBay asking price of $400. My primary objection to handing over four hundred bucks is a story that the work is partially censored for "highly objectionable content". Creation Books has been sheepish about all aspects of the book's release, so the truth of their edition remains elusive.

 

Fortunately, thanks to the amazing akatako.net, I've finally acquired the original, totally uncut Japanese edition of the book.

Expecting unbridled extremity, I was a little disappointed in the content, but now that I've perused it several times, looking for clues to its infamy, I can confidently say that it is one of the saddest, darkest, most wretched tomes of true horror I've seen in many a blue moon.

 

It is a collection of close to a dozen tales of heinous behavior directed mostly towards women. Men are depicted as lecherous, foul beasts, and Hayami's world view is bleak and anxiety-ridden. Although the women suffer terribly, the men often end up as crushed, gaping shells of viscera.

Some of the art is detailed and some of it is spare and simple. Various pieces feel like they've been hijacked from Panorama of Hell, Hideshi Hino's earth-shattering last word on grim.

If you've already exposed yourself -- God help you! -- to Japan's Guro genre, some of the content of Razors will not be unfamiliar. Although artists such as Waita Uziga, Horihone Saizou, Kaneyama Shim, and Shintaro Kago have produced equally graphic, incendiary content, few of their works have bled from the soul as furiously as this one (with the exception of the same artist's Maggot Hole, An Ugly Daughter Like Me, and Hentai Shounen.

 

Sometimes we don't understand why we take the journey, but we are mindful of the need to at least consider what represents a destination.

Not a manga or even Japanese, Joseph Scott Morgan's Blood Beneath My Feet is a fine companion piece to Razors. 

Exploring mortality from a coroner's cold perspective, it finds literary salvation in steaming human fluids and splattered DNA.

Morgan writes with the direct poetry of Jim Thompson and the candor of Selby Jr. and Bukowski.

Zoom Up: Rape Site

This Zoom Up: Rape Site poster is subtly spectacular with its color foreground and chillingly colorless background.

This Koyu Ohara flick, which gave Nikkatsu many headaches, is not on DVD, VHS, or Blu-Ray.

For an enterprising distributor, this is THE pick of the bunch.

Although available in Japan, Ohara's White Rose Campus: Then, Everybody Gets Raped is also begging for broader Western exposure.

The Earliest Works of Toshio Saeki

 

This had been eluding me for some time, but I finally got my hands on it, and I was not disappointed.

Saeki's very early works lack none of the perverse imagination of his later creations, and it's inspiring to see how themes have remained constant.  

 

For mine, nobody blends the grotesque with the erotic as sincerely as Saeki, although I am certainly not discounting the beautiful and eclectic work of Suehiro Maruo, Jun Hayami, Hiroaki Samura.

 

Saeki's art, for me, is the purest extension of Japanese woodcuts, and explores the theme of man/woman/beast unions with a commitment that's sometimes dizzying for its freshness.

 

The best of the best mines the darkest human catacombs and excavates the brittle beauty of fresh experience. 

I've written extensively on this blog about Saeki, 

so use the search function if you want to see more.