Director Toshiharu Ikeda Is Dead

I received some very sad news this morning from my Japanese friend Tomoaki Hosoyama. He informed me that Toshiharu Ikeda, a director of more than 20 feature films, had committed suicide by drowning at the age of 59.

Ikeda is probably best known in the West for his horror film Evil Dead Trap (Shiro no wana; '88), a bizarre and inventive splatter flick released by Synapse Films. With its focus on complex killing techniques within a maze-like setting, it clearly provided inspiration for the Saw films and their ilk.

My favorite work of his is Mermaid Legend (Ningyo densetsu; '84), a surreal, bloody revenge fantasy that has been little seen outside its country of orgin. It's a poetic, often brutal study of a wronged woman fighting corporate oppressors in a seaside setting. Ikea's suicide by drowning (the mind boggles!) renders the subject matter of Mermaid Legend just a little bit spookier than it already was. A non-subtitled DVD of the film, a masterpiece in my humble opinion, was released by Geneon.

 
Ikeda began his career as a pink film director and helmed the startling Sex Hunter ('80), surely one of the most audacious and erotic pink flicks of the period. It focused on a kidnapped ballerina who is forced into sexual servitude and liberated by her captors. It is one of the most elegant and exotic pink films of the period and features a volcanically hot young actress.

Quite a controversial work, the trailer recently appeared in America on Synapse Films' Nikkatsu Roman Porn Trailer Collection. There no indication that the company will be releasing the feature itself. The feature is available, though, from Geneon.

Also of interest and worth catching is Ikeda's Angel Guts: Red Porno (Tenshi no harawata: Akai inga; '81), an entry in the series that is top heavy with female masturbation and rugged S&M scenes. Unfortunately, it's not up there with the best in the series, but it can boast a number of graphic rape scenes that are stunningly photographed. 

 

 

In addition to directing Beautiful Prey and Beautiful Beast, Ikeda also contributed to the 'Female Prisoner Scorpion' series with 91's Female Prisoner Scorpion: Death Threat (Joshuu sasori: Satsujin yopkoku).

The late director's final work was Akifukaki ('08),  a confused but ambitious film mixing breast cancer, love, and horse racing.
 
It is terribly sad when when another Apostle of Pulp leaves our midst.

RIP, Toshiharu Ikeda. You will be missed, and your work will endure.

The Force of Desire

My first exposure to Yasuharu Hasebe's Assault - Jack The Ripper (Boko Kirisaki Jack) was a VHS tape from Japan. A Japanese director, who has become a great friend, sent me the tape in '97. He was sure I would love it.

He wasn't wrong.

Until recently, Hasebe was best known in the West for Black Tight Killers, a girl gang film with a whodunit plot. It's watchable and inventive, but nothing extraordinary.

Assault- Jack The Ripper is one of four Hasebe classics that revolve around the subject of rape -- hetero- and homosexual rape. It is most certainly extraordinary.

Nikkatsu produced hundreds of low budget films under the "roman porno" (Romantic Pornography) label. All are focused on sexuality, usually of a deviant nature. Some, such as 1979's Star of David -- Beauty Hunting (Dabideno hoshi: Bishojo-gari) are brutal, erotic, and bloody.

Others, such as Toshiharu Ikeda's Sex Hunter (1980) are elegant and twisted.

Hasebe's unofficial "rape quadrilogy" is comprised of: Rape (Okasu!)

Assault - Jack The Ripper (Boko Kirisaki Jack)

Raping! ( Yaru!)

...and Rape - 13th Hour (Reipu 25-ji: boukan), easily the most unusual of the bunch as it features homosexual biker rape.

All four films were made quickly between 1976 and 1978. They redefined the genre so thoroughly that Nikkatsu copped a lot of flack for their vicious, unrepentant content. The studio did not produce anything quite so vicious again until Koyu Ohara's Zoom Up - Rape Site (Zuma appu: boko genba).

In Assault - Jack The Ripper (1976), a homely but sexually precocious young woman encourages a shy man to commit acts of rape and murder with her. They form a partnership that is doomed.

The mixture of sex and violence is powerful and erotic; Hasebe does not attempt to de-eroticize the violence; nor does he depict it explicitly. The film is big on crotch stabbings, but not once do we see a knife penetrate flesh.

As is common and natural for art depicting sexuality, especially Japanese art, garments and undergarments are heavily fetishized. When the film's "heroes" knock a tennis player off her bicycle with their car, Hasebe jumps in for a close-up of her white, cotton panties as she falls to the ground. He emphasizes sexual anticipation, but denies it completion.

All sex in Hasebe's violent pink world is forced and unwelcome. When it is not, it is the subject of voyeurism. In Rape (1976), the heroine, who is recovering from a rape, gets turned on by secretly watching her boss screw a co-worker. Her excitement incites her desire, yet also reminds her how easily sex can become brutality. She is conflicted. This conflict is a consistent theme in the director's work.

The heroine of Assault becomes more desirable to the hero because she allows (permits?) him to express his anger and sexuality without boundaries.

Trouble enters paradise when his cravings, now fully unleashed, exclude her participation... and no longer require her "permission" -- so the bond is severed.

Psychology aside, Assault - Jack The Ripper is a truly great horror film with a rousing, 70's-style jazz score, beautifully staged violence, and stellar performances.

If Hasebe is referencing even one American film in his violent pink masterpiece, it is Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974). A scene involving a mental patient who is given a ride by our heroes has many similarities to the hitchhiker scene in the '74 film. Where Hooper emphasized physical and mental violence, Hasebe emphasizes sexual violence and desire as a type of delicious but deadly contagion.

Even though Assault is the best of a fabulous four, I rate Raping! (1978) very highly, too. It is easily the most erotic of the bunch and exceptionally inventive. A lengthy sequence involving voyeurism and two-way mirrors at a love hotel is brilliantly directed. Rape features an excellent villain and a moody, glum atmosphere that was imitated slavishly in Yojiro Takita's Serial Rape (Renzoku Boko; 1983). Rape - 13th Hour suffers from stop/start pacing and lackluster direction (it feels like Hasebe's well of invention had run dry by this 4th installment).


The Geneon DVD (Japan, GNBD-1296) of Assault is a flawless presentation of the film; it is not subtitled.

The Mondo Macabro DVD (USA, MDO 135) also features an excellent presentation of the film; it is subtitled in English.

The Geneon DVD of Rape - 13th Hour (Japan, GNBD- 1327) is flawless also, but not subtitled.