Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu's grisly Yakuza-infused pinku eiga, Entrails of a Beautiful Woman/Bijo no harawata.
12 years ago I wrote up a short piece about Komizu's other "splattery pinku eiga", Entrails of a Virgin (1986)

A former protégé of the prolific Koji Wakamatsu, Kazuo is renowned for his "splatter eros" films. Entrails of a Beautiful Woman is something of a spiritual successor to the previously mentioned Entrails of a Virgin; the similarities stop at both films having the same director, alike titles and posters that look as though they are two halves of a single image. The two plots are also completely unconnected and entirely different. I think both movies actually compliment each other in this respect. Where Virgin employs a more dense, richer atmosphere with echos of supernatural horror à la The Evil Dead (1981), mixed with softcore porn; Entrails of a Beautiful Woman is a bawdy, drug induced delirium of Yakuza-thriller, goopy monster-horror mixed with softcore porn.

Starring: Megumi Ozawa, Ayako Ishii, Seira Kitagawa, Ken Yoshizawa, Shinji Sekikawa, Kazuhiro Sano, Yoshinari Yoshie and Kimiya Kôdagawa.



From the outset the film aims to get under your skin, and it succeeds with a psychologically crude and primal method. The opening scene is that of offal being diced-up on a chopping block, with an emphatically juicy sound effect to accompany it. A quick cut, and we're watching Yoshioka (Ken Yoshizawa), the head of the Ichiyama clan taking a great ungracious slurp of water from a glass. We watch whilst he greedily and noisily tucks into his meal, the scene is accentuated by close-ups of his lips smacking, slurping, guzzling and gasping. The title card then appears on-screen as if to confirm your disgust. We watch him for a few more moments before he gets up, pays a guy at the restaurant counter and exits. This is only the first 2 minutes, an effective opening that gets your hackles up and your stomach on edge without watching anything more than food being prepared and a man eating it.

I'm want to spend bit of time to talk about the plot and a few things that intrigued me therein, so bear with! The Gang Boss, after leaving the restaurant and catching a cab, meets up with the rest of the Ichiyama clan at their hideout. A young girl named Yoshimi (Seira Kitagawa) is being held captive after trying to find out what happened to her sister. It transpires that the Ichiyama are involved in more than just drugs, they also dabble in human trafficking and sold her sister in Africa via Manilla. Yoshimi is taunted and molested by a few underlings, before being raped by a clan member who sports a vast and colourful back tattoo. A nice touch of characterisation. She's then shot-up with a drug nicknamed "Angel Rain" and told she will be sold next. The drug appears to give the recipient a high similar to that of cocaine, but also makes them sex-crazed.



The SFX used to convey the effects of "Angel Rain" on the human body is ingenious and surprisingly effective; a short blast of air is fired onto the actor's face, arms or legs to simulate an over-the-top, violent and uncontrollable set of muscle spasms. The effect is later expanded upon with a more complex SFX to show engorged pulsing veins.

Another quick cut to a no longer captive Yoshimi staggering up a shadowy street in nothing but a tattered blouse and panties. She finds her way to the "Aquarium Clinic Hospital", where she meets Hiromi (Megumi Ozawa), a female psychologist who takes her in. There's a brief exposition scene as she relates to Hiromi the story of how her sister was nabbed and sold by the Yakuza. Yoshimi quickly gets up; her mind and seemingly her body craving another dose of "Angel Rain", she runs to the top of the building and commits suicide by throwing herself from the roof.
There's a brief but inopportune shot of a watermelon hitting shattering against concrete, which although given the subject matter feels more humorous than harrowing, a pity.



From hereon Hiromi appoints herself as Yoshimi's avenger and sets out on a path of retribution against the Yakuza clan. I found this to be an interesting concept for a plot device because the character of Hiromi has no relation to Yoshimi. They're not friends or family, there is no underlying reason why she would place herself in such danger for somebody she doesn't really know. The only actual bond, or common factor they have is that they're both female. I'm not sure if it was intended to be interpreted this way at all, but the contrast of a woman single-handedly taking on a widely male-dominated Yakuza clan as justice for the woman they fell is riveting.

Her revenge trip is momentarily paused when she too becomes a victim of the Ichiyama clan, and finds herself in the same situation as Yoshimi back at the beginning of the film. Hiromi is gang-raped by just about every member of the clan, including Yoshioka's moll, before being shot-up with a mammoth dose of "Angel Rain" which appears to be fatal. Gang Boss Yoshioka, issues the order for Hiromi's body to be dumped, along with the hacked up remains of Higashi (Kazuhiro Sano), a clan member she had earlier put under hypnosis, and programmed to kill whoever next called him an "idiot". There's a lot of wild ideas thrown into the pan with Entrails of a Beautiful Woman, and if you thought that was a lot, it's at this point when things become very unconventional.



It turns out that the overdose of "Angel Rain" didn't kill Hiromi, but actually gave her the ability to transform into an inside-out-looking hermaphroditic monster. Using all of these newly acquired powers; monster strength, monster penis (complete with gnashing teeth) and monster vagina, she embarks on a bloody crusade of vengeful havoc against the members of the Ichiyama clan, and beyond. Each kill is uniquely memorable given their absurdity and gruesomeness. I dare you to not let out a cheer during a scene that's an honourable nod to Alien (1979).

Building upon the concept I mentioned earlier, which was posited from a more inherently feminist angle about the character of Hiromi avenging the death of the stranger, Yoshimi, because she is sympathetic to the plight of a fellow female, enough to enact her own notion of justice. The idea becomes all the more interesting when her character, through a perceived death, transforms into a hermaphroditic creature, or is it inversely a creature of no sex, or one that has control of its sex; a physical sexual autonomy, unbound by gender completely, to ensure the defeat of a predominantly male crime organisation.

During the final moments of the film there's a transformation sequence that features some neat quick cuts, alternately flicking between Hiromi and the monster in the same pose on the floor. Sure, it's not original, you've seen it happen in countless other films where a character mutates or changes, but it was a nice little way to round out the film.



One thing that really stood out was the set design for the clan hideout. All the walls are black, and the way in which it's staged and shot you can't see a single thing beyond the immediately illuminated area; it gives those scenes a unique appearance, as though it's happening in a space outside of time. What parts you can see look absolutely squalid too; complete with a dirty mattress in the middle of the floor, rusty barrels with chains draped over them and a random assortment of wooden crates lying around. Bravo!

Performances in the film are decent, no-one is really head and shoulders above anybody else. The soundtrack gave me a peculiar feeling, as if I had heard a few of the cues before but I can't for the life of me think where. The monster and gore effects are great, the fall somewhere on the Peter Jackson "Splatstick" side of gruesomeness, think: Bad Taste (1987) & Braindead (1992), it's just a shame that it takes more than half of the movie to get there. There's 2 in particular scenes that suffer from the dreaded "fogging" censorship, but as mentioned in my review for Entrails of a Virgin, sometimes less is more!

Given the short runtime of a lean 68 minutes there's no reason to not check this out. I'd argue that because it's a shorter film, where nothing feels padded or drawn out, it's a tad more enjoyable than Entrails of a Virgin. It would also make a great double bill with Komizu's other film from the same year, the gooey, tentacle monster menacing young girls, Guzoo: The Thing Forsaken by God - Part I (1986).