Shogun's Joy Of Torture

Shogun's Joy of Torture (Tokugawa Onna Keibatsu-Shi) (1968)

Runtime: 96 minutes

Directed by: Teruo Ishii

Starring: Teruo Yoshida, Masumi Tachibana, Fumio Watanabe, Reiko Mikasa, Miki Obana

From: Toei

A.K.A. Watch Women Get Abused, The Movie.

I took a day off on Sunday to do other things; last night was something different: via Arrow's streaming service was a Japanese horror anthology (not the only anthology I'll view this month) that appeared to be on the trashy side—if only I knew. This does not help dispel the stereotypes concerning the Japanese and their sexual proclivities... the movie is full of women being tortured and abused, right from the opening where several random women are killed in graphic ways then there's a trio of segments where this continues. Yeah, there's an underlying message of “Punishing criminals shouldn't be so harsh” but it comes off as cynical and trite.

Those segments are: 

* A woman has to sell her body to help pay for care for her injured brother... oh yeah, there's also INCEST.

* There are bald lesbian nuns-no, really. A love triangle happens with a monk and the end result is poor for everyone involved.

* A lady is kidnapped by a great tattoo artist so he can create his masterpiece. Unlike the other bits, at least there are elements that play out differently than expected and feel more like the horror anthology moments I've seen frequently where there are sardonic moments.

It is not poorly made between the filmmaking craft behind the camera, the music, the 17th century Japanese setting brought to life, the performances, and the gory moments. Yet this did feel gross to me as it could accurately be considered “torture porn” between all the abuse shown and how many ladies are shown in states of undress. Lord knows I've seen trashy cinema before and plenty of moments in motion pictures where the opposite sex is treated awfully; it doesn't always bother me yet in this case it seemed like a shower was needed afterwards... and I don't mean a cold one. Some will find this more appealing than I do-as always YMMV. At least it gets an “eh” reaction rather than pure revulsion, at least.

Oh, and my eyebrows were raised when during the final segment, it was white women who are tortured; they were in Japan to try and convert people to Christianity. Never did I think before hitting “play” on the stream that a valid comparison could be made to Silence!