The content of these pages is copyright © 1999-2007 by "KFC Cinema" and may not be copied or reprinted without the written consent of the publisher.

This site is in no way affiliated with Kentucky Fried Chicken"...

Copyright © Kung Fu Cult Cinema Ltd.

All other copyrights belong to their relevant owners, if you hold the copyright to something and would like it to be removed, then mail us.



 

Naked Blood

  Country : Japan
Year: 1995
Genre: Horror
Format: DVD
Running Time: 1H16
Distributor: Japan Shock
Date reviewed: 02/05/2002
   
Producer: Hirohiko Satô
Director: Toshiyasu Sato

Cast:
Misa Aika, Yumika Hayashi, Mika Kirihara, Sadao Abe, Masumi Nakao, Tadashi Shiraishi, Seiya Hiramatsu

 


Story: Eiji is a young and determined amateur scientist; his ultimate goal at the present is to develop the ultimate pain killer. With this serum, which simply consists of transforming the pain into pleasure, Eiji really thinks that he can change and help the whole of humanity. One day his hard work completed he decides that it is the time to test his new serum, which he called MySon in the memory of his dead father.

His mother, who is a professional scientist, is conducting medical and inoffensive experiment on three young women. Eiji decide to mix his serum MySon with the experimental product that his mother his working on. Eiji now just have to spy these women with a camera for the following days to take some note on the secondary effect of his miraculous potion. But thing get out of control when the girls start to hurt and mutilate themselves with a strange pleasure at doing it. Eiji, who during the following day befriend one of the three girls, decide that he has to do something to stop this madness.

Review: Not being a big fan of Japanese Gore-Sexploitation movies, I still found myself curious about these kinds of films. My last experience with these types of movies was a real disappointment but I decided to give a chance to another one, just for the heck of it. I was expecting again a horrible experience but this time it didn't turn out that bad, it was more enjoyable and tolerable than before. This time the movie centered more on the development of the story and the characters, unlike other movies of its genre that just try to show you exploiting useless rape scenes and extreme gore.

The movie starts very slow and takes the time to build up an interesting story about an ambitious young man who only thinks about himself and doesn't care of the consequence his actions. The story of Naked Blood has a lot of meaning in it and unlike other Japanese exploitation movies; Naked Blood uses its story not only to shock people but to make them think about the emotions of the characters. The movie may not have reinvented the genre but has at least accomplished to give us a decent story, something that most of the time was used as a pretext to show disturbing scenes.

Naked Blood, which is directed by Toshiyasu Sato, who take a step away from his regular rape-sex movies; delivers more than just a mindless exploitation movie this time. It would not be fair to see the movie as just another exploitation film but we can't hide the fact the Naked Blood is not the big meaningful movie that it has tried to be. The story is very simple in all but it also tries to surprise you with a couple of interesting twists and a good ending, at least that makes the story surprisingly enjoyable for that kind of film. Technically, the movie is also a lot better than what I expected. Some scenes looked really well and it was apparent that the director paid attention to what the movie will end up looking like. The movie is maybe not ground breaking in the cinematic department but it didn't look like an amateurish movie that most of these films look like generally. And for a movie filmed in less than 7 days, it was not too bad.

The biggest challenge that the movie had to overcome was to make the characters likable. A really big challenge since usually in these types of films most the characters are there just to be killed, raped or both. Eiji, the main character, which is the starting point of every atrocity happening in the story, was in general very well played and looked like one of those stereotypes disturbed Japanese teen kids. His mother was also great but was maybe the hardest character to understand, spending a lot of time in front of those old family videos to remember her lost husband, she was a little strange but never to a point of total annoyance and misunderstanding. The three main female actresses were probably the most important characters of the movie, since everything fell on them without warning. The story takes the time to let us know each one of them, telling us their problems and their joy in life, which will turn against them in their near future. Of the three girls, the movie centers more on Rika, the girl that Eiji will become obsessed with, she is also the strangest girl of the unfortunate trio.

The movie, which has a running time of only 75 min, is not filled of extreme gore from start to finish. The movie has a really slow buildup and really takes his time to let us understand the story and his characters. But when the gory scenes finally appear, they may not last very long but they are very intense and shocking. These short disturbing moments are very well made and some of these effects really look convincing on screen. A few examples of these scenes consist of extreme body piercing a la Night of the Living Dead 3, self mutilation, cannibalism, extreme burst of blood and more. Even if the movie has a lot of sexual allusions, there's only one sex scene in the whole movie. This scene, at least, was there for a reason and had some importance in the story, unlike other exploitation movies that like to throw at us rape scenes just for the fun of it. Amateurs of intolerable violence will enjoy these violent moments a lot, but as I said, there are only a few of these scenes in the entire movie. But maybe that was a good thing because I'm not sure If could have stand a full hour of sadistic violence of that level.

Mixing an interesting story concept with decent characters and well made shocking scenes, Naked Blood is not just another one of those extreme Japanese exploitation movies but also a movie that tried to push things in a different direction and have a small dose of intelligence in it. Giving the feeling that the spectator is a like Peeping Tom in this weird aggressive universe, Naked Blood holds and gains the difficult bet to be at the same time symbolistic, kind of poetic and shocking. Naked blood is for sure not everyone's cup of tea but if you are curious and like your gory/extreme movies with a decent dose of intelligence, you should give a try to this movie.

 

 

 

 

 

DVD [ Pal, All Region ] :


The Japan Shock release has a very average widescreen transfer which is a little blurry but not to a point of being very annoying. You also have a good original Japanese DD 2.0 and the English subtitles are very clear and easy to read. The extras only consist of the usual chapter selection and a picture gallery, so in all this release is a very decent version and don't fear getting the DVD if you want to see this movie.

Reviewed by Janick Neveu


Story Cast Entertainment Subtitles Overall
3 2.5 3.5 5 2.5


 

 

© 1999-2003 by “KFC Cinema”. All rights reserved.