ThiefHott Too much of everything

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

ebiros2 The movie directed by Teruo Ishii was part of series of very radical erotic violence movies that he directed for Toei studio in the late '60s and early '70s.The story is an edit on many novels written by Edogawa Ranpo (who got his name from Edgar Alan Poe), but gathered fans and has become a popular story since it was made. Kogoro Akechi is the main protagonist that appears in many of Ranpo's novels.Kogoro Akechi has somewhat become like the Sherlock Homes of Japan. Becoming the focus of many mystery drama with even new stories invented like this one long after the death of his creator.This is a pretty interesting story, and no wonder it still garners fan base. It's an improbably story, but it carries the essence of Ranpo's novel that contains strange and unusual situation, and characters. Actors, and acting are first rate, and has the over the top craziness that director Ishii is known for, that makes this movie worth watching.It's not a mainstream movie by any means, but is an interesting movie from the '60s Japan.

ahoodwink A horrible waste of time. I'm all for non-linear narratives, but this made no sense and never paid off. Characters have beards or an eye patch in one scene, then not in the next. You can't tell which characters actually exist, or who they are to each other. There's no coherent visual style, or rhythm, or any logic whatsoever. The Butoh dancers are probably supposed to be "artsy" or intense, but they just come off as silly, capering about with great commitment and no discernible purpose.While there's some resemblance to the Dr. Moreau story, this movie is too goofy to be shocking, and too disorganized to ever build up any fear or potency.What you do get: a random, unintelligible story, bad special effect violence, and a fair number of bare tits. (That actually makes it sound better than it is.)

rwagn This film has some beautiful imagery and a nice dreamlike quality at times. There is also much Japanese symbolism and dance. That sums up the recommendation. On the down side, nothing much happens in this movie. There are some crappy "Manimals" that look like something that escaped from a road show version of "The Lion King". There's a lot of crabs, a couple of bones, an adulterous wife chained in a dark cave with the decomposing corpse of her lover and an incestuous brother and sister who commit suicide by sitting on top of sky fireworks. Add to this a demented "scientist" who looks like a yard gnome and has Disney dreams of grandeur. You have been warned. I don't know what content got this filmed banned as the nudity is PG and the atrocities are stated and not shown. It was OK for a one time view but I can't see me sitting through this one again. Sayanara!

christopher-underwood Well, where to begin? This notorious Japanese horror has finally surfaced and our first concern is what was so terrible that kept it banned for so long? Made just over 20 years after the atomic bomb was exploded over Hiroshima, some of this film looks as if some of the short-lived survivors might have made it to the set. Both the way the deformity issue is enthused over here and the clear connection with the bomb attack, make this a true horror. We begin with vivid scenes inside a mental institution but then the film settles down into a creepy mystery before cracking open about half an hour in, whence we find ourselves in the Mexican, Jodorowsky territory, and then worse. This film is not particularly well written and is uneven and occasionally rather silly but nevertheless this is still a work of some considerable power. A one off and a must see for those not easily shocked.