Angel Guts : High School Co-Ed. R1 USA DVD Review.

The second of the "Angel Guts" reviews for the Artsmagic boxset due late March 05.

The first in the relatively long line of Angel Guts movies, directed by Chusei Sone, is a far more literal and familiar looking film that Takashi Ishiis' self-directed "Red Dizziness". This time around the story centres on three young male gang members, Sada (the knife weilding, sunglass wearing, impotent buffer between his friends), Kawashima (the man caught between responsibility and immorality, caring for his young teenage sister Megu singlehandedly) and Kaji (the truly psychopathic murdering rapist on a pathway to distruction).

Nami, the pivotal character, as appears in each of the Angel Guts films is truly crucial to the overall story, although her screen time is minimal and comes during the film rather than from the offset. It's how she attracts and is at the centre of the gangs increasingly destructive relationship with one another that makes interesting viewing.

This time Nami is a high school girl, typically attired in a Sailors-style uniform. As Kaji selects or "targets" his next rape victim, Kawashima steps in to protect her from an attack. Sada seems to completely underestimates her incredibly quiet, strong and moral qualities - the cause of a more natural and loving attraction for Kawashima. Having said that, Kawashima is of course being pushed and pulled between his fellow gang members and their chosen way of life, and his own desire to break free and settle down to working adult life. So, both tempted by her as a sex-object and protective of her as an individual, it's this that causes her to appear to smash into the gangs relationships.

It would seem that in each film of the series that as Nami appears she will have a different position within the story, and that the central role isn't to be taken so literally. There's the oppportunity here to show that wherever the character is within the narrative, her strength of mind, ability to survive and her general approach to how men treat her will leave others who may seem more lively in nature looking thoroughly inhuman.

Another major lesson about Japanese cinema is also on display here, and it's the most interesting part of this film. Japan must have a superb ability to produce and market a film at a specific audience with great success, or they wouldn't have the confidence to produce something which could so clearly be misused or mispercieved by an audience ill-prepared or overly familiar with its' content. If the audience was too old for the film it would be as though it was preaching to the converted. Anyone stuck before the age of the characters portrayed could see it as a thrilling sex-romp, and miss the morality underlying the film. The audience for this film has to be teenage to early twenties : motorbikes, knifes, irresponsibility, the time directly before adulthood, hormones galore and crime that has an extreme nature and consequences.

The setting for the film is largely outdoors, the gang riding motorbikes around, giving a sense of freedom from the constraints of a typical adult life. the film shows this freedom as though it should be used with responsibility. As the gang roams they daily select a woman as a rape victim. Sada is enjoying the ride and having a laugh as his friends get their kicks. Kawashima looks dragged along and torn, though largely goes long with events. Kaji is the main problem as he has no regard for women as anything other than a sex object, describing them as "sacks of shit and guts" at several points. Kawashima clearly falls for Nami but it enticed to rape her in apology to his friends for intially letting her go when first targetted. This sets him at odds with Kaji and Sada, and they don't intend to take their eye off the target. However important the relationship between their friend and Nami may have become, they choose instead to clash head on with one another.

As the story gets more and more extreme and the relationships more and more dangerous, the director uses black and white sequences to show flashbacks. It's as though he is literally showing negative consequences and memories which have resulted from their actions. The film rolls on, we see more and more negative moments, and ultimately it's the final sequence that sets the whole thing into perspective. At this point the director seems intent on saying "well, if you don't get how these guys were so wrong by now then you're a lost case". The kinetic direction is reminiscent of Kinji Fukasakus' yakuza movies, allowing the film to flash by and stick in the memory.

I can see how many will take this film on a purely exploitation level, but ultimately theres very moralistic undertones. The writer and director have been remarkably restrained and thoughtful considering the subject matter and the pace at which the action takes place. If you find yourself thrilled then you've been caught in the flytrap. If you don't at some point completely change your mind about the gangs activities then something inside you must not understand whats is being laid out as an incredibly destructive path.

Overall, the film is very questionable on the surface, but delve deeper and see there so much more being said. It's a great method of persuasion to get the audience in the cinema and watching the film only to turn their potentialy negative identification with the characters on its head in dramatic stlye and leave them feeling guilty if they ever though such behaviour was acceptable.

The Manga influence remains strong here. There's the tight narrative surrounding very few people. Odd camera angles and visual styles. Cheap thrills : sex, violence, death, motorbikes, crazy behaviour and so on. Hidden depths and morality tales : adulthood, responsibility issues, care for others, love, and bad friendships. It's a quick easy slice of someone elses life with something relating to your own, no matter how you happen to be living it.

Hopefully, at the time this was made (1978) Japanese teenagers weren't either so dramatically naive and protected as to need a film to give them these lessons, or so out of control that this seems familiar and almost "normal". Alternatively, this could be a simple case of the Japanese being much more aware of, and therefore very accepting of, irresponsible behaviour on film as they more clearly identify it as not being reality in a literal sense. It's clearly very much a product of the time and place in which it was made, at risk but also all the better for the rate at which it has been created. There's little that's contrived or calculated, and a remarkable sense of freedom on display.

It is a great little film in the end, just thoroughly odd and extreme. I enjoyed it alot, and although left torn to some extent, am sure it's the more accesible of the two films i've watched so far. Chusei Sone knows how to put something of substance and style together on a small budget in a small time-frame.

The pace is fast and frantic, the action well directed and dynamic in its approach. Visual style was heavily used but not heavy-handed. The sound, again clearly overdubbed to a large extent. The characters are perfectly believable, and very well fleshed-out and defined. Narrative is well written and considered, and clearly the basis by which such small scale and low budget productions become solid films. A great example of the genre, and the first time i have seen one of what would normally be considered the more obviously questionable Japanese movies of the 1970s. Very enjoyable stuff.