Angel Guts : Red Classroom. R1 USA DVD Review.

The third of my reviews for the Artsmagic release of the five Nikkatsu produced "Angel Guts" films.

This time around Chusei Sone, also the director of the first Angel Guts film, gets his input into the script in a more obvious manner. The result contains all the familiar elements blended together in the usual confusing amalgamation. Released just six months after the first film in the series, it's clear that it's a common characteristic of the romanporno genre that films come thick and fast. Infact, looking into this, Nikkatsu produced four such titles a month all year round for some considerable time. Release dates were often set well in advance, even before completion of a script, allowing them to specifically targetted at a time of year and therefore a particular age group too.

Tetsuo Muraki is a small-fry pornographic magazine worker, with a small team of co-workers. It's not immediately obvious how he regards his situation or how it has a hold on his life, and it's never entirely explained to the extent that you are left wondering if he is clear on the subject himself.

A long lingering sequence of an underground porn film flicks by, only to cut to show a group of men sat in a room all admiring the gentle, feminine face on the screen. The woman is clearly heavily traumatised, yet shows a quiet diginity and strength which is strangely beautiful to them. It inspires sympathy and suggests eroticism at the same time. Muraki, like so many men who see the film, imagine it to be as fake as anything they themselves have seen elsewhere in other films, or in magazines. They are impressed by the production values, the acting or performance, and all are falling in love with the woman they see on screen.

A chance encounter leads Nami and Muraki to meet, and after initial misunderstandings, they agree to meet again the following day and start their relationship afresh. They obviously show an instinctive understanding of one another. The film goes on to pose questions about the difference between the portrayal and reality of such acts, and how they may affect different parties that happen to be involved.

Muraki is to some extent resentful of his job, and is getting more and more locked into it. He recognises both the opportunity to exploit Nami for his work, and more importantly the dangers which she faces. He seems more aware of the dangers she faces than those he faces himself.

In "Red Classroom" there's the slightest of confusing plots, huge swathes of almost dialogue-free sequences and the strangest love story. For circumstances beyond either of their control, Muraki and Nami find themselves in a more deeply destructive lifestyle three years after their initial meeting. Muraki is shocked to find Nami spiralling into allowing herself to be abused by the men around her, those she has unwitingly put herself amongst, and perhaps those attracted to her emotionally "switched-off" state. She is in a period of self preservation and increasing danger.

Muraki still wants to save her, take her away from her life, but he himself is now married and has a young daughter to care for, and is equally as locked in his life. He has begun to show stronger signs of wanting to escape, and is showing the realisation that the path he has been on has a stronger hold on him than he intially realised.

It's the most difficult of the three Angel Guts films i have seen to totally pin down. It hovers strangely between ambiguous and hazy scenes of depravity and difficult decisions about lifestyle choices that become increasingly hard to make. The direction is solid and more than simply funtional, utilising largely enclosed scenes wether indoors or outdoors. Colour is plastered on in small panels across darkly-lit rooms, and the overall effect is seedy yet intimate. Claustrophic even.

The superb use of electronic music adds to the eerie and disturbing atmosphere, as it plays across the more extended scenes. A flexible mirrored panel is used to film some disorienting shots of faces and locations, adding the briefest of bizarre touches. Perhaps on the odd ocassion we've touched on those living within the realms of the porn world here in the west, but it's not been done in such a subtle manner. It's usually quite heavy-handed in comparison.

The story seems this time to be saying that sometimes decisions are made for us that lead us to make progressively bad decisions for ourselves. Can we totally be to blame when our sense of responsibility over our own life seems to have been put off-course by others? Is it possible to make bad life decisions for ourselves, those which will be seen as purely our own, yet are due to circumstances we have had little hold on. Both courses can lead us to miss out on something wonderful which could have happened in our lives. Perhaps there's a lot to be said for seemingly mundane lifestlyes in terms of the less obvious opportunities on offer.

Takashi Ishii enjoys using Rain in his storied, as itseems to give me much more of a sense of being within an environment, as though you are more aware of the space around me and the events within it. Also, it emotionally seems to put you on a level field with the characters even if you can't directly identify with them.

As far as directing a film goes, Ishii is less competant that Chusei Sone shows himself to be in these first two films of the series. Ishii is a masterful creator of seemingly brash and beautifully layered morality tales, with a miriad of attractions on offer (questionable and otherwise). Aside from this, his visual sense clearly has a huge impact on the kind of narratives he writes, and this is where the confusion seems to lay within Angel Guts : there are moments for visual impact, moments for philosohphical impact, and a massive amount that uses both aspects. Perhaps it's intentional, but it is the cause of the large amount of confusion felt when watching these films.

Romanporno may have Intended to serve a short purpose and then disappear onto dusty shelves, they may never have considered the longevity of the production, or the way in which it would be interpreted abroad. There's exploitation thrills to be had, but not being exploitation films these productions are mainly a lesson the weirdness that Japan is capable of creating at an astonishing rate. Personally, the main pleasure is setting the aspects of the films against my perception of what such films would offer (not having seen anything like them previosly - trust me, most won't have i believe) against what i have largely seen - American films (and many, but far fewer, Japanese films).

Overall, i found the subject matter of this third film the most interesting, yet the most difficult to write about simply because of the massive amount of ambiguity. And, for the life of me, i have never seen a more downbeat ending to a film, but which showed such signs of hope within the characters. Very difficult to pin down, this one.

I will be interested to see what others have to say about them. In the end, although still confused and stuggling to contextualise them completely, I am impressed and glad I have had the opportunity to add to my understanding of film as well as watch some highly entertaining and thoroughly bizarre films. Artsmagic have selected a well known but relatively unseen genre and series, and deserve praise for giving us the opportunity to experience yet more great Japanese cinema.