Grotesque

WARNING: EXTREME GRAPHIC CONTENT

Grotesque is a notorious Japanese splatter/torture porn film, made in 2009, written and directed by Koji Shiraishi.

Due to its extreme content, it's banned in several countries, including the United Kingdom.

BBFC (The British Board of Film Classification) director David Cook explained:
 "Unlike other recent 'torture' themed horror works, such as the Saw and Hostel series, Grotesque features minimal narrative or character development and presents the audience with little more than an unrelenting and escalating scenario of humiliation, brutality and sadism. In spite of a vestigial attempt to 'explain' the killer's motivations at the very end of the film, the chief pleasure on offer is not related to understanding the motivations of any of the central characters. Rather, the chief pleasure on offer seems to be wallowing in the spectacle of sadism (including sexual sadism) for its own sake."

The reception in Japan was initially less controversial, but after the notoriety of the UK ban, Amazon Japan decided to remove the DVD of Grotesque from its website.(Wiki)
 
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Plot Summary:

An unnamed doctor has always had everything he's ever wanted, but that has only made him develop more extreme and depraved needs. He kidnaps a young couple in the prime of their life together and forces them into a game of torment that slowly extinguishes their hopes for survival. (IMDb)
  

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"The version I watched had only Japanese and German language options but one doesn't really need to understand the dialog to figure out whats going on here. This movie really never does let up, it was horrendously oppressing from start to finish...The gore is strong stuff here folks, and not for the faint of heart...I know a few people who would suffer PTSD after watching this flick."(Cinema Head Cheese)  


Click to Watch:

Grotesque (The Trailer and the Full Movie)


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SPOILER:

WARNING: Just reading this will likely to make you feel like puking (no exaggeration).

A young couple Aki and Kazuo are snatched off the street while having their first date as a romantic couple after a few years working in the same office, and wake up shackled in a basement, which has all its walls covered with plastic. With no further explanation, a sadistic madman degrades, tortures and mutilates them.

Initially, he punctures Kazuo's belly with a screwdriver and slices his tongue, then rapes both, one at a time, forcing the other to watch.

Sometimes he stops the torture to provide medical assistance and cure the couple's wounds, so they can continue alive for a long period of time. This way he cuts off all their fingers, makes collars with them, pops out Kazuo's right eye, removes the girl's nipples and cuts off her right arm.

As the torture progresses, it is revealed he is simply doing it for sexual stimulation, and tells the couple he wants the two to survive.

At first, he has sex with the empty eye-socket after digging out Kazuo's eye, and ejaculates into his socket. He continues, however, through gruesome stomping of the eyeballs and forced cannibalism. He finally castrates Kazuo, claiming he has found all the sexual relief he needs, so no longer needs the couple's "services".

Then the couple is moved to a room which resembles a modern and clean hospital room, where the kidnapper takes care of the couple's wounds. While it is never explicitly mentioned on the movie, it becomes gradually apparent that the man has professional medical training, refined manners, taste for classical music and good wines and dressed with expensive clothes when he is not in surgeon dress torturing the couple. At some point he even mentions he is a wealthy man, which suggests he may be a reputable surgeon, not merely a violent sadist, looking for an extreme and different way to obtain satisfaction on his lonely life; however, the couple also notes the doctor has a particular rotting smell always present behind his clean and elegant appearance.

After several days healing, the "doctor" simply tells the couple they will be free to go, he will turn himself to authorities and, as apology for all the suffering he inflicted to the couple, he will give them all his fortune which seems to be very large, as compensation.

After all the horror, in a moment alone in the hospital room, Aki and Kazuo promises to support each other once they leave the place and become a formal couple. It is unclear if the madman changed his mind, or if playing with the couple's hopes to survive and being released soon was part of his mischievous plan from the beginning, but immediately after communicating to them they will be released, the next scene takes back the couple to the scary basement.

After being drugged, they are shackled again, exactly as they were the first time. The "doctor" announces they must participate in one final test of love strength. He pulls out an extreme of Kazuo's intestines and attaches them to a hook. If Kazuo is able to cross the room to the other side (pulling off his entire intestines out of his body in the process), take a scissors and cut Aki's ropes to release her, both will be finally free. However, Kazuo fails due to blood loss and falls to the ground in agony (it is also revealed that the ropes restraining Aki have a metal wire running through them, rendering them impossible to cut with scissors; the task was therefore impossible).

Aki begins to insult the doctor, telling him he is just the son of a whore that nobody cares about, and insists despite his refined manners and expensive clothes, he has an unusual and unbearable skunk odor, no matter how hard the tries to cover the stench. Angered, the doctor cuts off Aki's head in response and as her head falls down, it lands on the man's neck and bites him with her final breath. Kazuo on the floor, not dead yet, stabs him in the foot with the scissors as a supreme last action. The couple then dies facing each other.

In the epilogue of the film, the madman is revealed to have survived what happened to him in the basement, although he cannot walk properly. He is in a quiet forest where he respectfully buries the couple next to each other in a traditional Japanese way, leaving the scissors on their tombs as a symbol. The next scene shows him back in the same car he used to kidnap the couple, covering himself with lots of perfume to hide his skunk stench while a girl is walking by, and the screen cuts to black as he goes after his next victim and the screen films the doctor licking his lips... (Wiki)


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Reviews:

"Grotesque does not deserve to be banned; it is a repulsive piece of horror but it also inspires an emotional attachment and provokes thought about the inner workings of a human mind subjected to a nature and nurture different from the norm. " (Horror Extreme)

“Grotesque” not only lives up to its title, but also to its billing as ‘the cruellest Japanese splatter movie ever’... Koji is a highly talented director who makes good use of his limited resources...〔he〕is easily one of the most interesting directors working in Japanese horror today. (Beyond Hollywood)

"'the spectacle of sadism' that so bothers the BBFC seems to be, at least in part, a cinematic metaphor for the twists and turns of a couple's journey from bodily lust to enduring love."(Little White Lies)

 "Grotesque doesn't pretend to be something it isn't. There's not much of a story, no real plot to speak of and some of the material is plain old disgusting and offensive but it never once demands you consider this a serious filmmaking endeavor. There's no hidden meaning, no heroes, no retribution, no one single ounce of socially redeeming value and it wallows in it!" (Yahoo Movie Review)


"There is some pontificating about evil and society and love but 'Grotesque' is essentially one long torture set piece...It’s hard to tell whether the filmmaker was in fact trying to say something or just push the boundaries of cinema." (Far East Films)
 
 
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Source:
Wikipedia (Japanese, English)
IMDb

If you like this kind of extreme movies, I recommend you also watch:
Martyrs 
Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom

Comments

Before someone asks me; no, I have NOT watched the film. :)
nunu said…
Last year when I was bored, i surfed the web for asian horror movies that I haven't watched. I stumbled upon this movie in a list, and I thank God I read the summary first. This is one horror movie I would never watch, Saya-san. I cannot stand to see people tortured. Even if it's just acting.
Farz said…
Sayaaaaaaaa....

I got numbing experience just from reading the spoiler..

Thank you for giving spoiler though, so i can prepare myself :P .

I heard the film Ichi The Killer got banned in some country, so i just wondering if Grosteque is more gore than Ichi.

And i dont like the part rape male againts male in front of her loved ones to humiliate him (nuff said).

Oh yes.. I wish the best for you and i hope you will be always in good health.

Happy Blogging !.

See you again !.
Farra said…
Yay, my first time commenting here!

The plot is so amazing! Makes me want to watch it! I just read the full plot, and it's just so sad.. and funny :3

Anyway, I know it's weird for a 13 years old girl to feel excited for a movie like this, but I do..

Keep Blogging and sorry for my bad English, Saya-san..
CY said…
Thanks for the spoiler. As much as I like watching horror films, I will pass this one. For one, I am not too fond of watching torture. I prefer something like ghosts, vampires, zombies, demons and ayakashi.
Sadae said…
I couldn't finish watching "Suicide Circle". I'm sure I wouldn't be able to watch this. And this comes from a "Hannibal" fan...
~桔子~ said…
I watched this film before. It is really sadistic and really not for the faint-hearted. I find that the film is has it's comical parts like Aki's decapitated head managed to bite that madman. It is one good film on torture (mental, emotional and physical) on the victims. Not your usual Saw series! ;)
unicorn said…
I watched the trailer and I remember saw in this movie lol. Im not planning to watch the full movie tho looolll
CompyDex said…
Hello humans, CompyDex here again. (2nd time commenting here) Hello Saya, you really have impressed me a lot about how you translate those stories. Anyways, I'm here to support about the warning Saya had made here. I've been a helpless victim of this movie.

I realized I have made a very bad mistake watching this movie. First reason, I'm too young to watch this movie. And another reason, I'm eating a big meal while watching this one, ALONE. At first, I really thought that this one is just like the Saw movie series I've been watching recently. But at the middle part where the doctor had started torturing the couple and rapes them both, I literally puked over our monitor screen and decided to stop watching this one. (And also, that's how I learned the lesson why you shouldn't eat while watching horror movies.) If there someone out here in the comment section whose age is 13 and below, I strongly recommend you DO NOT WATCH THE MOVIE. Especially when you're eating. Just don't ever try watch ths movie if you had a weak stomach. Don't tell me I didn't warned all of you. Arigato Gozaimatsu to oyasumi, minna.
Mimi said…
Hello, Saya! I really like posts like this. It shows me a side of things that people don't usually prefer to leave out in the open. If it's possible, I welcome more posts like this in the future. Thanks! :D
Tenshi said…
I must admit, Saya-san, I didn't quite think something could be that horrible when you said that just reading the plot could make me want to puke... But... Oh heavens...
I shall not doubt you anymore, from now on ^^'
Anonymous said…
Didn't have time to watch it fully now, but is some scenes deleted from that? There wasn't that eye-socket sex scene. :-D It sounds awesome, I wanted to see that
Tia said…
Hello once again Saya chan! :D That was actually quite a read since i am not intending to watch this movie :P

I am a true horror/thriller fan, both of these genres tantalise my interest, but i cannot stomach violence of any kind against anyone or anything, especially if it comes from another human. People are the only beings who kill for fun and to me that is the most heinous thing ever, even in fiction. I just wouldn't be able to watch this, mainly because i know that the probabilities of someone being out there doing such things is pretty high; that is, if you do the math with 7 billion people on the planet:P

That is the reason i didn't enjoy neither Saw nor Hostel. These films were classified in those genres but weren't even close. And if these two series didn't scare me but only made me cringe in disgust, then Grotesque is probably gonna have me crying in my bathroom in fetal position; :P I'd rather vomit my entrails and skip rope with them whilst laughing maniacally XD (pardon the gruesome description, but i think it is matching to the movie)

In any case, even though the idea of watching this is intriguing yet highly disturbing, the post was pretty interesting. It is something terrifying in its own way(for me at least) and it definitely delivers those goosebumps. Great job Saya chan, another faithful reader scared witless XD

PS: I wish we hear from you soon, hope youre keeping well! :D
Anonymous said…
Oh, good, I finally finished reading all the stories (well, 99%?) on your blog, Saya-san (^_^;;) All the way to your first post on 15 Aug, 2007 (^0^) Took me a few weeks to finish, lol. Thank you so much for the wonderful translated stories. Looking forward to more in the near future (^_^)
Marmotato said…
I'm not a fan of gore movies so I'm not watching this. Nope Nope Nope D:

Although I like reading rather than watching gore, so the "spoiler" was pretty intense, just reading something like eye-socket sex or cutting nipples gives me shivers. Amazing post again Saya-san.
alicia said…
i can't believe people can give this movie positive reviews. i never enjoyed movies with humans desecrating human/animal bodies.
Spectro said…
I believe it's impossible not to agree that all people involved in this repulsive thing should be locked down in a mental institution FOREVER. NO ONE in his/her right mind should thing this movie is good or recommendable. Seriously, this is just plain wrong and sick, this kind of disgusting creations should be aborted, and that goes for movies like Hostal too!!
よしな said…
I want to watch it. Seriously, I think the film must be amazing. And I also think that the doctor is a bisex, because he raped them both... ah, never mind.

Always love each of your posts. Keep blogging, Saya-san! :)
Destinneena said…
Destinneena/Shari

I found this to be interesting. Unlike Spectro, I feel these are a work of art, the persons involved could be expressing the way they feel, could be a hidden meaning, or just to induce fear in the spectator. I doubt there isn't someone out there who I hasn't done this for real. What I find scary is I imagine if i was in anyone's position, how I would act, and deduce how realistic it is to me. That's why I like these films, they take something real and cause a primal desire to live.
Just my take, and sadly this wasn't as intense as I hoped. I fell asleep about 45 minutes into it, so the hospital scene.
Petzie said…
Saya san, my friend recommend me to watch this movie back then. He loves to joke around and give me weird things sayibg ita a good movie when its not and i know right away that something is wrong coz he doesnt usually recommend things to me.


Thankfully I never looked it up on google (coz i forgot) and seeing your lovely (!) Review, i must say, i am thankful to God that i am who i am today... living my boring life, reading your blog and wairing for the office hour to finish... i am so happy to have a boring life, i cant imagine if i were to suffer like that couple... ong. The world is too cruel. I'd rather die than suffer like them...

Once again,honto ni atigato gozaimashita for sharing this review. I will surely be mad at my friend after this hahahhaa.

Glad to have u back, saya san

Love from indonesia
Xoxo
Unknown said…
I watched the trailer...
and I totally regret it...
I think I'm gonna puke...
Unknown said…
Ms. Saya Yomino,
I have a blog called The Netherwold of Mio, but it is still not much topic. You can visit it, hope you enjoy :)
Unknown said…
Wowee! finally a film i can watch for weekend. By reading the spoiler i think Koji is the most metal dude ever!! Thanks for sharing! :)
regorgitated said…
Oh gosh, Kōji Shiraishi is just a 10/10 director. He is for sure one of my favourite horror directors, if not the most favourite.

"Grotesque" is really not quite everyone's cup of tea as it is full of scenes of explicit violence and gore (maybe 7/10 on the brutality scale), but if people are not thwarted by the fact, they'll see quite a beautiful story about deep and true love.

Anyway, "Noroi" and "Okaruto" by Shiraishi definitely worth a look. Such atmoshperic masterpieces, oh my gosh. I wish I would be able to erase my memory and watch them once again.