Misogyny meets Misanthropy amid much Masochism and Sadism in Japanese Action-“Comedy”
DIRECTED BY SHŪJI KATAOKA/JAPANESE/1985
DVD STREET DATE: JANUARY 9, 2024/REDEMPTION FILMS (via Kino Lorber)
If you want to dance with the Devil, you have to pay the price. In the case of the naive fetishists in this freakishly edge Japanese exploitation film (specifically, an “eroduction”), that means large sums of cash. In the case of viewers of this DVD edition from Sacrament (one of several imprints under the umbrella of Salvation Films/Redemption Films), it means suffering a murky, garbage transfer that wouldn’t be considered acceptable in the VHS era. And that’s to say nothing of suffering the film itself.
To be fair, the title is “S&M Hunter Begins” (Sakasa tsurushi shibari nawa) – one has no right to go into this movie expecting anything less than what someone not involved with sadomasochistic activity might be troubled by. In the film, a gang of four streetwise high school girls (“Sukeban”; uniformed in matching sailor tops and long skirts; their leader confidently played by Hiromi Saotome) farm themselves out to horny businessmen for unstated amounts of cash.
Afterwards, when the guy is unable to pay the “going rate”, the shakedown happens. As violent as it gets, sooner or later, someone is bound to lose any eye. In fact, that’s exactly what happens to one guy (Shirô Shimomoto). When he later re-emerges as an eye-patched vigilante of the night, he uses his affinity for rope torture to both exact vengeance and further satisfy his wild sadomasochistic kinks… for free. He is known as “The Roper”, and per this film’s use of heroic theme music whenever he shows up, we’re probably supposed to be rooting for him. Per the DVD cover blurb: “The story of how an average ‘salaryman’ became an S&M superhero!”. Obviously, we’ve strayed quite far from the MCU…
Even if the sex is simulated on this movie (and there’s no proof that it isn’t), the actress is still bound, gagged, and suspended nude in ropes while the act commences. Suffice to say, it takes a very particular actress (and actor, for that matter) to go in for this. The real kicker is that it’s considered a comedy. Perhaps a particularly uncomfortable comedy? The kind with lots of rope burns in sensitive areas? When you think about it, there’s a lot that’s ridiculous here.
S&M Hunter Begins was made by Japan’s Shintōhō Eiga studio as a prequel to its popular S&M Hunter (the title character’s said to have a nifty costume in that one), although confusion persists over which film was actually made and released first. (Most signs point to “Begins” preceding S&M Hunter). At only fifty-nine minutes, it barely constitutes “feature length” classification, though, its subject matter being what it is, it firmly qualifies for the country’s notorious “pink film” classification.
Pink films are, by ruling, supposed to be only this long. (I go into greater detail about pink films in my review of 1998’s Sexy S.W.A.T. Team). Nudity here remains above the belt, though at least one quick shot of a rope-covered crotch, obviously deemed to be too much, is obscured with literal scratches onto the film. Strangely, intimate touching, grabbing, and even biting over clothes happens all the time in this.
Director Shūji Kataoka’s S&M Hunter Begins is not a poorly made film, nor a difficult-to-follow story. Lots of people seem to get the joke, but call me a prude, I can’t seem to muster up a laugh. Even if the Sukeban are running a massive scam, seeing “justice” sexually meted out upon teenage girls by adult men in no way sits well. The fight scenes are decent and the Roper’s rope throwing is unique. But S&M Hunter Begins not only gets tripped up in its own non-consensual dominant themes, its DVD quality is straight-up trash. Extras include a photo gallery, the film’s trailer, and a bunch of trailers for other such releases from the label.