| Index | 5 reviews in total |
13 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
A sincere study of misanthropy, 23 October 2005
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Author:
fertilecelluloid from Mountains of Madness
A voyeur, invited into a dormitory for nurses, remains behind to
violate and murder close to a dozen of them. Some of the nurses attempt
to talk him out of ending their lives and much of the film is comprised
of these conversations, but the talk doesn't do much good.
Most of the film is black and white and quite murky, but there are
selected snippets of color to illustrate the aftermath of the killer's
work.
Bleak and slow moving, Wakamatsu attempts to provide a political
subtext for the nastiness, but it comes across as pretentious.
The stabbings, rapes and beatings are shot mostly at a distance, but
the tone is upsetting and the constant screaming and general air of
misery is palpable.
The score, by Wakamatsu, is hypnotic.
Not great cinema, but a sincere study of misanthropy.
4 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Particularly Bleak And Nihilistic Early Pinku Film..., 1 December 2006
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Author:
EVOL666 from St. John's Abortion Clinic
*** This review may contain spoilers ***
I've only seen a few of Koji Wakamatsu's films, but I've been impressed
so far. He's another director in the pinku genre (much like Hisayasu
Sato) that tends to make solid and thought-provoking films out of what
are essentially soft-core sex flicks. Though any real "point" behind
VIOLATED ANGELS is pretty much lost on me - I did find the film to be
visually interesting and the "rough" content was pretty strong for a
film made in the 60s. I also lost much in translation as my copy is
Japanese language only - but here's what I gathered:
A young man that has an issue with women overtakes a bunch of nurses at
their dormitory. Suffering from delusions that they are taunting and
making fun of him, he begins to kill them one at a time. There are some
dialog scenes which were lost on me, mainly of one of the women
apparently pleading with the man not to kill any more of the girls.
Doesn't work - she gets shot too. The sole surviving woman seems to
take an interest in the young man (though this could just be more
delusion...) and the situation ends when (I think) the cops put an end
to his killing spree...
Sorry about the vaguery, but I'm not sure if everything I thought was
going on actually happened due to translation issues. Also, my copy is
pretty poor quality, so some scenes were hard to make out as most of
the film is shot in black-and-white. Regardless - VIOLATED ANGELS is
obviously a mean-spirited film chronicling the actions of a deranged
person. Personally, I found this to be a refreshing change from a genre
that often makes light of the abuse of women, and this film was far
more realistic than the average pinku sleaze (don't get me wrong though
- I love those films too...). Wakamatsu seems to have a cold eye for
realism and is able to transfer that into his films. If you've seen GO
GO SECOND TIME VIRGIN or EMBRYO HUNTS IN SECRET - you probably already
know what I'm talking about. Definitely worth a look to true pinku
fans, but don't expect the typical "fun" sleaze-fest - VIOLATED ANGELS
is much more bleak and "serious" than most other genre entries...8/10
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
Decent, unsettling pinku riff on the Richard Speck case., 12 August 2011
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Author:
Bloodwank from United Kingdom
In 1966 Richard Speck had himself quite a killing spree, 8 nurses in a row with the excuse that it just wasn't their night. In tasteful and proper fashion this unsettling exploitation riff came just a year later, brought to us in inimitable early pinku style by the great Koji Wakamatsu. Ill advised nurses find a watcher outside their boarding house and invite him in to spy upon their companions lesbian passion not realising that the guy is totally unimpressed by lesbianism (or indeed women in general) and soon come to realise their mistake. Established by an opening montage of breasts, eyes and dead smiles the audience can see that Boy (as he is solely called) feels nothing for the female form but little prepares for his murderous tendencies, nor the clammy, helpless horror of the piece. Trapped within their house, isolated by the constant howl of wind and sea, made helpless by their massed, selfless desire to survive, to not ruffle their captor lest any action lead to another death, their numbers fall despite their righteousness and its harsh to watch despite the relative lack of graphic material, the sheer unfeeling menace is all that counts. Juro Kara is grimly effective as Boy, plagued by visions of mockery yet without any self knowledge, a disturbing blank savage and well backed up by the various actresses, characterised simply as Nurse A, B, etc. with one pulling off a particularly potent moment as she desperately tries to reason through the situation. The shooting is generally static, lots of long shots and very little dynamism, conveying an effective hopeless claustrophobia that works well with the performances, all contributes to a locked in fatalistic ambiance that is just perfect. It all feels cold and sincerely misanthropic if not naturalistic (those apt to pointlessly pick holes will likely have a field day), committed to its dark vision, this definitely aided by the stark black and white cinematography, a very much dead and gone palate all the more effective for being spiked by a couple of splashes of lurid colour to show us the bloody extent of what we have seen. There isn't much depth to this one and the ending does spin things out into pretentious territory by aiming for broader social significance but the bulk of the film is as good a study in focused misogyny as I've seen in a while and it has nudity to boot which is a definite plus. On the whole a definite good 'un with two or three stand-out scenes, not for the casual viewer but a thumbs up from me.
4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
VIOLATED ANGELS (Koji Wakamatsu, 1967) *1/2, 26 June 2008
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Author:
MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta
I’d watched three films by the same director prior to this one: while
no discernible point seemed to emerge from them other than to show the
dehumanized state of modern society, I certainly wasn’t enthralled by
the unrelenting gloominess of Wakamatsu’s approach. With this in mind,
I knew more or less what to expect here – but, then, there were other
factors involved which rendered it even less appetizing than his other
works!
To begin with, the film opens on a disorientating montage of naked
female bodies in a magazine being scrutinized (as it transpires,
contemptuously) by the unbalanced protagonist. Then we cut to a group
of female nurses in an isolated dormitory – a number of whom spy on two
of their colleagues making love; in the euphoria of the moment, they
invite in a male passer-by – an unwise decision, as he turns out to be
none other than the misanthrope we’d been introduced to earlier…who
unhesitatingly shoots dead one of the lesbians! Even if I caught the
film mid-way through the credits myself, the whole thing runs for just
57 minutes: while the inherent tension within the central situation
could well have sustained such modest duration, this is negated by the
static direction – which renders the single-setting claustrophobic and
the proceedings merely boring!
Anyway, one by one, the six women (except one who had stunned the
madman by questioning his motives!) fall prey to his violent outbursts:
one is tied and tortured, while another gives herself to the killer in
the hope of escaping her fate!! One wonders why they just don’t turn on
him all at once or, even more obviously, try to escape via one of the
other rooms in the house (in any case, this is said to have been drawn
from a true-life incident). For the record, the black-and-white images
are interrupted towards the end by brief flashes of color (such as the
aftermath of the above-mentioned bondage scene and the tableau-like
depiction of all the characters – naked and bloodied – huddled together
in the main hall of the dormitory). The film, then, ends abruptly with
the unannounced arrival on the scene of the military forces.
5 out of 30 people found the following review useful:
Violated Viewer, 17 July 1999
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Author:
Martin-131 from Worthing, England
I saw this film about 20 years ago and remember it as being particularly
nasty. I believe it is based on a true incident: a young man breaks into
a
nurses' home and rapes, tortures and kills various women.
It is in black and white but saves the colour for one shocking
shot.
At the end the film seems to be trying to make some political statement but
it just comes across as confused and obscene.
Avoid.
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