Asian Splatter Guide

Essential Asian Splatter Films Of The Last 20 Years

Written By: Colleen Wanglund
Mondo Film & Video Guide Feature Contributor

Horror fans everywhere know a good splatter film when they see one. The term “splatter cinema” was first coined by George Romero to describe DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978) but now covers a sub-genre of horror that employs graphic images of gore and violence. Using special effects with an excessive amount of blood and guts splatter films focus on the vulnerability of the human body and the theatricality of its mutilation. The fear invoked by these films comes from the physical destruction of the body in all of its vivid, grotesque glory. Splatter films generally don’t have much of a plot as the focus of these movies is the grotesque and the violent. Who hasn’t seen Herschel Gordon Lewis’ BLOOD FEAST (1963), considered to be one of the first splatter films, or Eli Roth’s HOSTEL (2005)? They’re perfect examples of the splatter sub-genre. Unfortunately these movies have been referred to by some as “torture porn”—a term that I despise. What I most enjoy are splatter films from Japan, especially the newer splatter comedies from directors such as Yoshihiro Nishimura and Iguchi Noboru. Did I mention that I’m a huge Asian horror fan?

In Japan the first widely recognized splatter film is JIGOKU (1960) by Nobuo Nakagawa, considered by many to be the father of Japanese horror. JIGOKU which literally translates to “Hell” is about a young man, Shimizu whose life goes spiraling out of control after a hit-and-run accident takes the life of a gang member. After the death of his fiancé Shimizu decides to visit his sick mother and escape his evil friend Tamura. Tamura and the dead gang member’s family follow him and in some very bizarre circumstances everyone dies and goes to hell. The final third of JIGOKU is a graphic depiction of the tortures of hell, including dismemberment, beheading and flaying, accompanied by a soundtrack of screams. The film is in black and white but it is still an extremely intense movie.

Another great splatter film from this decade is Seiichi Fukuda’s MADAME O (1967). MADAME O is a female revenge/sexploitation flick about Seiko who had an abusive childhood and was raped by three boys on a beach. Now she’s a successful doctor and successful serial killer. Seiko picks her victims at night and kills them off, viewing them as disease-ridden men. MADAME O also falls into the category of “pink” films in Japan (soft porn) but with plenty of blood spray and a lengthy dismemberment scene it’s the ultimate revenge/splatter film that predates MS. 45 (1981) and I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE (1978). It’s finally available on DVD thanks to Synapse Films and you really should see it.

In the 1970s the best examples of Japanese splatter films were samurai movies, specifically a sub-genre called chambara which contain elements of splatter. These movies deal with the Edo period of Japan’s feudal era and often feature a Ronin as the main character. A Ronin is a samurai without a master, usually because that master is dead. Ronin were essentially expected to avenge the death of their master and then kill themselves. The chambara films usually contained copious amounts of blood from the wounds suffered during swordfights. Some great examples include the LONE WOLF AND CUB (1972-1974) series about a Ronin who travels the country with his infant son.

The Ronin is being hunted by a rival family who framed him for the murder of his own master. His son’s baby carriage is actually a fully loaded war machine, carrying the weapons of the time period. Another example of chambara splatter, and a personal favorite of mine, is LADY SNOWBLOOD (1973). Based on a manga of the same name by Kazuo Koike, LADY SNOWBLOOD tells the story of Yuki (Meiko Kaji) who has learned to fight like a samurai to avenge the rape of her mother and murder of her father. Incidentally, Quentin Tarantino borrowed heavily from SNOWBLOOD for KILL BILL Vol. 1 (2003), specifically the character O-Ren Ishi (Lucy Liu) as well as the fight scene between O-Ren Ishi and the Bride (Uma Thurman). Even the theme song from SNOWBLOOD sung by Meiko Kaji is used under the English title “The Flower of Carnage”.

The 1980s saw the introduction of the standard American-inspired slasher movies in Japan but splatter horror reared its ugly gore-covered head. EVIL DEAD TRAP (1988) directed by Toshiharu Ikeda doesn’t have much of a story to it but it’s got plenty of blood and gore. A late-night television host and her crew are lured out to an abandoned factory complex to investigate a snuff film and someone begins picking them off one by one in some very gruesome ways. The kill sequences are great but the rest of the movie can get a bit boring. The end which reveals the killer is quite bizarre and pretty gruesome. It’s definitely worth the watch. In my opinion two of the best examples of Japanese splatter films from the 80s are ENTRAILS OF A VIRGIN and ENTRAILS OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN, both from 1986 and both directed by Kazuo “Gaira” Komizu. These two films also fall into a category called “splatter eros”—pink films that combine extreme gore with a lot of sexual content.

ENTRAILS OF A VIRGIN tells the story of a soft-core porn film crew (big stretch) hunted by a demon in the woods. Prior to killing its female victims the demon rapes them (although they don’t seem to mind). There’s actually more sex than violence in VIRGIN but there’s a killer scene in which the demon shoves his arm into his victim’s vagina and rips out her entrails—although she’s no virgin. ENTRAILS OF A BEAUTIFUL WOMAN is about a young therapist who finds a girl who has been drugged and raped by a yakuza clan. The girl throws herself off a building to her death and the therapist (Yoshimi) decides to avenge the girl’s death. Yoshimi’s plans don’t go well and she herself is drugged, raped and murdered by the clan. The drug called Angel Wings causes her body to mutate with another body into a penis-headed monster that is ultimately able to get revenge. Again, lots of sex (mostly rape) but unlike VIRGIN, BEAUTIFUL WOMAN has much more blood and gore going for it. By combining the violence of rape and the gore of horror the viewer is made to feel uncomfortable—which is what a good horror/splatter movie should do. I watched each film twice before really appreciating their place in the sub-genre of splatter and they are definitely worth repeated viewing.

In the 1990s Japanese horror movies shied away from splatter, for the most part and went back to the atmospheric ghost stories of the 1950s and 1960s. Movies like RINGU (1998), GEMINI (1999), and TOMIE (1999) use atmosphere and psychological storylines full of Asian ghosts to scare audiences. Although movies like ORGAN (1996) about the black market organ trade and SPLATTER: NAKED BLOOD (1995) about a drug that causes the people who take it to mutilate themselves continued to be made for fans of the extreme. Another good 90s splatter film from Japan is ALL NIGHT LONG (1992) directed by Katsuya Matsumura, a revenge horror movie about three young men who witness a brutal rape and murder and ultimately enter Tokyo’s violent nightlife to seek bloody revenge.

The best splatter/horror films from Japan began being made in 2000 and have continued unabated due to an increase in cult status both in Japan and in North America. One of my favorite movies ever is Takashi Miike’s ICHI THE KILLER (2001). Based on a manga of the same name by Hideo Yamamoto, ICHI tells the story of Ichi, a timid young man turned into a killing machine by Jijii (Shinya Tsukamoto) and the yakuza hitman Kakihara (Tadanobu Asano) who is determined to find him. Ironically the killing is never actually shown onscreen but the aftermath is—and it’s always a bloodbath. Kakihara is a sadist and a masochist, and there are a couple of detectives who revel in torturing women. ICHI THE KILLER is billed as a comedy/crime drama but the violence and gore is definitely extreme and it deserves the splatter label. ICHI THE KILLER is a true masterpiece. Did I mention that Takashi Miike is one of my favorite directors?

One thing about splatter cinema is that sometimes the violence and gore are so excessive that it becomes a comedic device. This is glaringly evident in the films of Yoshihiro Nishimura, one of my favorite horror directors and a special effects genius, in my humble opinion. Nishimura began his career as a special effects artist (self-taught) working on such films as SUICIDE CLUB (2001), a social satire horror film about mass teenage suicides. The movie opens with fifty teenage girls jumping in front of an oncoming subway train in a Tokyo train station and there is no lack of blood—there’s buckets of it! It’s one of the best horror movie scenes I’ve ever watched. He also did the special effects on MEATBALL MACHINE (2005) directed by Yudai Yamaguchi and Jun’ichi Yamamoto. The movie is about biomechanical parasites that take over human bodies and fight each other. Not much of a plot but plenty of gore and trailing intestines.

Yoshihiro Nishimura made his directorial debut in 2008 with TOKYO GORE POLICE. The movie stars Eihi Shiina—a favorite of mine ever since AUDITION (1999)—as Ruka, an engineer hunter with the now-private Tokyo police department. Engineers are human killers that have been mutated with a gene created by a mad scientist out for revenge. The body part of a human that is injured mutates into a bizarre weapon. In one case a woman’s vagina mutates into what looks like the head of an alligator and a man’s penis mutates into a bio-machine gun. Ruka finds the man responsible for the engineers and discovers they both are seeking revenge against the same person. Ruka’s father was a police officer who opposed the privatization of the department and he was murdered for that opposition. TOKYO GORE POLICE falls into the sub-genre of splatter/comedy. Nishimura has said of his movies: “The films I try to create are so over-the-top and unrealistic, they really become comedy.”

Aother Nishimura-directed film is VAMPIRE GIRL VS FRANKENSTEIN GIRL (2009) which was also directed by Naoyuki Tomomatsu. It’s a fairly simple story about two high school girls fighting over a boy. Monami is a vampire and Keiko’s father is a mad scientist who likes to dress in kabuki makeup and costume. Monami turns the boy into a half-vampire and when Keiko dies her father turns Keiko into Frankenstein Girl using body parts of other classmates. Eihi Shiina also makes a cameo as Monami’s mother before she is killed by vampire hunter St. Francis. VG vs. FG is a bizarre, funny movie that relies heavily on blood spray and over-the-top fight scenes between Monami and Keiko on top of Tokyo Tower. Social satire also makes an appearance with Nishimura mocking such teenage subcultures as Ganguro, Lolita, and wrist-cutting. I have to say I laugh my ass off every time I watch this movie. And make no mistake, the new wave of splatter comedies from Japan are worth watching again and again.

One other splatter comedy by Nishimura that I’ll rave over is MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD (2010). The movie was actually directed in three parts by three different directors, all well-known to fans of this subgenre of Japanese film. MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD is about sixteen year old Rin who discovers she is half alien. The first third of the movie was directed by Tak Sakaguchi—who also choreographed the fight scenes—in which Rin makes her initial discovery and is now on the run from government forces bent on killing her. The second third of the movie was directed by Iguchi Noboru—who perpetually views everything through the scope of comedy—and tells of the rebel gang that takes Rin in and teach her how to harness her special alien powers. The final third of the movie was directed by Nishimura and his skills as a special effects are on full display. Rin and two other mutants turn on the gang who want to take over all of Japan. The fight scenes are priceless and hysterical.

The movie also stars Tak Sakaguchi as the cross-dressing leader of the mutant gang and his performance is definitely over-the-top. I got to see MUTANT GIRLS SQUAD during the 2010 New York Asian Film Festival and it was quite an experience. It was a sold out show and the entire audience enjoyed the movie immensely, as well as the question and answer session with Noboru and Nishimura that followed. While the story is pretty basic it’s the visuals that play the lead role. The blood spray, gruesome mutations of the body, and the gore are the real stars of these types of movie.

ROBOGEISHA (2009) directed by Iguchi Noboru is about an evil steel manufacturer who kidnaps women to turn them into cyborg assassins. He also wants to drop a bomb on Mt. Fuji to destroy Japan so he can rebuild the country how he sees fit. Yoshie, who has natural fighting abilities discovers the plan and is determined to stop him. The special effects were (once again) done by Yoshihiro Nishimura, who also has a cameo role in the film as a yakuza boss. The visual effects were done by Tsuyoshi Kazuno. All three men previously worked together on MACHINE GIRL (2008) about a girl out to avenge the death of her brother at the hands of a gang of high school boys led by the son of a yakuza boss. Ami looses her arm and it gets replaced by a specially designed machine gun. One of the best and sickest scenes in MACHINE GIRL comes early on when the yakuza boss is upset by his private chef and decides to punish him. The boss makes his chef cut off his own fingers and eat them as sushi—finger sushi!! Both movies are loaded with lots of splatterific goodness.

Besides the comedy, horror and splatter elements of all of the films since 2000, what makes them all so unique is that none of the special effects involve any CGI. It’s all done with makeup, prosthetics, props and camera work. That makes every one of them worth seeing. All of the directors have very twisted senses of humor and it comes across beautifully in their films. How can you not laugh at a chef who’s forced to eat his own finger sushi? Okay maybe you’ll also squirm a bit but isn’t that the point? Unfortunately as the popularity of the splatter sub-genre continues to grow the media in Japan have bashed these films repeatedly and attacked everyone involved in the making of them to an excessive degree. They have even attempted to link these films to violent crimes, much like the media here in America tried to link heavy metal music with teen suicide and “Satanic” violence not that long ago. Of this Nishimura has said: “In Japan, there’s still a very poor understanding of horror and splatter. They (the media) refuse to see it as simple entertainment.” And I say lighten the hell up. It’s a form of entertainment that has a huge following around the world.

This new crop of splatter comedies have generated such a huge cult following that in 2010 Nikkatsu Corporation, the oldest film studio in Japan established Sushi Typhoon with producer Yoshinori Chiba (no relation to Sonny Chiba the action star) specifically to distribute the movies to North America. According to their website Sushi Typhoon “seeks to satisfy audiences who crave the good taste of bad taste, and for whom too much is never enough.” These splatter movies are definitely boundary-pushing entertainment—entertainment being the key word. According to Akira Yamaguchi, producer of ROBOGEISHA: “with horror and splatter, the visual component plays a very important role, so it’s a form of entertainment that’s easy to understand.” Horror and splatter fans just want to be entertained. We don’t need complex story lines or serious themes. We want our entertainment full of blood spray, gore, exploding heads and eviscerated bodies. Of course if we get a good laugh along the way that’s even better. My point is that Japanese horror movies and the splatter sub-genre in particular are some of the best movies out there….and you should definitely be watching them!

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