this was pretty impressive. certainly a child of guinea pig, but it pretty successfully adds some amount of story to the intense torture and gore. i liked that they just hinted at some kind of background with a few objects - the manga doll, the roman statue - and the short muddy flashback/dream sequences of the main character at the park. when the main baddie says ‘live fast, die young’ whatever, it’s less revealing in its content than the fact that he has a philosophy. the main character has no philosophy, no nothing, and ends up making the baddie look like an amateur at his own game. basically i just like that they took the impact and intensity of guinea pig and added as little as possible to hint at a little more but retain the visceral impact. the ellipsis the used at the end were effective and smart.
obviously it’s all morally objectionable. also the glue in the ear was confusing and the 2 having sex at the end made me guffaw. there were also some strange cuts when the main character goes off with the sword. but overall very impressive and i wish i knew more of the history of the genre in japan to place this. it doesn’t help that i watched this without having seen the first one.
