Hisayasu Sato's NAKED BLOOD is one of his most technically polished exercises in cinematic therapy; it states its premise clearly and uses that premise to present provocative imagery.
Sex and control are favoured themes of Sato, but sex is not the focus here; controlling how our minds process stimulation (good and bad) is.
The nerdish son of a a doctor -- she is testing a new contraceptive drug on three female patients -- mixes his own home-made drug, "My Son", with his mother's. His invention allows the test subjects to experience pleasure when they should be feeling pain.
A woman saws off her vaginal lips and eats them; she then gouges her eye out with a fork and eats it; she also removes her nipple and eats that, too. The special prosthetic effects are effective, but the over-the-top sound effects render them cheesy (unfortunately).
There are other displays of grotesque gore including pens, hooks and needles pushed through flesh, but this is not a horror film in the classic sense; it is quite slow moving and almost academic in its detail.
Sato's direction is concise and clear. His focus on TV monitors, computer imagery, Super 8 and degraded video ties this feature to the obsessions of his very considerable oeuvre.
The film's most obvious inspiration is Cronenberg's VIDEODROME. From the headset through which one can experience the dreams and nightmares of another to the wholesale corruption of flesh, Sato was clearly taken with the themes of the Canadian filmer's original but flawed achievement.
An audacious, clinical work.
Sex and control are favoured themes of Sato, but sex is not the focus here; controlling how our minds process stimulation (good and bad) is.
The nerdish son of a a doctor -- she is testing a new contraceptive drug on three female patients -- mixes his own home-made drug, "My Son", with his mother's. His invention allows the test subjects to experience pleasure when they should be feeling pain.
A woman saws off her vaginal lips and eats them; she then gouges her eye out with a fork and eats it; she also removes her nipple and eats that, too. The special prosthetic effects are effective, but the over-the-top sound effects render them cheesy (unfortunately).
There are other displays of grotesque gore including pens, hooks and needles pushed through flesh, but this is not a horror film in the classic sense; it is quite slow moving and almost academic in its detail.
Sato's direction is concise and clear. His focus on TV monitors, computer imagery, Super 8 and degraded video ties this feature to the obsessions of his very considerable oeuvre.
The film's most obvious inspiration is Cronenberg's VIDEODROME. From the headset through which one can experience the dreams and nightmares of another to the wholesale corruption of flesh, Sato was clearly taken with the themes of the Canadian filmer's original but flawed achievement.
An audacious, clinical work.