Guzoo: The Thing Abandoned by God features lots of thrashing, slimy tentacles of the kind seen in many a sleazy hentai (both animated and live-action). But despite this short's many glistening, prehensile appendages and the presence of four teenage Japanese cuties, Guzoo doesn't qualify as hentai, the film delivering zero nudity, the creature's many quivering extremities never violating the girls' nether regions. That's not to say that fans of bizarre Japanese excess will be disappointed by Guzoo -- on the contrary, I imagine that most fans of wild Asian cinema will be more than satisfied by this commendably crazy offering from director Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu (Entrails of a Virgin, Entrails of a Beautiful Woman), which features plenty of strangeness and a reasonable amount of over-the-top gore.
The film's plot sees four pretty girls spending a vacation at the house of their professor, whose daughter Miss Kujô (Hidemi Maruyama) is, unbeknownst to her guests, conducting strange experiments in the basement with an ancient creature. Things soon start to get weird when Yuka (my favourite of the foursome, played by Naomi Kajitani) receives a cut on her arm while frolicking in the pool with her friends: Miss Kujô tells the girl that she has been attacked by a Kamaitachi, a mythical invisible weasel with claws like sickles that lives inside of small whirlwinds. This eccentric explanation seems to satisfy the girls, who retire to their room to discover that all of their compact mirrors have been smashed.
That night, Yuka goes do the kitchen to get a drink and is attacked by a tentacle that emerges from a mirror. Her screams attract the attention of her friends, but by the time they arrive, the tentacle has gone. The other girls presume that Yuka has been dreaming. However, the next day, Yuka goes to investigate, and is dragged through the mirror by the monster and killed, the creature pushing a tentacle into the girls mouth, her stomach exploding with numerous flailing feelers (why is it that my favourite girls in horror always seem to die first?). With Yuka missing, her curious friend Kachin decides to investigate, and also has a close encounter with the monster.
Miss Kujô rushes to the lab to try and stop the creature from killing again, but is too late. She slams the door shut, but the tentacled terror breaks free and decapitates her. The final ten minutes of the 40-minute runtime involves the remaining two girls being chased around the hotel by the slimy cephalopod-like critter, eventually trapping themselves in the basement where they repel the beast by playing a small flute (?!?!).
Certainly, very little about this film makes sense, especially the final scene in which the surviving girls leave the hotel to discover a small turtle on it's back (is this supposed to be the monster in a different form?), but the impressive practical effects and the easy-on-the-eye cast mean that I was thoroughly entertained throughout.
7 Things Abandoned by God out of 10.
The film's plot sees four pretty girls spending a vacation at the house of their professor, whose daughter Miss Kujô (Hidemi Maruyama) is, unbeknownst to her guests, conducting strange experiments in the basement with an ancient creature. Things soon start to get weird when Yuka (my favourite of the foursome, played by Naomi Kajitani) receives a cut on her arm while frolicking in the pool with her friends: Miss Kujô tells the girl that she has been attacked by a Kamaitachi, a mythical invisible weasel with claws like sickles that lives inside of small whirlwinds. This eccentric explanation seems to satisfy the girls, who retire to their room to discover that all of their compact mirrors have been smashed.
That night, Yuka goes do the kitchen to get a drink and is attacked by a tentacle that emerges from a mirror. Her screams attract the attention of her friends, but by the time they arrive, the tentacle has gone. The other girls presume that Yuka has been dreaming. However, the next day, Yuka goes to investigate, and is dragged through the mirror by the monster and killed, the creature pushing a tentacle into the girls mouth, her stomach exploding with numerous flailing feelers (why is it that my favourite girls in horror always seem to die first?). With Yuka missing, her curious friend Kachin decides to investigate, and also has a close encounter with the monster.
Miss Kujô rushes to the lab to try and stop the creature from killing again, but is too late. She slams the door shut, but the tentacled terror breaks free and decapitates her. The final ten minutes of the 40-minute runtime involves the remaining two girls being chased around the hotel by the slimy cephalopod-like critter, eventually trapping themselves in the basement where they repel the beast by playing a small flute (?!?!).
Certainly, very little about this film makes sense, especially the final scene in which the surviving girls leave the hotel to discover a small turtle on it's back (is this supposed to be the monster in a different form?), but the impressive practical effects and the easy-on-the-eye cast mean that I was thoroughly entertained throughout.
7 Things Abandoned by God out of 10.