User Reviews

Having watched a few nunsploitation flicks (consisting of Italian or Spanish), I would say that this film is on par despite the fact that it's Japanese.

There are also keys scenes associated w/ nunsploitation films, i.e. lesbian nuns, nuns beating themselves or being punished for sinning, and nuns succumbing to temptation of some sort! I wished that there were more of certain scenes than most, but they were all done quite explicitly without being full-on. A some parts it reminded me of a WIP or chicks-in-chains flick, but they're all pretty similar.

There's actually a decent plot w/ a bit of a twist near the ending.

Can't be taken to seriously though because it's definitely offensive for the ultra-conservative.

If you're into nunsploitation and how it exposes the hypocrisy in the church, School of the Holy Beast is definitely worth checking out!

-Some Spoilers Ahead- On her last day of freedom, beautiful Takigawa Mari (Takigawa Yumi) spends her hours enjoying all of what the decadent and carefree 70's lifestyle has to offer (watching a Hockey Game, seeing movies, drinking alcohol, playing Arcade Games, casual sex with a handsome stranger), this before she enters the repressed and strictly governed world of a Japanese Catholic Nunnery, where she finds a world of unbelievable and bizarre ritual and suffering. Thus is the premise behind this utterly awful sexploitation film, `Sei Ju Gakuen' or more better known by its sensationalized English title `School of the Holy Beast'. This film has it all.self flagellation, Lesbianism, S & M torture and bondage, catfights, rampant nudity, rape and sex. `Sei Ju Gakuen' seems to have an odd perception of Catholicism at times bordering on distain as the film constantly warps and perverts Religious Ceremony and juxtaposes Holy Symbolism with carnal sex and violence. The use of Nuns is but a gimmick used to wrap-around this mixed up story which takes elements from many of Toei's other exploitation films of the time like director Norifumi's earlier `Onna Bancho' AKA Sukeban -1971. Takegawa Yumi thankfully went on to star in better things than this as she is wasted on this ill conceived project. It's probably better not to read too much into the film but suffice to say `Sei Ju Gakuen' is your standard '70's exploitation film (and not a very good one) whose only selling point is in its pure shamelessness.

Another audacious exploitation diamond from ace genre director Norifumi Suzuki.

In the film's title sequence, a rich fog clears to reveal a distant convent, the home of a salacious order of nuns who not-so-secretly indulge in every "sin" under the sun. It is crystal clear, even at this point, that we are in the hands of a master cinematician who is an adept hand at creating authentic worlds within worlds.

Suzuki directed the wonderful "Sex and Fury", another exercise in outrageousness, and gems such as "Stray Cat Rock: Sex Hunter", but the film that cemented his reputation for me is this beautifully and lovingly photographed love letter to debauchery and "Beautiful Girl Hunter", truly one of the finest and most confronting pink flicks ever made.

What makes Suzuki's films so strong is his sincerity and the full commitment he brings to the inflammatory material.

Scenes of violent flagellation become painterly portraits in blood. The use of slow motion during a scene in which a nun is whipped with rose bushes is simply surreal. The lesbian couplings are quietly volcanic and the prologue, in which a novice enjoys her last night in the outside world, establishes the film's ironic tone.

The score by Masao Yagi is gloriously operatic and the art direction by Suzuki regular Shuichiro Nakamura is most accomplished and gloriously rich.

Don't miss this stunning work of pop art.

SCHOOL OF THE HOLY BEAST is another great mid-70's Japanese film in the same vein as the pinky-violence/exploit films of the era. This one takes a religious turn instead of samurai's and what not, but has the same feel as many of the 70's "classic" Japanese underground films that deal with love, hate, betrayal, and revenge ...

This one deals with a young woman who joins a convent. As the story goes on, we see that the convent isn't what it's cracked up to be. Lesbianism, flagellation, rape, and tons of other sacrilegious "fun" stuff ensues - which all revolves around our main "heroine" and her background that ties in beautifully with the rest of the film. Needless to say, our main girl is a woman scorned and has a few scores to settle...

I've been watching a lot of Japanese stuff from this era lately, and what gets me most is how well done these films are. The sets are always lush and beautiful, the costumes are top-notch, the acting is very good, the cinematography is breathtaking, and the story-lines are always very deep and interesting. I love exploit style films from all over the world, and my only gripe is that the Japanese don't show full frontal nudity or more explicit sex scenes...but being from '74, this film delivers on a lot of different levels. There are plenty of sleazy torture and topless scenes that are filmed so well that it looks like an art-film. SCHOOL has plenty of twists that are somewhat unexpected, and proves to be pretty "controversial" without ever becoming overly "schlocky". I highly recommend this one to any exploit fan, and especially those that dig Japanese films from this time-frame such as LADY SNOWBLOOD, SEX AND FURY, FEMALE PRISONER SCORPION, or even the ZATOICHI and BABYCART films. 8.5/10

Well, "nunspolitation" is definitely a niche of a sub-genre. Firstly, it's pornographic, including bondage and rape. Secondly, it's choosing to go against religion, which isn't exactly a mainstream position (yet?). However, within this sub-genre, "Sexploitation - School Of The Holy Beast" is definitely an excellent movie. In fact, I would call it an all-out classic.

This movie is in Japanese (although subtitles are available; I watched it with English subtitles), so even people who might like it probably didn't watch it or understand the plot. This is an unsung classic that deserves to be up there with "Shogun Assassin (1980)". What sets it apart is the storyline. Judging from the previous comments, most people don't "get the story line", so I'll introduce it:

Although set in Japan, this movie is located in a Roman-Catholic nunnery. The impression I get is that the nunnery is in Japan, within walking distance of a metropolis, but due to its high walls, etc. perhaps isolated from the town center totally. It's also rather big and might be in the country-side, but since they are greenhouses it could also just be in the suburbs of, say, Japan. There's a scene where a nun arrives from Rome, and all of the rituals are based on Catholic canon, including reverence for the Virgin Mary, Jesus on the cross, etc.

If you don't want to know anything about the story, stop reading here.

The protagonist decided to have a bit of fun before joining the nunnery, and so has a one-night stand with a total stranger (we know this because he only tells her his name after they're done having sex and lying next to each other). She joins because she doesn't know anything about her biological parents except that her mother was one a none at this nunnery.

Apparently, she's recently turned 18, and decides to fulfill her adulthood by joining "undercover" to investigate. They're several story arcs which unfold and are resolved, as the corruption and true nature of the nunnery as a "demonic" city of destruction is revealed. Right until the very end, the three main anti-laws which it is devoted to observing: lust, murder, and theft, are evidently what they have sustained themselves on for nearly 2 decades, if not longer.

Without spoiling the story, it is very engrossing, although I was initially put off by the slow opening (which shows a slice of the protagonist's life before joining), after about 10 minutes when the drama started unfolding within the monastery, it was extremely engrossing and just as gripping as any modern drama, if not more so.

They are several creative scenes which use good effects (esp. for 1974), and show a lot of thought went into design of the "world" of the monastery (such as the "trap door" scene, you'll know it when you see it).

Contrary to other comments, I found that the main characters are well fleshed out, and the plot is revealed in interesting sections. Also, despite the "taboo" nature of the sex, it actually all fits into the plot, it's not like the typical "I'm bored, so let's do it" porn which is so common in the "Western" world. Nothing is just there for the sake of sex, every time you see an exposed nipple, it is related to the plot directly. If this was such a thing as "tasteful" use of nudity and violence, this would definitely be an example thereof.

They are real-world illusions to Opus Dei (sp?) as mentioned in Da Vinci code and so forth, but I'll not get into that because it is really irrelevant.

All in all, I can't find anything wrong with this, other that that it's in Japanese and mono or whatever; the film transfer is good but an English audio re-dub which is well done would be nice, although who would finance that for a 1974 film which I bound to be banned (or shunned) in most Christian states?

School of the Holy Beast is a sacrilegious blast of exploitation that combines pinky violence, nunsploitation, Bava-esque colors and some of the wildest moments you've ever seen in a movie maybe ever. Japan is not Christian or even Catholic, yet somehow they love to make nunsploitation films. This movie proves that they come close and may even go further than their Italian moviemaking competition.

Maya Takigawa (Yumi Takigawa, Karate Bearfighter) has become one of the sisters of the Sacred Heart Convent to learn why her mother was whipped and hung herself before in death giving birth to Maya. I'm sure you can figure out that the Abbess Sadako Matsumara (Yoko Mihara) was the one who was always jealous of Maya's mother Michiko and that the man who was her father is the blind Father Kakinuma (Fumio Watanabe). Yet this movie embraces style - and excess - and delivers everything you come to these movies for and more, include self-flagellation, sinful nuns, a nun forced to drink salt water and be held over a portrait of Jesus to see if she's possessed and will urinate all over it, evil nuns falling through trap doors and getting launched out windows and being impaled on a fence and a scene where the nuns all whip another with roses after she's tied up with rose thorns and small motion petals dance in front of the camera and blood slowly makes its way, as red as any fake hemoglobin that Mario Bava committed to screen against the lush green of the vines. Has blasphemy ever looked so gorgeous?

It all ends on Christmas night, as the priest makes love to his daughter - he didn't know until its too late - before being stabbed with a crucifix by the ghost of Maya's mother and then the camera spins and sails into the ceiling to show him dead in the shape of an upside-down cross.

Norifumi Suzuki is definitely going to Hell but at least he left this behind to corrupt more souls who will join him in eternal torment. He made fifty more movies, including the incredible Hoero Tekken,and Karei-naru tsuiseki as well as another movie filled with sleaze, Sex and Fury. Suzuki also directed the ten-movie Torakku Yaro series in which Momojiro Hoshi and Kinya Aikawa race around Japan in dekotora or highly decorated trucks. I need to watch everything he made. He often worked with his co-writer on this movie, Masahiro Kakefuda.

Imagine if an Italian Gothic horror film, a giallo and a nun film all got together, got high and talked about the issues behind everything man has endured. That gives you a clue of just how wild this movie gets, except it may even defile - not a typo for defy - your expectations so much further.

You have to love a heroine who literally destroys an entire convent and then just walks the street of the city, away from this secret world and back in the world of the living, no one knowing the things that she's seen or what she's done.

Boy, this sure doesn't hold back when casting a scathing view of the Catholic church. No stone is unturned. Everything is in this film. Duck for that kitchen sink because the hypocrisy and secrets hidden within the abbey of the church of nuns examined here is riddled with sin and deprivation. The kick is that, through Norifumi Suzuki's magnificent direction, this isn't just a cheapo exploit flick, but a legit art film.

The film's protagonist, Maya, to me isn't very different that Nami, the Scorpion in the Female Prisoner film, except she infiltrates a dirty convent seeking answers regarding her mother's fate within the confines of what was supposed to be a religious community of believers. Where a dirty cop is behind the ills of Nami, a bitter priest, Father Kakinuma(Fumio Watanabe)is the man responsible for what ails Maya. The Priest and the Vice Abbess, a woman seething with lust running through very loins. The fact is this flick exposes the ugly truth of what could occur behind the closed walls of a hidden place secretively inactive from the outside world. Here's this modern girl, Maya(the yummy Yumi Takigawa)who we see enjoying the pleasantries of life before entering the repressed innards of a community harboring hidden immorality under a cloak of righteousness. She is the offspring of that very lust and sin that lies quietly buried underneath the cloak, and through her, will those iniquities be exposed. Though, when you threaten to expose hidden dirty old secrets, there are bound to be consequences. Her very life will be threatened by not only the Vice Abbess, but a "witch-finding nun" sent into the convent by Kakinuma to put an end to a thorn in his flesh which could finally awaken the monster he really is. Kakinuma is quite a character..hidden underneath bushy long hair and thick mustache, not to mention this cloak which removes our eyes from a horrifying act that occurred from the past, is this menacing quiet beast who seems to be a loving man of God who any nun or God-fearing Christian could confide in when dealing with problems of the flesh, is, himself, holding rather unpleasant feelings toward everyone including the Lord he serves. He seeks answers from God("Where is God when man needs him?") while constantly bedding nuns who revere him.

What sins are hidden within this convent:lesbian lovers keeping their love-making secret from everyone, a Mother Superior who confiscates sex photos she masturbates to, nuns who enjoy the sight of women being whipped(director Suzuki often pulls his camera in on their faces as they look on wide-eyed with enthusiasm), the persecution room(readily used such as the case when Maya is being tortured with thorny vines twisting around her body, piercing her flesh as a nun on each side pulls with all their might), a nun who stole money from the Vice Abbess so that she could pay for her father's hospital bills for which she receives a rape from Kakinuma, etc. The torture scene where Maya is being treated to thorny rose vines is rather hard to watch as director Suzuki tightens the camera on how they slide back and forth underneath her breasts. But, what follows is actually both unpleasant and beautiful..the nuns collectively slap Maya across the face with bouquets of roses as Suzuki shows her face whipping to and fro in slow motion as petals fall poetically like snow around her body. It's quite a feat to create such a scene which can alternately compel and repel. And, that whipping scene, the first one inside the infamous persecution room, is amazingly photographed as Suzuki's camera goes berserk following the action as the two nuns, caught by a spy, eating sausages. The most horrific sequence in the film, the witch-trial of a pregnant nun, who was raped by Kakinuma, is quite a dazzling moment in the film. We see her agonizingly put through the ringer, whipped with blood stripes opening on her skin, salt water poured in her mouth(..forced to swallow an entire pail), and held inside a chair as the clock ticks with this container under her legs(with a gold crucifix at it's center)ready for urine to flow. If she urinates, this poor soul will be condemned as a witch.

Not just your run-of-the-mill nunsploit, although I'm not an expert in the subversive sub-genre, I'd be hard-pressed to expect another to be any better than this one. Lots of breasts exposed as well as unceasing stabs at Catholicism...there's a vehement anti-Catholic attitude that permeates throughout and use of Christian iconography(the use of a crucifix to kill, the destruction of a Virgin Mary statuette, blood puddling down a portrait of THE LAST SUPPER)in exploitive ways. Certainly not for all tastes..some will find this film very offensive. Maya, an unshakable force to be reckoned with, will unleash her revenge on those responsible for her mother's demise.