In a very rare instance, the British Board of Film Classification has refused to grant an 18 certificate to Japanese horror movie “Grotesque” due to the amount of unacceptable content featured throughout the film.
Set for distribution in the UK by 4Digital Asia, “Grotesque” concerns the abduction of a young couple by the film’s main protagonist, a psychotic sadist, who proceeds to restrain, strip and sexually assault his victims before torturing them to death.
The decision to ban the film was taken by BBFC director David Cooke and senior colleagues who claimed, “Unlike other recent ‘torture’ themed horror works, such as the ‘Saw’ and ‘Hostel’ series, ‘Grotesque’ features minimal narrative or character development and presents the audience with little more than an unrelenting and escalating scenario of humiliation, brutality and sadism. In spite of a vestigial attempt to ‘explain’ the killer’s motivations at the very end of the film, the chief pleasure on offer in not related to understanding the motivations of any of the central characters. Rather, the chief pleasure on offer seems to be wallowing in the spectacle of sadism (including sexual sadism) for its own sake.”
The last time a film was rejected by the BBFC was in April of this year when “NF713″ (aka “Enemy Of The State”) was refused an 18 certificate. In February 2008 the film “Murder Set Pieces” was also rejected. Prior to that, the Board had not refused an 18 rating since 2005 when the film “Terrorists, Killers And Other Wackos”, a work made up of real clips of executions and torture, was turned down.
A spokesperson for 4Digital Asia expressed surprise at the outright rejection of “Grotesque”, stating, “We knew that the BBFC was debating the content of the film quite intensely but we had expected to receive from the BBFC a list of recommended cuts enabling the film to be passed with an 18 certificate. We are now considering whether or not to appeal against the Board’s decision.”
Welcome to a Japanese nightmare…
Billed as “the cruelest Japanese splatter movie ever” (a statement that doesn’t do the film’s graphic scenes of torture and dismemberment anywhere near enough justice), GROTESQUE is a survival horror movie that makes the likes of “Saw” and “Hostel” look like “Mary Poppins” in comparison.
Written and directed by Koji Shiraishi (Carved aka A Slit-Mouthed Woman) and starring Hiroaki Kawatsure (Chanbara Beauty; Carved) and Japanese porn star Tsugumi Nagasawa (Tokyo Gore Police), the film takes the concept of Japanese extreme cinema to a whole new level.
A girl, Aki (Tsugumi Nagasawa), and her new boyfriend, Kazuo (Hiroaki Kawatsure), are mugged, knocked unconscious and kidnapped by an unknown assailant. They wake up to find themselves bound and gagged in a torture chamber-style basement at the mercy of a man armed with a mind-boggling array of kitchen implements and power tools whose only pleasure is gained from the suffering of others. So begins a slow and sustained assault during which the couple is gradually hacked, mutilated and degraded to the point where death becomes a more desirable option to living. Or is it? When one captive is offered the chance to die in order to save the life of the other, the question of how far one would go for a loved one is answered in the most unpleasant of ways.