ORGIES OF EDO – The Blu Review

Review by Roger Carpenter

Teruo Ishii made a career out of directing numerous installments for several popular Japanese film series.  Starting in the late 50’s he directed no less than six of the nine films in the Super Giant series, a sci-fi series geared towards children (and better known to American television viewers as the syndicated Starman).  He followed this up with a four-film stint for Shintoho Studio’s film noir line of movies.  But perhaps he is most famous for directing no less than ten films in the 18-film Abashiri Prison series for Toei Studios.  Thankfully for viewers of the outlandish and the macabre, Ishii wasn’t done with directing film series.

In 1968, Ishii, a lifelong fan of the Japanese author Edogawa Ranpo, initiated a series entitled The Joys of Torture.  This eight-film series—each directed by Ishii–purported to examine Japan’s history of torture through fictional portmanteau-style films.  With titles like The Shogun’s Joys of Torture as well as the film being reviewed here, you can bet the exploitation angles were amped up.  Though little-seen in the west, their reputation for sleazy sex and over-the-top gore is legendary.

The title Orgies of Edo is a bit of a misnomer as there aren’t any orgies in the film.  It’s a classic example of huckstering by giving a film a controversial title to sell tickets.  However, sell tickets it did, as did all eight films in the series.  While popular in Japan, the films were never given releases in America, and only one or two were even given video releases.  Those titles are extremely hard to come by and the entire series remains little seen in the U.S.  Here’s hoping Arrow Video can acquire the rights to all eight films.

Orgies of Edo tells three separate stories. The first story recounts the fairly straightforward, if sad, tale of a naïve woman who falls for a low-level gangster type.  He tricks her into prostitution, telling her how he’s in debt and needs her to help him earn money before the yakuza track him down.  Meanwhile, the cad is sleeping with the woman’s sister. It’s a depressing but all too believable story that sees the woman humiliated, prostituted, and beaten, all for the love of a man who doesn’t return her feelings.  The second story amps up the ero-guro (erotic-grotesque) elements so beloved by both Ranpo and Ishii.  A woman is kidnapped, raped, and abused by a horribly disfigured man.  Due to her extended abuse the woman gains a taste for sex with deviants and freaks and hires a servant to procure for her all manner of distasteful debauchery.  But her servant has fallen for his mistress and thus reveals his love to her.  Laughing at him, she dismisses his advances and demands he procure yet another freak for her.  Of course, the servant doesn’t give up quite so easily and disfigures himself to become more attractive to his mistress.  It bears pointing out that the film was produced in 1968.  This story is certainly the most politically incorrect of the bunch by today’s PC standards.  No actual freaks are in the film and I would think that most of the characters who sleep with this lady would not be considered freaks today…unless you consider natural skin color or body size to be grotesque.  Enough said. The final story is the tale of a wealthy courtesan who enjoys seeing women tortured and killed, including a pretty spectacular scene with dozens of nude women being gored by bulls with flaming horns.  But when he meets a beautiful young woman with a penchant for pain, it’s a match made in Heaven…or is it a match made for Hell?  The young woman harbors a devastating secret that threatens to destroy both lovers.

Produced by Toei Studios, Orgies of Edo is low-budget filmmaking but doesn’t look low-budget at all.  The cinematography is excellent, colors are superb, and the screenplay is over-the-top, especially for 1968.  Sure, it’s dated a bit now, but viewing the film through the lens of a moviegoer in the late 60’s puts things into perspective.  I bet the film boggled both eyes as well as minds.  The acting is generally excellent, too.  Filmed at the very beginning of the Japanese “pinky” era, when sex and nudity were dramatically increased in films, Ishii would follow this film with his surreal, ero-goru masterpiece, Horrors of Malformed Man, also released by Arrow Video.

While not as prurient as the title suggests, Orgies of Edo is still highly entertaining for exploitation fans, even if politically incorrect by today’s standards.  I’m thrilled this rarely seen slice of sleaze is getting the Arrow treatment.  If there are any complaints to be made it’s with the limited amount of special features on the disc. It comes with the original theatrical trailer as well as a video appreciation by author Patrick Maccias.  The Maccias interview is interesting but I had hoped for much more material to enlighten fans about the film as well as the other films in the series.  However, very little was written about this series and even less is known about them, so it makes sense the features would be limited.  I shouldn’t gripe as it’s just spectacular that this film is not just readily available, but on a gorgeous Blu-Ray disc as well.  The first printing also includes a booklet with new writing on the film by Japanese film critic and author Tom Mes.

If you are a fan of pinky films, ero-guro, or Teruo Ishii, this disc should be essential for your collection.  Much discussed yet little-seen, this film is now available for purchase at Amazon or you can purchase the film directly from Arrow Video at http://www.arrowfilms.co.uk/category/usa/.