Takashi Ishii grew up loving film and aspired to become a director, however when his first attempts to break into the film industry failed he fell into the career of manga writer in order to make ends meet. He ended up writing for Young Comic where he wrote the successful and violent Angel Guts. Ishii was approached by an employee of the Nikkatsu film company, one of the oldest of its kind in Japan. Nikkatsu had been making money with rather explicit films that had to increasingly push the envelope of explicit content as viewers tastes became jaded with just old-fashioned straight sex scenes. Enter Ishii‘s Angel Guts and a new series was started as each of the five chapters centred around the rape of a female character that though different in every film, was always called Nami and brought to the west in a DVD box set by ArtsMagic. The first film, directed by Chusei Sone who would also direct the second, could prove to be the hardest to accept by today’s western audience outside of exploitation flick veterans.

Tetsuro, Kajima and Sadakumi are immoral punk trash, illustrated in graphic fashion as we are introduced to them through the attacking of a couple and the gang raping of the woman that follows. Kajima is a horny, seemingly deranged misanthrope who seems to lead the group, Tetsuro is less demented but just as fond of sexual assault, while Sadakumi is more or less just an observer who is unable to take part due to an unnamed but fairly obvious deficiency. For Tetsuro however, he has some semblance of responsibility as he lives alone with his teenage sister who he is extremely protective towards. This odd double standard sparks a problem within Tetsuro’s gang however when he finds Kajima harassing a girl who is of a very similar age to his sister and is even wearing the same school uniform. Tetsuro briefly develops a conscience and stops Kajima from bringing any harm to the girl, seriously pissing off his two friends in the process. He finds that the girl dropped her purse however and finding her ID card learns where she lives and that her name is Nami Tsuchiya. A contrite Tetsuro goes to see Kajima later and even though he is in the process of having sex with his girlfriend at the time he tells his buddy that he can make amends by pursuing and raping young Nami herself. Tetsuro goes through with it but becomes a little preoccupied with her in the process, protecting her again from the crazed Kajima but risking the innocence of his own sister in doing so.

This scribe has always believed in giving films a chance, that risqué or morally troubling content might indeed overshadow the positive aspects a film has to offer. For instance, fellow film reviewer Kenneth over at So Good… is extremely fond of the genre of video nasties that got the infamous Category III rating in Hong Kong and speaks of films that despite their graphic nature still have considerable worth if one is willing to look beyond the harsh depictions of violence. However, Angel Guts: High School Co-ed can boast of very little such value beyond its brutal degradation of women. In an attempt to avoid being totally negative in the film’s favour is that it can be visually striking at times, Tetsuro is plagued by strange and violent dreams that are reduced down to bright, over-exposed sepia-tinted black and white that prove very effective. However this is a film that has a central theme that is so deplorable, without any moral balance to reassure the viewer, this film leaves an extremely foul taste in the mouth.

The main characters are morally reprehensible hedonists that never pay for their crimes, and the viewer is given no catharsis as the film limps to a dully violent ending as Tetsuro pathetically attempts to bring himself to some sort of justice. From the first rape scene onwards it is obvious what an up-hill struggle this is to be, as the gang’s first victim actually encourages Sadakumi to rape her after the other two have finished with her, suggesting that she has actually come to enjoy her being attacked in some way. Women are portrayed in this film as weak vessels for male gratification as the central characters, especially Kajima, revel in the degradation of females they encounter. Sadly this film seems to have little else in mind than to provide titillation, despite the morals of Tetsuro who is the closest this film has to a hero, they are incredibly shaky at best as even the protective feelings towards his sister are given an unsavoury incestuous slant. The sexual scenes are drawn out, vivid affairs and the only restraint afforded the viewer were imposed upon the film by censorship laws in Japan. The viewer is put alongside Sadakumi as an observer, living vicariously through the characters as they commit their despicable acts. Even the one scene of consensual sex between Kajima and his girlfriend is a degrading exercise in male gratification. The only positive thing that can be said about this film’s themes is that the characters are never portrayed as sympathetic, these men are anti-social punks living on the fringe of society and the story makes no attempt to suggest they are anything more.

For the average viewer this film is trash, while the depiction of sexual violence does will not always totally discount the content of a film, here only the hardened fans of exploitation cinema will get any thrills out of this. Thankfully the Angel Guts films can only improve after this, allowing Takashi Ishii and director Chusei Sone to get off with a warning this time.