- Document type
- Book review
- Published
- 16 February 2004
Eros in Hell - Sex, Blood and Madness in Japanese Cinema
- Author:
- Jack Hunter
- Publisher:
- Creation Books
Mondo Macabro
- Author:
- Pete Tombs
- Publisher:
- Titan
- Review by:
- Tom Mes and Jasper Sharp
The title of Jack Hunter's Eros in Hell: Sex, Blood and Madness in Japanese Cinema leaves no prizes for guessing the scope of its contents. Part of Creation Cinema's line of books that sprung forth from the American alternative magazine circuit, Eros in Hell reads like a collection of magazine articles rather than a book. This is not necessarily a bad point when those articles form a consistent unity, but in this case the collection is somewhat arbitrary at times, combining interviews with extreme low-budget video auteurs like Takao Nakano with an overwrought attempt at analysing Oshima's In the Realm of the Senses. Although Hunter appears to have done most of his research in the work and collection of Thomas Weisser, his efforts are thankfully more comprehensive and less plagued by factual errors, although he does adhere to Weisser's pseudo-original title translations. There are some interesting facts to be found here on the more exploitational side of the industry, as well as information on such little-known names as Shojin Fukui, Hisayasu Sato and the previously mentioned Nakano. However, my main complaint is with the stills chosen to illustrate the text. Apparently the criterium was to be as violently and sexually explicit as possible without crossing the line into X-rated material. Although there is nothing inherently wrong with explicitness, in this case it might do the book more harm than good. Not only might it turn off potential readers, but it also misrepresents the writing, which is far less sensationalist than the endless parade of women getting raped, beaten, bondaged and otherwise mistreated would suggest. Overall a somewhat hit-and-miss affair.
Availability
Eros in Hell - Sex, Blood and Madness in Japanese Cinema
Creation Books
If the Weisser approach turns you off completely, then I'd strongly advise you take a look at Pete Tombs' superlative Mondo Macabro (Titan), which proves single-handedly that cult writing can be enlightening, informative and insightful even whilst covering films that most serious film academics wouldn't touch with a barge pole. Pete Tombs' credentials as a writer who is prepared to dig far beneath the more sensationalist aspects of the exploitation genre in an attempt to get to grips with the cultural forces that give rise to its salacious delights, were pretty well established with his first book on obscure European sex and horror films, Immoral Tales. In the introduction of his second, subtitled Weird & Wonderful Cinema Around the World, he perceptively makes the valid point that "Art cinema, from almost anywhere in the world, tends to follow the same gods of style; the French new wave and the Italian neo-realist still reign supreme. Genre films, on the other hand, always grow out of their country's most deeply ingrained traditions." In a book which attempts to lift the lid on some of the weirdest and obscurest curios from around the world, from Indonesian women-in-prison and vampiric flying head movies, Turkish sex films and remakes of Star Trek, Bollywood versions of Superman and Spiderwoman, trashy Filipino actioners and some of the wildest Hong Kong phooey, Tombs' three chapters on Japanese exploitation say more about the subject than Weisser does in his entire range of Encyclopediae. An eye-popping read, outstandingly researched, illuminating and heartily recommended, whatever your interest in cinema.
Availability
Mondo Macabro
Titan