Recently downloaded an old Japanese mondo film called Nippon '69 sekkusu ryoki chitai from Cinemageddon. I won't bother trying to describe it, as it is way easier to just copy and paste the uploader's synopsis:
The first half of the film is, at least for myself, the most interesting. It is comprised of all sorts of bohemian shenanigans - bum artists, glue huffers, the street wraiths that haunted metropolitan Japan in the late sixties, young people dancing their nights away in seedy clubs - strange Kabuki-esque performances, tattooing, plastic surgery footage, some S&M stuff where a guy lies on the floor of a bar or something and the waitresses walk and pour dishwater over him, a droplet of watersports, drinking from the toilet and eating from a dog bowl, a row of men with lit candles stuck in their arses. The highlight of the film is probably the utterly bizarre sexual (?) performance involving men in plastic masks and suits bearing other similarly clad men on stretchers who perform in front of woman reclining in gynecological exam chairs with giant hoses attached to their groins. Amazing.
The second half is a little less interesting. It never completely wears out its welcome though. It has a beautiful aesthetic, of grainy film. Urban streets at night under neon lights, dilapidated towns and lush countryside serve as the backdrop to the scenes of bizarre sexual activity, along with the more banal footage: planes doing not much; an excess of student riot footage, perhaps in an attempt to lend some legitimacy to the film through political association, or just because that's all anyone was talking about in '69; sleazy men watching women strip. That sort of thing. Accompanied by an excellent jazz score that knows when to swing, to drive, or to lull the viewer into semi-hypnosis, it ends up being a pretty cool ride. Turn out the lights, smoke a doobie and have fun.
|