Out Of Context Cinema: School of the Holy Beast

NSFW (boobies).

School of the Holy Beast (aka Convent of the Sacred Beast).

I've seen plenty of nasty nun movies in my time - heck, there's a whole coffee table book about them - but this one takes the cake. It was the first of a wave of Japanese nunsploitation films, and arguably the best, which is no surprise since it comes from one of the best "pink film" directors, Norifumi Suzuki. His Wikipedia entry simply states that "his works deal with trucks, mafia, female delinquency students, and pornography." Nuff said.

The storytelling is top notch, the blood is poster-paint red, and the cinematography is completely stunning. But what do you care? We want nasty nun action! Fine, then, prepare yourself for blasphemous rites, nun cat-fights, peeing torture, murder by crucifix, death by acid bath, and lots and lots of whipping and topless flagellation. Oh, and the dirty dirty repressed sexuality includes everything from burning sapphic desires amongst the flower garden to incest to the sex-starved vice-abbess being willingly molested by two men disguised as nuns. All of this happens without ever dipping into the creepier pornographic world of much European nunsploitation cinema. Somehow this film manages to be completely exploitative and charmingly innocent at the same time.

Not only does the film gradually increase in over-the-top antics, but it actually has a story line with a great motive - revenge! Maya (Yumi Takigawa) is a 60s swinging gal. She likes fashion, movies, night-clubbing, and sex with her hunky beau. But we only see that for about five minutes, because she is about to join the Sacred Heart Convent in hopes of learning the secrets surrounding her mother's death. Behind the debauchery is a lecherous, god-hating archbishop who has been driven mad by witnessing the bombing of Nagasaki.

Bad habits, indeed.

Midnight Eye review - which isn't as glowing about the film as I, but does feature lots of interesting background info.
Amazon link.

Comments

[taso]

I'm dizzy from the camera spinning.

[JMet]

Man, I've got to see this one! Japanese horror is finally becoming trendier in the States, but if you want sick and twisted, skin-crawling thrillers and slasher films, Japan's got some good ones (S.Korea as well). It has a lot to do with cultural relativity, as the Japanese have a very different attitude towards violence depicted in the media.
For those not light of heart I highly recommend Takashi Miike's "Audition". But basically anything by Miike-san is gonna make you say "eeewww!" out loud at least twice.

[fatty jubbo]

weeeeeeeeeee! Looks like a lot of Japanese porn I have seen!