BA_Harrison With an interest in both extreme Japanese horror and the theme of snuff films in general, I simply had to see Muzan-e, which by all accounts was pretty messed up. As I expected, I found myself quite sickened by this film, although surprisingly it wasn't the brutal violence that upset me the most, but rather the taboo-busting and rather stomach-churning scenes that centred on the bizarre world of fetish porn, all of which only go to reaffirm my idea of Japan as a Mecca for the truly twisted!Muzan-e seems fairly routine at first: shot in faux documentary form, it sees a female reporter investigating the disappearance of an AV starlet famed for her 'specialist' work. After unearthing some background information on the missing girl and conducting several interviews with those who worked with her (during which we snippets of her 'performing'), the reporter gets her hands on a video tape that purportedly shows the woman being tortured and killed on-camera by two brothers, fans who abduct their idol only to decide that they have the wrong person. Although it's strong stuff, after what had gone before, I wan't too phased by the realism of the tape or the gore effects, which is par for the course for this kind of thing.However, in an unexpected twist (that I have to admit doesn't completely make sense to me), the reporter eventually becomes a victim of the brothers herself, but while she too is subjected to torture and mutilation, it is revealed that… well, I won't spoil it for you, but don't be surprised if you are left a tad confused by what you have seen. Overall, though, this is a bold, bloody and disturbing film and a must-see for fans of the rough stuff.

jdbmjf The Camera-work on the film is complete crap, it looks like it was filmed on a second hand camera brought from a car boot sale in Tokyo, and edited on an old junk yard hard drive. The actors look like they've been pulled off the street or are out of work porn stars, The special FX consist of a fake knife, and some ketchup. Its filmed in some kind of basement, with lousy shots of a city street. In all, it serves only as inspiration to make your own low budget film, you could pick up some techniques, other than that, don't bother watching it.

Linus Abrahamson I checked this movie out for the same reasons as most others, I would presume. I wanted to see what has been hyped as "some of the nastiest sh*t out there." But sadly I was once again disappointed, as I have been many times before when that line has been used to describe a horror/gore/splatter film. The storyline is nothing more than a reporter following up a tape with snuff on it and gets too close to the people involved for her own good. I was expecting a lot of gore, blood and guts in this one, but there was definitely not as much as the hype had led me to believe. As most Japanese produced films of this kind, this one has gone through pixel censorship, meaning it doesn't show all the really nasty stuff which is really why you'd like to see this film in the first place. (If you're one of the very few people who would like to see it simply because of the storyline, I'd suggest you save your money for something better.) If you're not used to this type of extreme film, I bet this could be "the nastiest sh*t". But if you, like me, have seen quite a lot in the genre, this film really isn't any special in terms of "extremeness". For the fans of this type of films, I'd highly recommend Men Behind The Sun, Audition and/or Ichi the Killer instead!

chuck-219 Okay. I'd read that this was the absolute bomb (as far as extreme exploits were concerned), so I was really psyched for this one. All I can say is, "meh". Maybe it's the fact that I can't see anything with these damned, pixelized Jap flicks. Weren't these guys Samurais once? I mean, can you possibly imagine Samurais covering up their female spoils with pixelation? I think not.Anyway, the plot (and I had no subs, so bear with me). A reporter is doing an exposé on the porn industry and stumbles onto something that she shouldn't have. The perpetrators of said stumbling kidnap her and do some nasty stuff to our heroine.Okay, this one does have some things going for it. Some juicy menstrual "teething", a nipple bitten off and a few disturbing moments involving damsels in distress (on hand-held camera). However, nothing can really be seen while our Japanese buddies pixelate everything out. I mean, it would be really easy to save money on special effects and makeup men by simply producing your film in Japan. A little pixelation here, a little pixelation there and voilà; budget met.I don't normally care for Italian flicks, but at least they show the nasty bits in full view of the camera. Why settle for a pixelated, bitten nipple when you can see a woman hoisted up by her breasts on meathooks? Oh well. Rant over. I can at least say that I saw it.Charlie.