BA_Harrison When Michio Kurahashi is suspected of being a serial killer and goes on the run, his pretty sister Satomi hires a psychic in a desperate bid to prove his innocence. And precisely what happens after that is anyone's guess...I usually jot down notes whilst watching a film to help make life easier for me when it comes to writing a comment, but about half an hour into Crazy Lips I put down my pen and paper, for accurately summarising the plot to this insane movie was clearly going to be impossible and all the scribbling in the world wouldn't help me to express my feelings about it.So I'm going to wing it, sans notation; bear with me...In a world where most mainstream cinema has become dull and predictable, I can always find time for the completely demented and bizarre, and Crazy Lips is just that—a depraved, off-the-wall piece of Japanese cinema that defies simple categorisation. Supernatural horror, mystery, music, soft porn, and martial arts are combined by director Hirohisa Sasakito to produce a messed up piece of work reminiscent of movie maverick Takashi Miike's offbeat output, only one lacking that director's unique narrative skills, sense of style and intelligence.But although Sasaki might not be a real threat to Miike when it comes to confrontational cinema (Takashi still holds the title 'King of Japanese Weirdness' for producing monumentally effed up movies like Visitor Q and Fudoh), Crazy Lips is still the only film I have ever seen to feature the wandering spirits of decapitated girls, a pair of FBI agents who keep an eye on proceedings through the screen of a television set, a scalping during intercourse, and a woman being forcefully double teamed by an evil psychic's assistant and a hanging corpse with a hard-on.All of which must surely count for something.

Melanie Skipp-Combs This movie can only and has only been described in my circle of friends as the Stain. Because all who witness it's perverse power find themselves Stained. It's not that the movies bad, it's just that so many horrible things in-explicitly interwoven with so much randomness, that you laugh when things are horrifying and you clutch yourself in terror when something random and almost funny happens. And as you sit through more and more of it, you find that a funny black smudge is starting to infect your soul. Not a lot of it, but enough to be noticeable. After much scrubbing and scalding oil, we found the Stain to be fastly stuck with no possible solution. Unless you see Gore From Outer Space. Gore can in some ways, reverse some small effects of Crazy Lips....not all of the Stainness will be removed, but enough of it to breathe freely (and not find yourself feeling sick).Hope this was helpful

wjohanb Crazy Lips is a thoroughly enjoyable and bizarre flick, where I really had no idea what was coming next, and often was enthralled by new hilarious or thrilling twists and turns. But, in the end, I found myself simply feeling ill, for the basic reason that 4 out of the 5 female characters in the film are raped, in the traditional anime style of,"wait, are those sounds of pain and trauma or are the girls getting off on this"? Among all the gleefull gross and inventive gags, this repeating aspect simply disturbed me. I understand that to take anything of this movie and treat it seriously is rather silly, but I was bothered by the rapes presented as such. Anal rape! Ha ha ha! It just didn't sit well with me, and made it difficult to enjoy the rest of the flick. I'm not so narrow minded as to think that these scenes will inspire people to rape young girls in the ass as they are forced onto the erection of a dying hanging man, but the gratuitous shots of the young girls sweaty chest, her sounds of pain and anguish slowly turning into gasps of excitement and pleasure as she is (with overt squelching noises) violated from in front and behind represent a disturbing attitude that rape, such a violent and tragic reality, isn't really that bad; that girls might even like it, or deserve it. Certainly others have been able to enjoy the movie despite these scenes, and one could easily say that I'm being hypocritical, as I have no qualms about the violence and torture in the film being presented humorously. Maybe so, but I have yet to find any aspect of rape, no matter how cartoonishly or ridiculously it is presented, entertaining. There is a very real social stigma about rape, in America, Japan, and everywhere else. It is a brutal reality that is perpetrated on women and children and men as well every day across the globe, and it is also the least reported crime in the world. Such a very brutal and destructive crime perhaps should merely be treated with respect for the victims, not exploitation, no matter how harmlessly intended.

Latheman-9 I would have to say the most bizarre movie I've seen to date is Shinya Tsukamoto's "Tetsuo" (1988), but "Crazy Lips" comes in a close second. Writer Hiroshi Takahashi, director Hirohisa Sasaki, and producer Takashige Ichise all have a hand in piling genre upon genre in the making of this uncategorizable film. There's something for everybody here, and no hint as to what direction the movie is headed from one scene to the next, so just sit back and enjoy the ride. The only American-made films I've seen that come even remotely close to this amalgamation of forms are "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension" (1984) and "Six-string Samurai" (1998). If you like either of those, or even if you don't, then this movie is worth catching. Rating: 6/10.