Rei Imamura has quickly become the latest Japanese
exploitation queen to challenge the throne recently held by Kei Mizutani
(WEATHER WOMAN, TERMINATRIX, SUMO VIXENS). Rei Imamura has quickly cut
her teeth on the Japanese direct-to-video productions which are far
superior to their Hollywood counterparts. After paying her dues in Japan’s
softcore video industry, Rei Imamura received rave reviews for her
performance in the acclaimed Japanese horror film, BAPTISM OF BLOOD. She
followed up this success with starring roles in LEGEND OF THE DEVIL
(1996), XX (1996), and MASSACRE’S ANGEL (1997). Central Park Media
recently released Rei Imamura’s 1996 movie XX on their Asian Pulp
Cinema line as BEAUTIFUL BEAST. XX is directed by cult director
Toshiharu Ikeda, the man who gave the world such bizarre offerings as
SCORPION WOMAN PRISONER: DEATH THREAT, ANGEL GUTS: RED PORNO, and the
EVIL DEAD TRAP series. For many lovers of Asian cult cinema, Toshiharu
Ikeda and Rei Imamura working together on a movie is a dream come true.
A Yakuza leader is dining with his two top dogs in
a Japanese restaurant, when the waitress serving them whips out a gun
and blows away all three men, leaving their leader with a bullet firmly
planted in his eye socket. The waitress is actually a Chinese assassin
named Ran, also known as the Black Orchid. The Yakuza thugs chase her on
the streets, where she hides out at a small underworld bar run by former
Yakuza sniper Yoichi (Takeshi Yamato). Ran was shot trying to escape,
and Yoichi offers to patch her up. She repays his efforts by making love
to him before taking off. The police immediately start a probe into the
triple murder. They soon discover that the killer is Ran, an assassin
with a vendetta against the mob for killing her little sister. Ran’s
sister was raped and killed by a powerful Chinese Triad member named Ho,
who works with the Yakuza in Japan. Ho now runs a whorehouse where Ran
is employed, as she wants to get as close to her target as she can.
There she befriends another young Chinese prostitute named Chun Li, who
reminds Ran of her dead sister. Ho finally deduces that Ran is the
assassin out to get him, and confronts her on it. A gunfight breaks out
at the whorehouse, with Ho hitting Chun Li instead of Ran. Ran feels bad
for her friend, and takes Chun Li to her apartment to nurse her wounds.
When Ho discovers that Ran has a soft spot for Chun Li, he orders his
men to kidnap her. Ho contacts Ran and demands that she meet him and his
gang to bargain for Chun Li’s life. Yoichi joins Ran on her quest to
rescue Chen Li and avenge the death of her sister. Unfortunately, the
cops and the entire Yakuza organization are on to Ran!
Even though BEAUTIFUL BEAST picks the bones of the
ZERO WOMAN franchise, director Toshiharu Ikeda adds a touch of his own
personal style to ensure the sleazy visuals and intense mood grab your
attention. Credit should go to Rei Imamura for bringing the Black Orchid
character to life, and successfully driving the narrative. The beautiful
actress never once smiles, and brings a sense of doom to the
proceedings; this is necessary as BEAUTIFUL BEAST is deadly serious, and
therein lies it’s power. The main villain and the peripheral
characters all serve their purposes, and each one has a few secrets and
surprises of their own, even Ran’s friends like Yoichi and Chun Li.
The target of Ran’s wrath, Ho, is a brutal, self serving prick who
makes a good foil for the assassin. At one point in the movie, he
captures Ran and tortures her much like he did her sister. This sparks
the fiery nature of Ran, who endures the torture so she can get close
enough to Ho kill him. The violence level in BEAUTIFUL BEAST is
staggering with lots of bloody special effects. Ran shoots her victims
in the eyes, then carves X’s into her head with a knife (hence the
original title, XX). Much of the violence is through gun battles and the
like. Toshiharu Ikeda also weaves in a few sex scenes between Ran and
Yoichi, and even though they only serve the purpose of stripping down
Rei Imamura, they are never boring. BEAUTIFUL BEAST is a well made
Japanese low-budget exploitation flick that never slows down and
succeeds in generating an aura of suspense.
Asian Pulp Cinema presents BEAUTIFUL BEAST uncut,
but truncated from the original ratio of 1.85.1 to 1.33.1. It appears
that Asian Pulp Cinema mastered this DVD from their VHS video as the
quality is severely lacking. BEAUTIFUL BEAST is a moody film that takes
place entirely at night. The black levels for this video presentation
are uncalibrated, and all the analog VHS anomalies are here. Grain is a
huge problem during these night scenes and the action always seems a
little hazy. Colors are full, but the images seems to bleed into each
other. With the video potential of DVD, it’s a shame that you can’t
appreciate the skin details of Rei Imamura’s nude scenes, because they
all look loike they are viewed through some kind of filter (not the
case, of course, just an example of how poor the transfer is). The sound
is Dolby Digital 2.0 in both the original Japanese language and the
English dub track. The sound fares better than the video with some clear
and precise stereo placement. The shot gun blasts and explosions
actually have a hint of bass. The dialog is undistorted and easily
understood. From the Special Features menu, you can view character
profiles for Ran, Yoichi, Ho, and Yaguchi. There are also trailers for
these other Asian Pulp Cinema titles on DVD:
- WEATHER WOMAN
- BLOWBACK: LOVE AND DEATH
- TERMINATRIX
- TOKYO MAFIA: YAKUZA WARS
- SUMO VIXENS
- LOVE AND DEATH
Although BEAUTIFUL BEAST is a quality exploitation
action film with a fair amount of intrigue, much of the film’s
potential is ruined by the efforts of the folks at Central Park Media.
With the advance technology of DVD, is unacceptable today to merely dump
a VHS transfer onto DVD and try to peddle it off for $29.99 (they could
probably get away with it if it were a $7.99 budget title). It appears
the suits at CPM are so focused on their anime division, that they are
letting their Asian Pulp Cinema line rot. There is no excuse for not
releasing these titles in widescreen. Their competitors Media Blasters
not only do widescreen on all their releases, but they’ve produced
some wonderful 16x9 enhanced stuff as well. If the Asian Cult Cinema
line is to thrive and grow, Central Park Media has to put more effort
behind their titles in terms of quality and extras.
BEAUTIFUL
BEAST is available from DVDEmpire.com
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