Admirable film.

A Disappointing Continuation

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Rape and it's consequences as the film follows a reporter, Nami Tsuchiya(Eri Kanuma) seeking, it seems, to exploit rape victims for their stories because they sell well in her magazine. It seems, however, that she also gets turned on by these stories, as we watch her often pleasure herself while bathing. Meanwhile, she soon discovers a man following her, Tetsuro Muraki(Takeo Chii) who so happens to be(..after she uncovers his identity)a former editor whose own wife allowed a burglar to rape her over and over, night after night, due to his impotence. Soon Nami crosses paths with a target who actually agrees to be interviewed, a nurse who was committed and recently released, & she gets a taste of what it's like to feel savaged and victimized. Muraki attempts to become Nami's savior, but once she's been treated as those she exploits, the psychological trauma is too much to bear.I'll say that the film features several disturbing rapes, relived by those who suffered them, including once where a woman is brutally pummeled before being ravaged on top of a car hood. Another victim(..who had become a recognized model), who successfully had her attacker imprisoned, must endure further sexual molestation at his hands once he's released(..to make the scene even more chilling, Nami watches, transfixed, from another room, silently, as the model surrenders to him). One powerful sequence of events features a victim(.. who had moved on with her life, raising a child and seemingly happy) refusing to interview for Nami, her photo taken, constantly harassed, eventually attempting to stab the reporter with a knife out of rage for her exploitation(..and, the fact that she had to relive that horrible memory over again, while also feeling humiliated for being put in the paper).The film doesn't let Nami off. She is rigorous in her pursuit for the rape story, intrudes into the lives of those who wish for such horrifying memories to remain in the past, unable to because the reporter is unwilling to let them off peacefully. Nami was bound to suffer for her sins. The fact that the movie shows how Nami finds the stories erotic is another rather unsettling element that plays out once she herself becomes a story. The relived memory of the psychotic nurse, who was rendered unconscious(..by anesthesia), raped, her stomach opened by a scalpel so the attacker could see her intestines, followed by a chase into the autopsy room where the poor girl is sexually molested in a formalin tank next to dead bodies(!)is really shocking. The overwhelming fantasy that erupts once Nami has been sodomized(..concerning her office of co-workers including her boss, also featuring her violent outburst towards Maruki who wishes to save her from it)is quite strikingly shot, using rain, light, wind(..look at how the papers get caught within a gust when they're not beating her across the skull/face)and the hypnotic, spellbound eyes of our protagonist..I guess, like her subjects, she becomes consumed by the assault. The director Noboru Tanaka is actually able to relate Takashi Ishii's unpleasant subject matter in a stylish, effective way, showing a high degree of nudity without the sex elaborated too explicitly.

"Angel Guts:Nami" is a third installment in Nikkatsu Studio's roman porno series.This time a young female reporter Nami tracks down women who have been savagely raped in the past.Unfortunately for her,she interviews a nurse who had been a victim of rape.Raping Nami and then brutally sodomizing her,the nurse has in fact shown Nami what she was looking for.Once again,like the victim she has interviewed,Nami herself becomes suicidal,unbalanced and feeling very dirty."Angel Guts:Nami" is a pretty nasty Japanese rape film.It's a well-directed and superbly lit assault on viewer's senses.The rape scenes are rather brutal and will certainly leave some viewers disturbed,but anyone who likes Japanese pink movies won't be disappointed.The acting is quite good with Eri Kanuma giving excellent performance as Nami.So if you enjoyed other installments of controversial "Angel Guts" series you can't go wrong with "Nami".8 out of 10.

This third entry in the "Angel Guts" films is as different to the "Red Classroom" as that one was to "High School Co Ed". This film has Nami, a reporter for a popular womens' magazine, doing a series of stories on rape victims. The film draws parallels with the sensialistic exploitative treatment that rape victims, whom just want to forget and move on from the tragic event in their lives, get from the media and how in some ways that can be as bad or worse than the act itself. Nami is willing to do anything to get these victims to tell about their rapes, with all the juicy lurid details, all in the name of the dubious sound-byte "saving other girls from having to go through it". Director Noboru Tanaka took over for the director of the two previous films, Chusei Sone. Tanaka's style is decidedly more visually harse as I found myself squirming in my seat numerous times, this outing is NOT one for the faint of heart. Furthermore, to my horror, I found myself wanting for Nami to be inevitably raped herself for the awful treatment of the victims. Suffice it to say I needed a shower to clean the grime off me after this one.My Grade: B- DVD Extras: Commentary by Jasper Sharp; Bio/Filmographies; a 40 minute interview with Noboru Tanaka; Original Sleeve art; and Trailers for this and 4 other Angel Guts Films (High School Co Ed, Red Classroom, Red Vertigo, & Red Porno) all available in Artsmagik's Box-set, but for some reason the 6th film "Angel Guts: Red Flash" is not in the set

Just when you feel you may have, at last, some measure of Japanese cinema you find out that you do not even have the measure of this ultra extraordinary series - this being number three. Absolutely non stop and for almost a half of the time this means non stop rape sequences. Nami is investigating the consequences of rape by searching out the victims and interviewing them for her magazine. We see the enactment as she reads up on it and we see it again when the individual relates it and sometimes we see it again as Nami's fascination deepens and she begins to fantasise. For good measure we get a re-run of them all at the end as well. As well as all this the tone of the film, fairly routine at the very beginning, begins to take on a sultry sexiness, then a more stylised slant before tipping deliriously over the edge with wide scale scenes of madness, mayhem and more rape with bloody violence added in. As if it were not enough the Nami is gradually getting more sexually excited by these stories she is retelling but we discover that her new found boyfriend is estranged from his wife because she went off with her rapist! There are so many mixed messages in here I shall be interested to listen to the commentary track and also to see this incredible tour de force once more. But not for the moment, this is a very difficult and emotional ride and if I was not shaking afterwards I was certainly profoundly affected. Bold, courageous film making taken way beyond the edge and down through many murky, but not unexciting, levels of depravity.