Arrow Video, with domestic sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment Group, has select Feb. 23 as the street for a newly-minted Blu-ray edition of Japanese filmmaker Teruo Ishii’s 1968 anthology, Shogun’s Joy of Torture.
Talk about a film way, way, way ahead of its time. These three short films assembled into a feature-length horror anthology mirrored the same trend that Amicus had introduced during this period, so there is nothing unique there.
However, you’d be hard-put to find Western examples of what amounts to the “torture porn” genre this early in the cycle … even Herschell Gordon Lewis — who would become the “Godfather of Gore” — with his Two Thousand Maniacs! in 1964 and Color Me Blood Red, the following year, had his limits.
Filmmaker Teruo Ishii simply jumped ahead of the curve with Shogun’s Joy of Torture and the follow-up, Inferno of Torture in 1969.
The film itself appears to have made the “adult” circuit in Japan, arrived through some sketchy distribution deals in Europe in the early 70s and didn’t really find its way to these shores until the arrival of VHS in the early 80s. Yes, it’s been around on DVD, but this Arrow Films Blu-ray presentation raises Shogun’s Joy of Torture to new hi-def levels.
Bonus features include commentary from Japanese film expert Tom Mes (“Agitator: The Cinema of Takashi Miike,” “Iron Man: The Cinema of Shinya Tsukamoto” and co-author of “The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film”), the newly prepared featurette titled “Teruo Ishii: Erotic-Grotesque Maestro,” featuring insights from author Patrick Macias (“Japan Edge: The Insider's Guide to Japanese Pop Subculture,” “TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion”) and the feature titled “Bind, Torture, Thrill” (with author and critic Jasper Sharp (author: “Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema”).
Shogun’s Joy of Torture is presented in Japanese with English subtitles.
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