Cinema Extreme #3 - The Human Centipede (2009)

Director: Tom Six Stars: Dieter Laser, Ashley C. Williams, Ashlynn Yennie

Review:

This is the first time I watch this movie myself, but I have heard others talk about it and watched somebody made fun with it, I am really biased with this one. This is that kinda movie that base on only one concept, and the shocking value does not last long, especially when I have known it so long before watching it.

The Human Centipede is about sewing people's mouth to other's head, so he can only be fed on other's feces. It is gross, but when you get over it, it doesnt any other thing to show for.

The plot is simple. A crazy doctor want to connect three people ass to mouth. He did. He played around with them after the surgery. Two policemen came to investigate about missing persons. The three people try to escape but failed. The leading piece killed himself. The doctor had a fight with the policemen and all of them died. The last piece died from eating shit for a few days apparently. The middle piece was left alone crying. The End.

Why does he want to make the human centipede? What was he trying to accomplish? It was never fully explained other than his pride of being a good surgeon.

To stretch the above to a hour and a half movie would need to insert pointless scenes that creates no tension at all. Like we see one girl tried to escape, dragging her unconscienous friend also. How would she even leave the house without notice, and how would there even be a movie if the Human Centipede was not realized? How would the audience expect there is the slimest chance for her to escape? So towards the end the leading piece stabbed the doctor with a scalple, which available for him all the time. What is he waiting for before, and why he did not finish the doctor off I have no idea. And naturally I also have no clue on why he committed suicide when the doctor crawling to him wounded, given he is the least suffered of the three.

The concept is shocking and gross at first, but gets boring quickly and the doctor is so laughably stupid that it really helps you get over with the whole ass-to-mouth thing. So is this extreme cinema? Many people considered it is, but I have doubts. Actually it's even kinda funny.

Cinema Extreme #2 - Suicide Club (2002)

Director: Shion Sono Stars: Ryo Ishibashi, Masatoshi Nagashe, Mai Hosho

Review:

I have doubts to put this movie in the list of Cinema Extreme, as despite how thought provocative it is, it does not receive much ban from release. However the notorious opening scene does shocking and stunning enough to the point of anti-humanity, and I rate this as lying on the boundary of extreme cinema.

Girls ready to jump off onto the railroad.

The opening scene shows a mass suicide of 54 school girls. They were chatting happily on a train platform, and when the train comes they held hands and jumped to the railway together. This scene is powerful not for its gore factor, which we have seen something much exceeded, but the whole idea. Cute school girls kill themselves happily, under some teenage adorable background music. It sparkles all sorts of questions. Do they think suicide is hip? Do they think being death is much more happier than they already are?

Well what else could have happened?

Next we see people committed suicide all around Japan. People hung themselves together, stab himself in the neck, stuck her head into a burning oven, and chop up her own hands while preparing dinner. The police were on investigating but could have any leads except for a bag appearing in the scenes that contained human skins of the suicide victims stitched together.

Aghhh!!!The lights are ON!!! Wait....what?

It does builds up suspense and keeps us want to understand the whole affair. Why? Who is behind all these, and why stitch the skins together and give it to the police? The answer is quite obvious since every victim we saw them listen to a song from a teenage girl group. You know there is connection but what and why? Why do some teenage girl pop group want people commit suicide? The people receives call from a stranger, who is coughing, and claims he/she knows the truth and predict the next suicide event. And all that leads to big disappointment.

I thought all hope was lost when the movie suggests it is these punk rock dummies were whose behind.

It turns out the prediction was incorrect, and why is he/she coughing is never explained. A girl, whose boyfriend is a big fan of the pop group and a suicide victim, found out that the poster of the girl group contained a stupid sublimal message of suicide, by a stupid way of decoding it. She meet the girl group in their concert location, and the kids asked "Are you connected to yourself?" "You are connected to your boyfriend even if you died." "Why are you still living?" Ummm.....why not? So this is why they commit suicide? They are connected to themselves? What the fuck does that even mean?

No. I come to kick ass and chew bubble gum, and I'm all out of bubble gum.

I rather the reason goes unexplained, and in that case we make up our own reasons. Japan is the country that the suicide count topped the world, and there is a whole million of reasons for that. But this is not one of them. This is just confusing and stupid. Nobody aint kill themselve because a bunch of little kids asked them about question of life. What do the little kids know. Fuck off.

Some scenes stretches too long when there is nothing actually happening, like the police went to the train station platform to prevent mass suicide as predicted by the stranger on the phone. Nobody really jumped on the railway and we wasted about 15 minutes of screen time.

I would not put this movie in the "Good movie" catergory, but then, extreme movies tend to be bad. There is no consistent character and once the character was nearly established he dies and the narration was handed off to a character we barely know. Also I wasnt much scared since I know the movie title is Suicide Club. They commit suicides, and would not hurt me even if all of them dies.

Cinema Extreme #1 - Caligula (1979)

Director: Tinto Brass, Giancarlo Lui Stars: Malcolm MacDowell, John Gielgud, Peter O'Toole

Review:

There are movies that are extremely gore and full of violence scenes, like Braindead (1992). But there are movies that are so offensive, that it ceases being entertaining and become an endurance to sit through the end. The only achievement is not enjoyment but able to say "I have watched that film".

Caligula (1979) depicts the exaggerated sexual and cruel side of the Ancient Roman Empire. This notorious movie stars some really big names: Alex from A Clockwork Orange (1971), Father Karras from The Exorcist (1973), and Lawrence from Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and tells the story of Caligula, who was the fourth emperor of the Roman Empire. He killed his father in his deathbed to success him, and killed his right-hand man to clear any threats for his power, and started his tyranny rule. A story that has happened more than a thousand times throughout history.

Is he really pissing or there is a hose...? After all those penises cumming I'm not surprised in any case.

What is special about this movie is its portrayal of the exaggerated Ancient Roman Empire. Almost everyone except the royal family is naked. Penises and clitorises can be seen everywhere. Any man can have sex with any women, and any woman can have sex with any woman in this movie. There is a scene that Caligula ordered all member of the senate to prositute their wifes for everyone who can pay 5 gold pieces, and committed incest with his sister. Although there is not man-to-man sex, there is a fisting scene in which Caligula shove his hand up a guy's ass.

The guy is getting fisted up his ass. The one lying in the left in his new married, and just raped wife, by Caligula.

This movie is also cruel in torture. We see a guy got his penis tied by his shoelaces, though I aint sure that shoelaces exists in Roman times, and was shoved tonnes of wine into his mouth. After it's done, the emperor stick a sword through his stomach to let the wine flood over. There is also torture in humiliation which is so cruel that it almost anti-humanity. There is a scene that a naked woman was tied up with her legs wide open on a open stage, who is giving birth for all the audience to see. And the naked woman is the wife of Caligula, the supposed queen, but Caligula put her on stage as a show.

But the scene that I found most amazing in the head chopping machine. After I got aroused by a sex scene it cuts to a head being cut off. The huge contrast stunned me and here comes the head chopping machine. Victims were buried in the ground leaving only their heads on the floor. The machine is like a huge wall with mowers at the bottom, without the safety shield. As the wall moves forwards, it cuts off the head. People throws fruits and vegetables to the heads to humiliate them. The visual is so stunning that the wall have a freezen screaming face scripture stuck out, and people dying underneath surrounded by aroused mob.  It shows how human lifes were insignificant by showing people gone through such big way to build such a machine to just kill for entertainment. The only word I can sum up this whole scene is "anti-humanity".

The artistic style is so Roman, and the face scripture is as if they were crying.

Over 80% of screentime in this movie is sex, which makes it to be straightly a porn. Does it have any underlying meanings, besides the trivial man is bad, Caligula is insane message? I do not think so. Many film critics have bashed this film as trash, but I think they just could not get over with the overwhelming sex and heartless torture. However to the other side of the pole, I fail to see anyone who could consider this as their favourite film, other than being different from others. As most films in the cinema extreme, the only gain from the experience is the shock, disturbance, memories of the crazy images, and the claim, "I have seen Caligula".