Customer Reviews

Angel Guts: Nami

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Nami, the third film based on manga writer/film director Ishii Takashi's series Angel Guts follows the life of its key protagonist Tsuchiya Nami who, in this film, works as a reporter for a popular woman's magazine. Young, pretty, and ambitious, Nami wants to rise to the pinnacle of her profession trotting over those who she believes can aid her in her plight. Knowing that controversial subjects tend to draw the most reader interest, Nami, with the encouragement of her editor, takes it upon herself to interview rape victims who would prefer to let their pasts be buried in the sands of time. To make matters worse, Nami and her crew browbeat their "interviewees" until they agree to the interview, or, if they outright refuse Nami, their pictures are taken without their knowledge and published anyway.

Confident in her ability, Nami begins to visit the seedier areas of Tokyo, frequenting such places whose main attractions are live sex shows. After failing in an attempt to interview an S&M stage actress, Nami watches her show and accidentally bumps into a fellow sporting dark sunglasses. This fellow is Muraki, once a publisher for a large publishing house; he has now turned to writing stories for a porn magazine whose readership also is interested in the subject of rape. Joining up in a loose comradeship with Muraki, Nami goes to interview a nurse whose rape was covered up by the hospital in which she worked because a doctor committed the crime. And within those environs, Nami will learn the true horror of what the rape victims faced.

With the film Nami, Tanaka Noboru takes the directorial helm from Sone Chusei who directed the first two films of the Angel Guts series, and thereby creates a darker work. There are some scenes of consensual sex in the film, but for the most part, rape scenes make up the majority of the sex scenes in this film and they are quite brutal. However, while sex and rape were probably the main draw for the audience of this film--and the other Angel Guts films as well--a second rape, one performed by the media, plays a very important role in this film. Insensitive and concerned only with ratings, the brutality and humiliation experienced by the rape victims is given a diaphanous quality which means little to the audience who are being inundated by stories of rape and violence. A truly unpleasant film to watch, Nami paints a grim picture of violence and media in modern Japan.

If you want conventionality, there are clearly plenty of choices but if you want something different - read the Amazon description - if it sounds intriguing to you ... this movie is great. It's wall to wall weird and kooky with wall to wall nudity of all kinds. The women are gorgeous - they are nude. There are lesbian make out sessions, there are fetishes, there is rope bondage and there are crimes committed by women and to women. It is what it is - it's doesn't try to soft pedal anything and the film-makers should be applauded for having a vision and sticking to it regardless of how unPC it might be in today's times. If you prefer your films more conventional, stick to Steven Segal - if you're intererested in the world wide spectrum of films - ones that edgy and not safe, then check this out and the whole series - they're all great.