Product Details

• Actors: Tamaki katsura, Yutaka Hayashi
• Directors: Yasuharu Hasebe
• Format: DVD, NTSC, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: Japanese
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Mondo Macabro
• DVD Release Date: October 28, 2008
• Run Time: 76 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B001D5C1O4
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #175,293 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

Assault! Jack the Ripper is a nasty delicacy that pushes the boundaries of the Pinku Eiga genre like no other film that has come before or after it. An exceptional release that comes with a first rate audio/video presentation and an abundance of extras --10KBullets.com

Product Description

ASSAULT JACK THE RIPPER - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece, August 26, 2008

By 

Mark Kevin Savage "coralislander" (The Beast House, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Assault! Jack the Ripper (DVD)

Yasaharu Hasebe's ASSAULT JACK THE RIPPER is one of the best "violent pink" films ever made. It follows the violent rampage of a couple whose relationship is enriched by a series of grotesque sex crimes. The woman urges the man to rape and kill a variety of women and finds herself becoming increasingly insecure in his presence. The graphic violence is accompanied by a hypnotic, minimalist jazz score that perfectly counterbalances the atmosphere of menace. Hasebe, who also directed the much tamer "Black Tight Killers", is best known in pink film circles for this film ("Assault...") and three others: "Rape", "Raping!", and "Rape! 13th Hour". This is the best of the four, although all are mandatory viewing. The best films are founded on great performances, and this film is no exception. Yoko Azusa, who plays the female of the duo, won the equivalent of a Japanese Oscar for her superb, chilling performance. Made on a tight budget for Nikkatsu Studios, ASSAULT! JACK THE RIPPER is amongst my top ten films of all time, and is an example of "true, realistic horror". The climax, which echoes Richard Speck's crimes, is a standout, as is an amazing sequence set in an abandoned bolwing alley. Not a gorefest, this is a deliberately paced slice of terror that makes no concessions to the faint-hearted.

6 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Does NOT Live Up To Its Reputation, January 5, 2009

By 

Anticlimacus - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Assault! Jack the Ripper (DVD)

I'm a newbie when it comes to Japanese exploitation films from the 1970s, but what little I've seen has underwhelmed me. "School of the Holy Beast" (1974), "Wife to be Sacrificed" (1975), "Tattooed Flower Vase" (1976), and "Angel Guts: Nami" (1979) were all decent in terms of soft core sex, but weak in terms of everything else. "Holy Beast" probably had the most entertainment value because of a few memorable torture scenes, but even that film wasn't very good. And this is coming from a guy who enjoyed "Entrails of a Virgin" (1986), "Flower and Snake" (2004), and "Urotsukidoji: Legend of the Overfiend" (1988), so I'm most certainly capable of enjoying depraved exhibitions of gratuitous sex and violence. That said, I was particularly excited about "Assault! Jack the Ripper" after reading the glowing IMDb reviews. Unfortunately, I find myself (yet again) scratching my head at the overblown reputation of a silly, middling movie.

First and foremost, the death scenes are incredibly lame. This was quite a surprise given the IMDb reviewers who pointed out the "extreme and nasty violence" that is "shown raw and uncovered." If you're looking for shots of torn flesh, look elsewhere. The majority of the stabbings here use camera angles that obscure the point of contact. What results is a dull, repetitive series of killings that look more like a guy punching some girls in the stomach. The cumulative amount of visible blood in "Assault" could probably fit inside of a ketchup bottle. I kid you not. Even the minority of scenes that actually show something are mediocre at best. The stabbings executed in Lucio Fulci's "The New York Ripper" (1982) are about 10 times better than the ones shown here. It's not even close.

All the more reason for my perplexity after watching "Assault." Where the heck was all of the shocking violence that I was promised? To my surprise, it's nowhere to be found. Even more astounding is that some reviewers actually attempt to defend "Assault's" death scenes by asserting that the "inference" invoked by "sound and FX" are enough to make it disturbing. If this isn't an unintentional admission of failure by an exploitation film, I don't know what is.

Sure, the premise of a pastry chef and waitress who stab people in the genitals for sexual gratification is a great idea, but if you're gonna skimp on the red stuff you had better set up convincing characters or construct effective suspense sequences that don't rely on graphic violence. On the contrary, the characters sucked, the victims were cardboard cutouts, and there's not a lick of suspense to be found here. The dynamic duo kidnap someone, then punch them in the stomach (uh, I mean kill them) a few seconds/minutes later. That's about it. There's little to no torture and nothing at all to raise the viewer's heart rate. How can a movie possibly make a murder/"bang" session in a graveyard boring? Well, "Assault" somehow did it. Given the poor execution, the best part of the film is the plot synopsis.

Yeah, there's nudity here. Woopdee doo. The lead actress has nice boobies, but I'm gonna need a little more than that to sustain my interest over the course of 70 minutes. Even the sex scenes were pretty tame, barely reaching the low heights of Cinemax Late Night. As much as I criticize the Korean director Sang-soo Hong for his foray into dull art-house pornography, his direction of body motion during sex is much better than anything seen in "Assault." What I found especially disappointing is that the intercourse between the couple was not appreciably different before and after a murder. The entire film is reliant on how killing gets them off, but it doesn't take the sex to another level when necessary. I expected some real bed-denting after the murders, but all we get is soft spooning. In short, I was never convinced that the murders resulted in more gratifying sex.

Everything that "Assault" allegedly offers is done more effectively in non-exploitative genres. "Strange Circus" (2005), "Tetsuo: The Iron Man" (1989), "Moonlight Whispers" (1999), and "The Isle" (2000) are way better at portraying sexual perversion. The sex scenes are good in completely different ways, but most importantly every one of these films held my interest throughout much of their running times with a mix of effective characterization, stylish technical qualities, and/or mind-numbing insanity - all things that are absent in "Assault."

I keep reading all of these rave IMDb reviews from persons who have earned my respect for their sheer knowledge of unorthodox cinema. Almost all of the heavy hitters gave "Assault" high marks: Fertilecelluloid, Evol666, HumanoidofFlesh, ElijahCSkuggs, Obscure 437, BaHarrison, Soucriant, and Coventry. This makes my disappointment all the more confusing. I even gave this film a second chance with lowered expectations, and it still failed to impress me in any way. Not only are all of the formulaic standards of conventional film-making absent (e.g., good acting, storyline, etc.), but all of the exploitative elements are feeble and forgettable.

My initial impression on 70s exploitation films in general is that they're much like a dog with bark but no bite, or a sheep in wolf's clothing. I certainly hope that my future experiences are more satisfying.