Most Helpful Customer Reviews
19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hopelessness Perfected, August 19, 2001
This review is from: Go, Go Second Time Virgin (DVD)
Some time ago I picked up Jack Hunter's excellent book about Sex, Blood And Madness in Japanese Cinema, Eros In Hell. The book's second chapter deals solely with the works of Koji Wakamatsu. I was intrigued by the exciting titles and images of such films as Go, Go Second Time Virgin, Violated Angels, and The Embryo Hunts In Secret. I assumed that I would have to hunt down Wakamatsu's videos on the grey market but fortunately Image Entertainment has released two of his better known films on DVD and VHS. I can only hope there are more to come. Made in 1969, Go, Go Second Time Virgin is a bleak downwardspiral into the depths of two empty souls, one a repeated gang-rape victim the other a teenager who was forced to endure sexual molestation, possibly from his parents (who his attackers are is never made clear). After the girl is raped a second time she develops a strange bond with the molested boy who angrliy stood by while she was raped. She begs for him to kill her. He tells her that he will but not before he takes her on a "trip". The "trip" is a to a local apartment which holds the four mutilated corpses of his attackers. He tells us that he has killed the "filthy pigs". While most of the film is in black and white this powerful sequence (among a few others) is shown in full color. Afterwards the girl claims to love the young man but she still begs for death. She wants to die because she wants to kill. ....Clearly, Go, Go Second Time Virgin is not for all tastes, but it should please those who crave brave and experimental films. Image/American Cinematheque should be commended for releasing this rareity. Both the image and sound quality is surprising clear, though the widescreen framing cuts a little off the sides and the subtitles are a bit difficult to read. Meikyu Sekai's music score is one of the best I have ever heard. The DVD features a 50-minute interview with Wakamatsu in a small Japanese bar. Much of the interview is quite interesting. He recounts his time working for the yakuza, how he came to be a filmmaker, and his near-death experience making a film in Palestine. One of the best films I have seen this year.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yuke, Yuke! (Go, Go!), November 25, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: Go, Go Second Time Virgin (DVD)
Japanese avant-garde soft porn from maniac genius Koji Wakamatsu, who produced dozens of surreal, bleak pink films in the late sixties. Less claustrophobic and significantly more watchable than the almost unbearable "Violated Angels" (Wakamatsu's most famous film in the West), "Go, Go Second Time Virgin" is the bracingly nihilistic tale of two disillusioned youths, mutually victimized and devoid of hope, who form a fatal alliance. He's a bespectacled outcast prone to murderous violence, she's a multiple rape victim. Don't look for a happy ending in this one. The best movie I can recall that takes place almost exclusively on a single city rooftop. Also, my favorite use of repetition in a title outside of "Faster, Pussycat! Kill, Kill!" An exclamation point and it would be perfect.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mama, I'm Heading Off, September 9, 2006
This review is from: Go, Go Second Time Virgin (DVD)
Go, Go Second Time Virgin opens with the gang rape of a seventeen year old girl by four men. With a slow Japanese acid rock tune playing in the background, the camera focuses on the face of the young girl while she is raped by each man. This scene then goes to a flashback in sepia tones in which the viewer witnesses the first time the girl was gang raped. Instead of fleeing the scene or calling the police, the girl remains on the rooftop and makes a shaky friendship with a boy, the son of the building's manager, who witnessed her rape. Spending their time on the rooftop, the boy and girl engage in a conversation which basically consists of the girl telling the boy that she wants him to kill her. However, the boy, of course, is reluctant to do so, but as time goes on the boy agrees to do so, and it seems that he might have some experience in the area of killing.
Go, Go Second Time Virgin is a bizarre film by a director who broke many filmic taboos and directed films such as Blood Red from the Sun, The Wet Flower's Budding Eye, and Flesh Target Escape in a time in which Japan was producing one pink film after another, so where Miike can be viewed promulgator of extreme violence in Japanese film of today, Wakamatsu was pushing the envelope of eroticism over forty years ago during a time in which censorship was much stronger. However, how does Go, Go Second Time Virgin rate as a film? Upon my first watching of the film it seemed nothing more than a way to display the naked body of its lead actress as much as possible and upon my second viewing of this film it seemed as if Wakamatsu was trying to create a film that not only had erotic aspirations but was also trying to push the pink film to a new level of artistry. For some it seems that this film did reach this goal and for others this film is nothing more than a big mess. However, for those who like the films of Suzuki Norifumi, the older films of Oshima Nagisa and Imamura Shohei, or maybe the fiction of Murakami Ryu Go, Go Second Time Virgin might be a good example of some of the sleazier films produced during the 1960s in Japan.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews
Was this review helpful to you? Yes
No
|
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews
|
