"Will Keep You Tied Up for 94 Minutes (If That's Your Sort of Thing)"
Goodness me! Following on from their Blu-ray releases of director Teruo Ishii's HORRORS OF MALFORMED MEN and ORGIES of EDO, now Arrow are bringing out INFERNO OF TORTURE (possible aka THE TORTURES OF HELL, because that's what one of the tattoos in this is called).
Following opening scenes of torture and mutilation worthy of Michael Armstrong's MARK OF THE DEVIL (made the same year) the story focuses on Yumi (Yumika Katayama), who has to join a geisha house to repay a debt. The house specialises in floggings, suspensions, bondage, Shibari (which is all three at the same time, I understand) and specialises in its inmates being spectacularly tattooed. Two artists are vying for the title of the best at a forthcoming competition and Yumi ends up in the middle of it.
There's not a lot of plot in INFERNO OF TORTURE and what little there is is told via differing timelines so it's not always easy to work out what's going on. It's not an easy watch, either, for the faint of heart or for animal lovers (close your eyes during the market chase scene). There's little evidence of the playfulness that was on display in MALFORMED MEN and on the whole this is rather grim and dispassionate despite the abundance of female flesh on display.
Arrow's disc has a commentary track by Tom Mes and there's an excellent 30 minute condensation of Jasper Sharp's Miskatonic Institute lecture 'Erotic Grotesque Nonsense & the Foundations of Japan's Cult Counterculture'. You also get a trailer and reversible sleeve. The first pressing comes with a booklet with writing by Chris D.
Teruo Ishii's INFERNO OF TORTURE is out on Blu-ray from Arrow Films on Monday 6th July 2020
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