Assault! Jack the Ripper
8 February 2009
Assault! Jack the Ripper (1976)

** (out of 4)

Original Title: Bôkô Kirisaki Jakku

Perversely sexual and violent, this Japanese film has a reputation as being one of the stronger "pinku" movies out there. The story centers on a cook and a waitress who one night accidentally run over a crazed hitchhiker. The two find themselves being turned on by death and blood so they keep killing women and borrow the trademark of Jack the Ripper by cutting them from their private areas on up. I just recently became aware of these pinku Japanese movies so I' doing research on which ones to start with and this here seemed to have pretty good reviews but in the end I was somewhat let down. The one part of its reputation that it lives up to is the rather bizarre sexual nature of the film. There are quite a few sex scenes here, which come off very perverted and sleazy even though nothing hardcore, or really softcore for that matter, happens. The lead actress, who's name I can't find anywhere, has a rather amazing body so seeing her strip off certainly wasn't a negative thing. Her round face also comes in quite handy because she looks so innocent yet is as deadly as they come. Her performance is quite good as is her co-star but yet again I couldn't find his name among various reviews I read. I think the most disappointing aspect is that the film really isn't all that violent. Yes, the aftermath of a woman being sliced up and down is pretty grim but very little of it is actually shown. Usually we see a minor stab wound and then the rest happens off camera and then we go back for the aftermath. I've read reviews saying the film was ultra violent and downright raw and nasty but I didn't find that to be the case. The biggest problem however is that the film runs 71-minutes and really doesn't have enough of a story to fill that short time. The movie starts to feel rather long because we keep going through the same thing of a murder, sex, a murder, more sex and so on.
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