Grotesque (2009)

Too much of everything

Don't listen to the negative reviews

Beautiful, moving film.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Yes - weak. I liked the character of the doctor - devoid of emotion, sympathy, pure seeker of new impressions. Cunning in his ways, keeping the subjects alive, being skilled in medicine... Playing a God and putting its victims into a state that would make them be happy to get something they would normally consider granted.But it went on far too long with far too little action. All the pathetic "love" tests, only proving that a man would do anything for a woman, and not the other way around. Since he tricked them anyway, I hoped he would go back on his word about her too. Instead, he just made the man suffer, as per usual, and then offed her promptly. Liked her monologue though, but the fact that he took it in... sort of broke the character. He was supposed to delight in it, to make her fire cease... Instead she angered him like kids troll each other at school and he actually took it seriously, like he had no idea. It completely breaks the character...Doing all those things to the man, and what did he do to the woman? Cut her ni**les off? That's casual... Besides, he even enjoyed her! He is supposed to be devoid of emotion, and he promised to be "gentle"?I know who I am, and I know why I watched this. And it unfortunately didn't deliver. But at least he survived... Otherwise this movie would go straight on the Disney shady shelf, with "happy end" and "token villain".

First, I would like to say that I understand that this is a love story in disguise. It shows what pain one would go through for the other.Now that that's out of the way, this movie is awful. There's hardly a back story or really anything presented about the characters at all. We know the killer is a doctor (I can't recall which kind) and the couple works together. That's all we know. On top of that, there's not much of a story either. The couple gets tortured by a psychotic killer who gets sexually excited through torturing people. Whatever happened to plot development?The violence is stupid, pointless, and in the ending scene, completely ridiculous. If all you care about is seeing people go through extreme pain, go and watch this movie, because that's all that's there. Most people I've heard try to justify the violence in this movie say something like "BUT DIS IS LUV STURRY ND IT HAZ DEEPIR MEENING". If you've actually been paying attention to the little information you've been given in the beginning of the movie, you wouldn't think there's a deeper meaning at all. Even if it was truly a deeper meaning, that doesn't make it good. The point of the violence is to show what some people will go through for another out of love. The topic of love isn't original after it's been brought up countless times in all forms of art for thousands of years.If you care about a movie having substance, or not wasting time out of your life you will never get back, don't watch this movie. You will regret it.

For years I have watched some of the most graphic, intense, and disturbing movies that I can find. This isn't because I'm some twisted weirdo or anything, but because I'm an all-encompassing cinephile that can and has given 10 star ratings to movies from Beauty And The Beast to Antichrist. To truly love all that film has to offer, you have to understand all that film has to offer.When you watch extreme cinema, you have to know that the violence and imagery is, if used correctly, serving a purpose, which is usually to heighten your senses of pity, disgust, sympathy, repulsion, etc. Also, it's best if the film has some sort of purpose: Salo is a metaphor for how the upper-class treats and exploits those that they deem below them, Hostel is a satire on the image of the ugly American that has been experienced by other countries, and I could keep going.This brings me to this film, Grotesque. Without ruining the film (it does that on its own), I will say that there is only the slightest bit of back-story (which is lazily done and seems it might have been an afterthought), and no attempt at putting any of this within context. Bottom line: a guy abducts a couple and brutally tortures them. That's it. No point, no reason, no character development, nothing.Not only that, it's a technically flawed film as well. The cinematography is horrible: hand-held zoom-ins, overdone color filters, and an overall poor job. It doesn't help that the majority of the film is very dark and shot on digital video, so you get that annoying video blur whenever the camera moves. In terms of writing, for the most part there isn't any. When the film finally gets to a point when the characters are saying something other than "Please stop!" or "Why are you doing this?!", they act in a way that makes absolutely no sense. People that would have gone through what they went would never, ever, show the signs of acceptance or gullibility that they do. They would be hardened or almost catatonic. If that's not enough, the finale radically shifts the tone for seemingly a cheap laugh in a movie that hasn't earned or even tried to get that reaction at any time beforehand.Whenever I see someone review a film with this level of violence and knock it, even if I think it's great, I understand. These type of films are not everyone's cup of tea. When they say it was just pointless violence, however, I usually check out of the movie and assume they did the same with the movie. With Grotesque, I guarantee I never check out of the film. I stuck with it. I assumed there would eventually be a twist or revelation that would give this film a reason to exist. I assumed wrong.

Grotesque (2009) *** (out of 4)Extremely graphic, depraved and vile film from Japan about teenagers Kazuo (Hiroaki Kawatsure) and Aki (Tsugumi Nagasawa) who are on their first date when they're kidnapped by a sadistic surgeon (Shigeo Osako) who takes them back to his house, ties them up and begins to torture them. As a life-long horror fan it seems every few one, two or three new movies cause a stir but when you finally get around to watching them it's clear that it was all hype and they're usually disappointing. Over the past few weeks I had heard a lot of GROTESQUE and I must say that director Koji Shiraishi has made a very brutal film that lives up to everything that has been said about it. The movie is a vile piece of trash but there's no question that it's well-made and certainly effective. I guess you could say that this is Japan's answer to American series like SAW and HOSTEL but those films don't have anything on this. The torture scenes, as you'd expect, are extremely graphic in detail so I'd say that 98% of people out there aren't going to be able to stomach them. I'm a pretty jaded horror fan and I've seen some incredibly brutal films but this here would certainly rank right near the top. The sexual violence in the film includes an incredibly humiliating situation where the girl is raped in a way that I won't ruin here but it's certainly one of the most unpleasant things you're going to see. The torture devices include a chainsaw, eye gouging and a couple scenes to the male anatomy that is going to have male viewers turning their heads like children. At just 75-minutes the film really doesn't waste any time building up a story or trying the stretch out the characters. In all honesty this is a good thing because a film like this doesn't need any boring backstory and in fact the worst thing about the movie is the one flashback introduction to the two teens. The performances by the three actors are extremely good and very believable. Both victims really make you feel the pain they're going through and Osako is so cold and chilling that he's certainly a character you'll never get out of your mind. GROTESQUE is thankfully going to appeal to very few people and it's hard to recommend except to those who want to see how far you can be pushed with violence and torture. It's hard to stomach but it's effective.