Assault! Jack the Ripper (1976)

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

One movie I keep going back to time and again is Yasuharu Hasebe's Assault! Jack The Ripper (Boko Kirisaki Jakku). It's one of those films that I really get drawn into from start to end, as the storyline IMHO is so much more than the standard Pink Violence fare. Setting aside the assaults and murder it really is a bit of a romance. Meeting each other while employed together at a French themed coffee house, the tiny yet comforting apartment, spaghetti dinner and watching B&W telly....and oh how I miss Coca Cola in the hourglass bottles! Dunno, maybe it's just daily life during the late Showa era that holds so much fascination for me. But the film is so very much 'atmospheric' in other ways as well. The rainstorm during the drive home (along with the memorable squeal and chatter of wet drum brakes and distinct whir of a Datsun gearbox in reverse), hanging the wash out with a light evening breeze rustling through the balcony doorway, picnic and lovemaking on the invitingly lush grass-plot of a....um....cemetery, and at the plaza overpass you can practically feel the cool night air mixing with the remaining warmth rising up from the asphalt and traffic below. This truly is a visually beautiful film and one that stirs many nostalgic memories of 1970s Japan. There's such a connection drawn with the two main characters portrayed that they have my affinity throughout, irregardless of their savage calling. I take delight in how their individual personalities clash yet blend so well at times. Opposites can attract (23 years with my lovely missus will attest to that). Yutaka Hayashi and Tamaki Katsura were the perfect pair for this film both in presence and appearance. Even the busty but rather plain Tamaki is especially cute with her 'poodle' hair cut! Needless to say further this is very possibly my favourite film, whether part of an all day movie marathon or just on in the background while milling about with household chores =^.^=

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 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.

Everyone with an eye to see this film will no doubt have heard about how brutal, violent and shocking it is; and after seeing it, I've got to say that Assault! Jack the Ripper lives up to its reputation. I've no idea what the title is alluding to, but to surmise the film; it's an unflinching depiction of murder and rape that is all the more shocking because of the fact that most of the film is really quite realistic. The film is a part of the 'pinky' genre that was popular in Japan around the sixties and seventies, but unlike many of these films; this is not amusing or 'fun' - Assault! Jack the Ripper goes straight for the jugular! The plot focuses on two restaurant employees. While out together one night, they accidentally murder a hitch-hiker. The pair soon realise that murder is their mutual aphrodisiac, and from there the murders continue as the restaurateurs begin an unflinching rampage of rape and murder, with any random stranger unlucky enough to be in their way the victim! Naturally, this relationship doesn't last too long...The only place the film is lacking is on the actual 'money shots' - we don't get to see the protagonist stab his victims in the crotch, and the reason for that is down to the Japanese penal code - which states that no full frontal nudity can be shown in films. This is a shame both for this film and just about every other Japanese exploitation film ever made. However, director Yasuharu Hasebe doesn't let that stop him delivering the shocks. The lack of full frontal nudity is more than made up for by the brutal violence and the film features plenty. It's not a particularly gory movie, but there's plenty of stabbing and butchery going on to please the gorehounds. The atmosphere is dirty and sleazy throughout and this compliments the brutal action nicely. The film is very short at just seventy two minutes, but this is not really a bad thing. The plot is very thin and while there's more than enough to keep the audience entertained for the time that it's on for, any longer and the film may have ended up grinding to a halt considering the thin plot line. Overall, I'm not raving about this film; but it lives up to its reputation and I wasn't disappointed by it.

It certainly isn't love at first sight when two restaurant employees meet each other on a rainy night. She's an arrogant waitress who yells at customers and he's a shy and introvert cook who's reluctant to drive her home after work. But when they accidentally kill a crazed hitch hiker and hide her corpse, they discover murder is a mutual aphrodisiac and fall head-over-heels in love. However, their sex-life only properly functions when the blood of innocent women is shed and thus they start a vagina-stabbing killing spree across the city. Things get even more out of control when the shy cook turns into a unstoppable psychopath who goes out vag-stabbing all by himself. "Assault! Jack The Ripper" definitely is a mean-spirited and tremendously sleazy pinku classic, but in all honestly, I expected a little more spectacle considering its rough reputation. Due to budgetary restrictions, we sadly don't see how the women get stabbed in the crotch with the razor-sharp buttering knife, but the uncanny thrusting noises as well as the women's agonizing facial expressions leave very few to the imagination. The multiple sequences in which defenseless ladies are pursued, beaten, raped and eventually stabbed quite rank among the most misogynistic and relentless images ever shown on motion picture. I can't wait to see more movies from director Yasuharu Hasebe, as he seemed to specialize in ultra-violent pinku film, such as "Rape! The 13th Hour" and "Black Tight Killers". The two leads give away splendid performances and provide the film with steaming hot sex sequences, demented dialogs and blackly comical undertones. The odd and rather inappropriate disco-soundtrack is awesome and the cinematography is steady. The outrageous finale, in which the guy completely goes berserk and literally butchers a room full of young nurses, will be loved by all us depraved fans of extreme cinema.