One man’s journey to inflict the darkness in his heart on whatever woman catches his focus.
What They Say:
Available for the first time ever in North America, Star Of David: Hunting For Beautiful Girls is a masterpiece of twisted and unique Japanese cinema. The most infamous of Nikkatsu’s classic erotic “Pink” films, it’s based on a popular erotic manga by Masaaki Soto. It portrays the life story of Tatsuya, a young man of proper descent who is hiding a dark secret. Tatsuya is a little messed up. He’s a bastard child conceived from the result of a vicious sex attack on his mother by a violent rapist. Growing up he has a stepfather that treats him like dirt, degrades his mother by tying her up, whipping her and having sex with other women in her presence. Tatsuya eventually gets even by killing his stepfather, inheriting a fortune as a result. But it seems that he’s also inherited his biological father’s penchant for mistreating women, and is soon following in daddy’s footsteps, abducting, raping and killing beautiful women. Superbly directed by Norifumi Suzuki (Sex And Fury, School Of The Holy Beast), Star Of David is filled with amazing audaciousness, a classical score, and gorgeous aesthetics.
The Review:
Audio:
The only language available for the feature on this release is a Japanese 2.0 track. The track is adequate for the purpose of this film and it contains no dropouts or distortions. The sound is split between the speakers evenly which doesn’t allow for a lot of playing with directionality but it does a good job with the score and manages to keep the balance between score, effects and dialogue well.
Video:
Originally created in 1979 Star of David is presented in 1:85.1 Anamorphic widescreen. The release looks decent for its age in terms of colors and the grain that is present is acceptable. The release has its faults as well as the feature shows negative features in the presence of noise, aliasing, dot crawl, picture jittering and print damage.
Packaging:
The packaging for this feature is in a clear DVD case arriving with the cover facing out of Yumiko wearing a photo shopped white vest covering her breasts. She is also wearing a set of suspenders and a large crucifix, a purple riding cap, riding gloves and is holding a morning star as she sits on a gothic style chair with a dark basement wall behind her. The bottom quarter of the cover has a black banner and contains the title. The back cover is a simple affair with four stills being present on the left side next to the copy against a plain black background and the spine features a close up of Yumiko from the cover. The cover is reversible however and the image is almost the same except that the white vest is no longer present on the front or spine and Yumiko is showing off her bare chest as the cover wasn’t photo shopped. The DVD itself uses the non photo shopped cover image and also does not include the black bottom so it is clear to see Yumiko is wearing ridding pants.
Menu:
The main menu has the image of a metal mask seen in the feature on the left hand side of the screen set against a red background while images from the feature play briefly on the right and a dark disco like theme plays. The audio select screen has an image of Tatsuya’s mother bound and gagged from the feature with no sound present. The chapters select screen uses images from the film in boxes while a pop song from the feature plays in the background. The extra screen uses an image of one the of woman from film bound in the basement on the left and the right has an image of Tatsuya wearing the mask seen on the main menu as a piano piece plays in the background. The menu uses a yellow Star of David to indicate which option is currently highlighted and the menu is quick to respond to changing and implementing selections.
Extras:
Extras for this release aren’t many but make up for it with the quality of what is there as it includes both an interview and director commentary by Norifumi Suzuki.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The feature opens with the escape from prison of Genpei Hirukawa-a particularly vile man with a number of convictions for rapes and theft and now wanted in suspicion of rape and murder. He has scaled the walls of the home of the wealthy Jinnos. He ties up the husband and wife and gets the combination to the safe by threatening them with a knife. When he discovers the wife attempting to dial for the police he sexually assaults her in front of her husband. The husband believes that this act has proven what he suspected-that his wife has a craving for sexual degeneration and he proceeds to start treating her roughly in regards to sex. When he finds out she is pregnant he is further enraged as he doesn’t know if the child is his or the rapists.
The film’s timeline advances and the Jinno’s son Tatsuya is now 20 years old. In the intervening years he has become an orphan and the anniversary of his father’s death is coming close. As he meets with his father’s friend to seek his advice on business he also flirts with his childhood friend and the man’s daughter Yumiko. This furthers the public image that Tatsuya has carefully crafted of being an upstanding member of society that many respect but the truth is far different. Because of the circumstances of his birth his step father had treated him with cruelty throughout his life and he has also had to deal with discovering how the man he thought of as his father treated his mother-acts which lead to her to commit suicide.
In private Tatsuya has come to admire men who perform cruelty as he believes that it shows that they are the truly strong. He sets out on a mission to prove his strength in the twisted way he has come to think. He starts by tricking a former mistress of his father’s into coming to the mansion where he imprisons her and subjects her to rape and his vicious tastes before murdering her as his friends are gathered for his birthday party in the house above that he can use as alibis. As he is later relishing in his action he catches a TV program where a senior high school student is giving her award winning speech “Confidence in Humanity.” This offends him and now his target will turn to her and as he subjects her to his methods the monster in him will grow.
Now the layers of his life start to peel away as his actions have drawn the attention of his true father and the police are circling around as well. As his actions spread out he will start to reach out in a number of directions and a pop idol and her assistant will be dragged in as well though Tatsuya will be forced to come face to face with the idea that not all of his victims will break in the same way. With the arrival of his true father will Tatsuya finally cross that last line into depravity and subject his friend Yumiko who loves him to his devices? And will Tatsuya discover that the world that he thinks has been so cruel to him hasn’t singled him out and others live with their own monsters as well?
Star of David: Hunting for Beautiful girls is a tale of one person trying to come to terms with the horrible things that have happened to him in his life and failing the test badly. He decided to adopt the idea that only those who inflict cruelty are strong and he starts to put that into practice. He has become infatuated with Auschwitz and has decided he will do his own branding of people with his own version of the Star of David as was done there. As a result the audience sees the depth to which he will plunge in his attempt to bring his brand of misfortune upon others but he may learn more about himself and the monsters others keep than he imagined. As a character piece it works fairly well in showing his depravity and the slide he takes as he drifts further into this new passion. Where it comes up short is that the majority of the film is a bit on the repulsive side with the rapes and violence but then the audience probably shouldn’t empathize with the main character and his actions much. It is a “pink” title that definitely focuses on that aspect and likely won’t appeal to a large number of people.
In Summary:
Star of David is a dark little twisted tale of nature and nurture gone completely wrong with a character trying to carry out his twisted ideas on the world one victim at a time. There is a whole lot of sex mostly through rape and captivity along with plenty of nudity and violence here for those looking for that sort of thing. While it does also delve into some of the darker things people carry it is a bit more gratuitous then psychological thriller. It feels like it was inspired a bit by A Clockwork Orange but it is missing that work’s subtext. With a bit more work it probably could have played to a larger audience but what is there now isn’t bad if the subject matter doesn’t turn one away immediately, it just isn’t really special either.
Features:
Japanese 2.0 Language, English Subtitles, Interview, Commentary
Content Grade: C-
Audio Grade: C
Video Grade: C
Packaging Grade: B-
Menu Grade: C+
Extras Grade: A+
Released By: Eastern Star
Running Time: 100 Minutes
Video Encoding: 480p MPEG-2
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Review Equipment:
Samsung 50″ Plasma HDTV, Denon AVR-790 Receiver with 5.1 Sony Surround Sound Speakers, Sony PlayStation3 Blu-ray player via HDMI set to 1080.
