Inferno of Torture (1969) User Reviews

More Of Teruo Ishii's JOYS OF TORTURE series...

[EVOL666 · 6/10 · 24 July 2006]

First off - I believe that the other reviewers on this page are reviewing SPLIT OXEN TORTURE, which is neither part of the "true" JOYS OF TORTURE series - it's actually an unofficial sequel - nor is it directed by Teruo Ishii. That film (directed in 1976 by Yuuji Makiguchi) has it's own IMDb page under the title TOKUGAWA ONNA KEIBATSU-EMAKI: USHI-ZAKI NO KEI. INFERNO is not the "gore" film that SPLIT OXEN is - though Makiguchi's film is very good as well - and is honestly better than any of the Ishii-directed JOT films that I've seen so far. In fact - INFERNO was far too weak on gore to be truly memorable to me, and was actually very dull at points...

The story-line revolves around two tattoo artists who are vying for the attention of the Emperor. Jealousy and the love of a young concubine get between the rival artists and causes problems for all involved...

Unfortunately - there's just not nearly enough torture in INFERNO to be all that joyful. I was hoping for a little "rougher" content - and this one didn't really deliver. The story-line was decent enough - but it tended to drag quite a bit after the first third of the film or so, and only picked up slightly towards the end. The very last scene of the film was decent, but not enough to save it overall. Worth a look to Japanese exploit fans, but don't expect too much out of it...6/10

Tits, tattoos and torture.

[BA_Harrison · 5/10 · 15 August 2020]

I would never have thought that a film with so many bare breasts in it could fail to keep my attention; I guess you CAN have too much of a good thing.

Judging by the opening credits scenes, I figured this would be a hugely entertaining piece of gory sleaze: a woman tied to a cross has a spear thrust between her legs (freeze frame on blood gushing freely), the point emerging from her chest; and another victim, buried up to her neck, gets her head sawn off (more gushing blood). Bloody stuff indeed!

The film then starts proper, with a woman, Yumi (Yumiko Katayama), digging up the grave of a man called Genzo (Shin'ichirô Hayashi), and cutting open the corpse to find a key, which she needs to open her chastity belt. We then flash back to see how poverty stricken Yumi joined a brothel operated by madam Otatsu (Mieko Fujimoto) and her sadistic lackey Samejima (Haruo Tanaka), only to discover too late that the women there are tattooed and tortured, and then sold into slavery to a businessman called Clayton (Yusuf Hoffman).

Much of the plot focusses on the rivalry of two tattoo artists, Horihide (Teruo Yoshida) and Horitatsu (Asao Koike), and on the romantic relationship between Horihide and Osuzu (Masumi Tachibana), and this is where my mind started to wander. The film became extremely repetitive, with an endless succession of tattooing and topless nudity. One particular moment, where the two artists' work is judged by a dignitary, consists of a parade of tits and tattoos that seems to go on forever. Any film that can make me bored of boobs is doing something wrong.

Furthermore, considering the title, the film is actually fairly light on the torture, with some shibari (Japanese rope bondage), a little hot wax action, and a woman having her eyes poked out, but it's not until the very end that director Teruo Ishii delivers anything as brutal as that seen at the beginning. The final scene sees madam Otatsu tied between two trees that have been bent over and secured by ropes; when the ropes are cut, the woman is torn in half (a method of execution also used in the 1932 classic Tarzan The Ape Man and in Ruggero Deodato's Cut and Run).

5.5/10, rounded down for those dogs strung up in the market scene, the poor pups clearly destined for the cooking pot.

Tattoos, tattoos, torture, tattoos

[Thorsten_B · 7/10 · 29 December 2008]

A film about obsessions on bondage and tattoos, disguised as historically adequate treatment of an inglorious episode in Japans long gone past. It's ingredients are violence, brothels, tattoos, female whorehouse bosses, tattoos, mean pimps, even meaner prostitutes, tattoos, whips, knives, drugs, torture and tattoos. The main theme is the transformation of young girls' skins into pieces of art, depicting both abstract and figurative motives, the latter mainly dealing with death, birth, violence and other more or less disturbing themes. Compared to other far eastern films from the same exploitation category, the violence seems almost moderate. The narration, in a fairytale-like old fashioned style, is, of course, a child of it's time. In total, the film's not so good, but not so bad either; it is not very original, but still (in a positive sense) light years away from the commercial cinema we have today – which is intriguing since films like this, in their days, were themselves first and foremost done to make money.

Woah.

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 27 June 2020]

I have often commented that I sometimes worry that someday I may hit the bottom of the well, that nothing strange will exist any longer in film to delight me. That said, thanks to movies like this, which I didn't even know existed until Arrow Video was kind enough to send me a copy, prove to me that there will always be something odder, stranger and more screwed up to watch.

Teruo Ishii made movies like Yakuza Law and Horrors of Malformed Men, but this was the sixth in his series of abnormal love movies. It's all about the high demand for tattooed geishas and the rivalry that builds between two highly skilled masters of tattoo.

Unable to repay a local lender, Yumi is serving as a kept woman for two years, but soon learns that this is a house of pain, not pleasure. From the moment this movie begins, there's a shocking amount of violence displayed. But the main reason to stick around is that there is so much incredible tattoo art on display, as the women's bodies become the space where war is declared between the two artists. And when the madam learns that one of them, Horihide, has noble intentions, she plans on making everyone pay.

There's a scene in this movie where a geisha has glow in the dark tattoos that come to neon life the drunker she gets on sake. For that alone, this is totally worth a watch.

Ishii made two other movies before this that are in the same genre, Shogun's Joy of Torture and Orgies of Edo. From most accounts, he went way beyond the bounds making this one, depicting Japan's Edo period in perhaps the most perverse - and one assumes, crowd pleasing - ways possible.

Gore for the sakes of gore

[gimmedacash · 1/10 · 24 July 2004]

Whatever happened to storytelling? That's the question that I was left asking myself after wasting time watching this movie. Yes, the gore scenes are plenty and creative, but the problem is that not once can you feel any kind of sympathy for people you don't know anything about. The so-called "love story" is a rushed into the first 2 minutes of the film and does nothing to help character development. The film shows absolutely nothing worth watching, even as a gore-hound I was left not caring that much about the torture scenes. This movie gave me no reason to care about any of it's characters of their story, it just relied on gore to shock me and I found that cheap and got more angry about losing precious time on this than on the gore itself. This movie is about torture, torture of it's audience that is.

Tattoos and torture - My first review :-)

[chribren · 10/10 · 28 August 2013]

WARNING: This review might have some spoilers, but feel free to read this as it doesn't give away an ending spoiler. Also this is my first review after getting signed up on IMDb ;-) "Inferno of Torture" is a Horror movie, directed by Teruo Ishii 1969. It was produced by the great Toei Company.

Telling short about this 94-minute long film, it takes place in the Edo-period, and centers around a bounce of geisha-like ladies who gets tattooed, only to find out later in the film that they are to be sold as sex slaves for foreigners. Will these ladies ever get to be saved at the end...? Find out by yourself...:-P This film isn't as fully brutal and gory as "The Joy of Torture" which Teruo Ishii and Toei made one year earlier, being 1968. But still "Inferno of torture" is very strong in content as it contains some whipping, several fight scenes, and not at least a nude cat-fight on a boat.

As I said earlier, I'm not gonna give away the ending. But I can tell you that this ending is very spectacular, and very different from most of the old Japanese movies I have seen, and thus one of the BEST endings I have seen in this type of films.

After all I totally liked this movie, together with other works like "The Joy of Torture", "Yakuza's Law" and "Orgies of Edo". Liked the plot in it, as well as the strong content itself. Also I have watched this two times online.

Sadly, this film is not available in Norway where I live, where it would have guaranteed have gotten an 18 rating. I mean, if this film is/were to be released here, I would guaranteed have got it on DVD for a long time ago...Trust me, I world promise you that...!

There's no such thing as "gore for gore's sake."

[dmacewen · 10/10 · 21 December 2008]

I love these bourgeois lemmings weaned on swill like The Exorcist, Alien, Jaws, The Omen, Poltergeist, The Silence of the Lambs, and other such Hollywood swill. They love to talk about "storytelling" and movies where you "care about the characters," as if that were the only one way of making a legitimate horror film (and let's face it: the "characterizations" in these films are often laughable in their pretensions and shallowness). Here's a bit of news for those who haven't figured it out yet: there's no such thing as "gore for gore's sake." There's only apologetic gore and unapologetic gore. Ishii was a terrific filmmaker. You people need to expand your horizons beyond Stephen King. (A great writer, by the way.)

Totrure, pain and pleasure on an unknown level!

[Dario_the_2nd · 8/10 · 8 April 2013]

Inferno of Torture (1969)

Beautiful and perfect example of a supreme "exploitation" movie!

-I want to mention as first, this is one of the most weird and beautiful DVD menus I have seen. The menu to select from consists out interactive persons. Depending on which one you choose they will get hanged, cooked or burned. Cool interactive DVD menu. Also the movie is just of a super quality. The print is awesome.

-The movie starts straight away with a couple of pictures, revealing the bizarre stuff you're in for. The cooking of a woman who betrayed her husband. The hanging and cutting in 2 of a betrayer of the 'Koga' clan, who also served at that same moment as test object (on his body) to try out some new swords. The burning of a woman and we keep continuing on this kinda level... So in other words the movie cuts to the chase from the first second. The film continues with the story of the 'Tokugawa Sjogoen' clan, which had a severe punishment system to protect her own feudal system as the torture they used against Christians that consists, up to a serious gruesome level.

-This movie works onto 2 levels right in opposite of each other, and it works pretty well. On one side you have the cruelty of the pain, suffering and torture. While on the other side the director puts a very charming picture, on how beautiful love is. The love scenes in this movie/documentary are nice gentle and subtle. And all in atmosphere of happiness accompanied with joyful music (Emanuelle alike sound). At one moment you have a shot of a young happy couple madly in love followed by the next second shot of the burning of a man in some special kind of cook-sarcophagus. Also the way they carry out an abortion, I wouldn't call it customary! As many other stuff I don't even mention, this movie will pull your mouth wide open.

-This flick is at some points pretty disturbing, as for the moment they beat the hell out a little girl as a few moments later they burn her eyes out. So the movie is certainly for a mature audience and for sure not for the young commencing exploitation freak!!!

-This movie shows some cruel ways on how a human being with power and a certain believe/religion can display onto others. It will take you in a sphere of the 'voyeur'. And indeed ask yourself the Q? Why for god sake do I have interest in seeing this kind of movie? 'Reality-check'? Pretty nasty flick and for sure a must have on the strange bizarre and uncommon. A must for every serious collector. So a recommendation? YES indeed!