Italy Versus Japan: Battle Of The Sleaze Epics

The Verdict: http://sinsofcinema.com/Images/Red%20Room/Red%20Room%207.jpg It is clear from the films above that both Italian and Japanese exploitation cinema have been prolific in making very sleazy films. However, I think that Italian exploitation cinema has run its course. We will never again see the likes of Cannibal Holocaust or City of the Living Dead unless there is a massive renaissance in Italian cinema. Japanese cinema is still a prolific producer of very gory, violent and sexualised exploitation films, and long may this continue. Italy hid its perversions under the guise of genres - Giallo, Cannibal, Zombie, Nazisploitation. These films are exceptionally sleazy - especially the Nazisploitation cycle of films that occurred in a very brief period during the 1970s. Using the Holocaust as a plot device to portray depravity and torture is pretty repugnant as you can see from the above review of Gestapo's Last Orgy. However, one could say that at least, the Italians had the good grace to couch their perversions in a story. A lot of the films that come out of Japan have absolutely no reason to be, no plot, other than to 'showcase' torture (Flower of Flesh and Blood, Grotesque). Are these films more morally bankrupt due to a lack of artistic merit when compared to SS Experiment Camp and Killer Nun, which are perverse movies but contain a story line? A problem with Italian sleaze cinema is that its directors had a tendency to plagiarise each other and other better movies. Cannibal Holocaust was followed by a load of steaming turds that sought to imitate it successfully but largely failed (as you can see above with Cannibal Ferox - attempting to be Cannibal Holocaust, it was not particularly successful). This plagiarism and the fact that most directors doing it were Lumpen hacks such as Umberto Lenzi and the notoriously crap director Bruno Mattei. Japan, on the other hand, has a surfeit of excellent directors - like Takashi Miike - to serve up the sleazy goods. There is a polish and professionalism in Japanese sleaze cinema, that was sorely lacking in Italian sleaze cinema. Time and time again, Japanese film makers have produced sleaze epics that are endlessly innovative, beautiful to look at (despite the hard subject manner) and absorbing to watch. They do not need to plagiarise each other because they dare to be visionary and produce their own ideas - not inanely copying each other like the Italians. The Japanese excel, not just in sleaze cinema but also in its sister genre - horror. They come up with continually inventive and highly watchable horror movies. The Italian horror movie is dead, recent efforts from Italian Horror Maestro - Dario Argento - have been stinkers compared to his once glorious output. The Japanese sleaze movie is always watchable. Except for the torture porn films. But there is a kind of warped honesty about these films. They don't pretend to be decent or honourable films. They give some of the more hardcore sleaze viewers what they want - sleaze, gore, torture and a little bit more gore. Weighing the case up, I would say that Japanese sleaze cinema has the edge over Italian sleaze cinema. The Japanese have a long, industrious history of making sleazy films. The Italian filth picture is a thing of the past. The Japanese will continue to provide us with sleazy and out there movies for the foreseeable future - it is in the marrow of the Japanese film industry to do this. Their efforts are generally a lot more violent than Italian cinema, and they are more polished. Good filth came from Italy, extra turbo filth comes from Japan and we love it.