The Torture Club (Chotto kawaii aian meiden, 2014)

[Tom Clark Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tom Clark]

Yuzuki Muto has been accepted to the prestigious private girls' high school St. Anesty Academy that she never dreamed of attending. One spring day with cherry blossoms in full bloom, she attends the entrance ceremony with high hopes and expectations only soon to find herself getting "escorted" by two students to a basement room used by the school-approved Torture Club, where they practice and master the art of torture. With her hands and feet bound together, Yuzuki is coerced to join the club by the club manager Yuri Kobashi and member Maika Shinzaki. Then there appears Aoi Funaki, a stunningly beautiful upperclassman whom Yuzuki fell in love with at first sight on the day of her entrance exam. Yuzuki's rigorous training now begins! Yuzuki grows in her affection for Aoi, but there is the hard and fast rule of "no romance" in the Torture Club...

NSFW:

Found out about this from another board this morning. I really haven't kept up with Asian cinema in several years but this got my attention. Can't say I'm a fan of the "The Torture Club" title though. Makes it sound like another lame Hostel wannabe. Apparently its being released in Japan in July. Hopefully it'll get an English friendly DVD release some day.

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

lol...website address is
iron-maiden.jp

wonder if Bruce Dickinson and the boys will sue them!!

I like how he trailer tries to lighten the tone with colorful, bright text in the middle of all the nastiness.....

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

The film is based on the Japanese manga Chotto kawaii iron maiden * ("a little bit cute iron maiden"), hence the website title. I haven't read it, but it seems the characters in the manga are all 10-16 years old... I supposed they changed that for the live action version.

The film stars Noriko Kijima, who is a terrible actress (she was in Hajirai Machine Girl - the spin off short film for The Machine Girl). The last I checked she was still a gravure idol, meaning she wouldn't do any real nudity... though perhaps she's already past her prime and desperate for more attention. So, there's hope

What's probably most interesting about the film is that it's directed by Kota Yoshida, who is somewhat an arthouse director. Well, perhaps not anymore, as he also has another film coming out this summer, Onna no ana ("a woman's hole"), which seems to be a comedy about having sex with high school girls. Site and trailer here.

* The film's Japanese title is Chotto kawaii iron maiden, but since the Japanese writing system is not entirely compatible with English it gets a slightly odd form "aian meiden" when typed with Japanese characters. I have no idea why some people insist on using these English-->Japanese-->Alphabet forms even when writing in English...

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

I haven't read it, but it seems the characters in the manga are all 10-16 years old... I supposed they changed that for the live action version.

LOL..hope so!....The Japanese play pretty close to the wire when it comes to stuff like this....so no surpise there!

* The film's Japanese title is Chotto kawaii iron maiden, but since the Japanese writing system is not entirely compatible with English it gets a slightly odd form "aian meiden" when typed with Japanese characters. I have no idea why some people insist on using these English-->Japanese-->Alphabet forms even when writing in English...

Haha..no I LOVE this...it makes it all so inherently JAPANESE when I see this stuff....I honestly didnt notice the "aian meiden" being Iron maiden..i guess I must be slipping!!..Thought it was about Alan Meiden , a person who is a little bit cute!!!

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

Oh my...


Picked up this chirashi from a movie theater (sorry for photo quality, I don't have a scanner at hand)...

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

No way the movie will be as good as that one sheet!

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

Opened last weekend. I haven't seen it yet because it's not playing anywhere near me. I'll be in Tokyo next weekend but unless there's a screening on Sunday starting between 11:40 and 12:00 I won't have time to see it. And if there was, then I'd be watching six movies that day, which is damn close to overkill...

I read somewhere (before the release) that Noriko Kijima is, in fact, going to go nude (at least topless) in this one. So not just a tease after all. Still, I fully expect the film to hit the DVD/BD in extended R18 form (though this is just my own speculation).

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

Will be watchign it at some point whether she is topless or not....Looks fun!

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

Japanese DVD and BD release date: November 21, 2014.



As I expected, R18+ version included (107 min). The theaterical version (R15) is 97 min.

Then the serious irritation. The R18-version is only available in the expensive box sets (over 8000 yen street price). Furthermore, that box set is the only BD edition. There is no standard edition BD.

BD Box
- Disc 1: R18 version (BD)
- Disc 2: R15 version (DVD)
- Disc 3: Bonus materials (120 min) (DVD)

DVD Box
- Disc 1: R18 version (DVD)
- Disc 2: R15 version (DVD)
- Disc 3: Bonus materials (120 min) (DVD)

Standard Edition DVD
- Disc 1: R15 version (DVD)

This is the exact same thing they did with Aka x Pink (Girl's Blood). In fact, even the artwork is nearly identical...

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

Not worth picking it up for 8000 YEN then????

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

Don't know, haven't seen it yet. The film keeps avoiding me (well, I was in Tokyo when it played, but there were 11 more important films, and I only had time for 11 films in 2½ days )

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

Still eagerly anticipating this movie........waiting for a friend to track i down when it is released in japan

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

I saw the R18 version and I gotta say it's quite underwhelming. The first 60 min somewhat kept my interest, but after that I started looking for the fast forward button. It's a lesbian love story with some soft torture/bondage, plenty of nudity, and a storyline that just goes on for too long (107 min!). The problem is the lesbian melodrama isn't really going to engage anyone. In this sense the film reminded me of Noboru Iguchi, who also tends to imagine that people are interested in the serious drama that he often insers at the end of in his otherwise whacky movies. It's a shame, Kota Yoshida can actually be a masterful drama director at times (Sumida-ku Kyí´jima 3-chí´me, 2010) but none of that is visible here.

I gotta say though, Noriko Kijima was much cuter than I remembered. And she does full frontal nudity thoughout the film! There's also another lead girl who "gives her all", but the rest fall into the gravute idol category, meaning they find ways to be naked yet somehow cover the strategic bits.

There's quite a bit of below-the-belt nudity in the film, ranging from non-sex scenes with uncensored pubic hair galore to sex scenes with very thin mosaic (so thin that at first I thought the camera was just off-focus). Some people who saw the R15 theatrical / festival version mentioned "censorship strawberries" that appear in the image, but no such thingies are in the R18 version. In fact, there's even something that looks like a fake-pussy in a very dark shot (there's certainly some flesh between her fingers...) that they miraculously got away with uncensored.

Summary: It would be hard to argue against of you wanted to see the film just to enjoy naked Noriko Kijima, but there isn't much else to write home out. It's not a terrible movie; it's just not very interesting one. The film also looks quite digital, but at least it's high quality digital so it's not much of a problem.

Interesting note: Not a single male is ever seen in the movie, not even in the background!

Occasional stylish shot.


Nori-chan is really hot


This poor girl is mistreated throughout the film


Shower slapping


This is probably the funniest torture scene but I won't spoil it


I'm being mean here. If I posted the screencap I took a few seconds later, you could see her boobs.


That chamber is actually the "Iron Maiden"


Director Yoshida must have been proud of this shot as he put his name over it!

[sukebanboy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close sukebanboy]

Yep..i guess I will see it at some point....I must say i was expecting more from the movie...but then again, I always do!

[Takuma Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Takuma]

I started thinking is this film illegal in the UK? It's full of female ejaculations