Organ (1990)
Starring: -------
Director: Kei Fujiwara
Synopsis: truly grim Japanese shocker about the organ trade goes badly awry, alas.
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

This grim Japanese shocker dealing with the dark world of human organ smuggling is difficult to guage, not so much because it is in a foreign language, but because of the style in which the film has been constructed. It managed to attain quite a reputation for itself on the independent cinema network as being shocking and truly repellent.

The movie is mayhem from beginning to end, made in a semi Blair Witch style with jaggy moving camera's and amateur acting and effects. The plot is certainly not easy to follow involving a notorious gang which deals in grabbing people literally off the streets, hacking them up and then selling the parts for a nice profit. There is much knife wielding, scalpel carving and gut wrenching going on, enough to keep the most hardened splatter fan fairly content. The director doesn't shy away from shoving the gore right up the audiences nose, like it or not.

The film has a very low budget, almost experimental feel to it - the film makers would no doubt like to use the term Avant garde but perhaps that may be a bit too flattering. For those who are in to their pigeon-holing, I guess this film could be termed as a Manga inspired Post Punk Horror which includes a streak of the most bitter black humour as well as a humungous amount of splatter and gore. The movie certainly has the power to shock and is quite reminiscent of Cronenberg at his most bizarre. Organ contains sequences which seem to be influenced by Shivers and appear to be a nod to Cronenberg, the master of urban horror.

Unfortunately there is little or no element of suspense and the film unfurls more like a bloody gang warfare movie than a horror suspense movie, but clearly suspense was not what the makers were aiming for. It is shock tactics and a shocking content matter which the filmmakers hope will carry the day, and it does to some extent, but just when the movie needs to move up a gear it merely lapses into shootout territory.

Strictly for genre addicts, gore hounds and curiosity hunters looking for something that is a little out of the ordinary. This movie will certainly satisfy the last category. Sadly, after considerable hype and therefore expectations, the movie ended up being a major disappointment.