Page 128 - Nightmare Japan Contemporary Japanese Horror Cinema

A Murder of Doves 115

not yet recognized as social and political’ (Wang 2005: 22). Additionally,
‘containing special effects’ that, in the words of one enthusiastic
reviewer, are sure to ‘have any gore fan applauding at the high calibre of
graphic talent on show’ (Simpson 2005: para 4), Matsumura’s films
borrow elements from both the pinku eiga (pink films) tradition and,
4
especially in the series’ first two narratives, the rape-revenge genre. Like
many works designated as pinku eiga, the All Night Long series contains
instances of bondage, rape, and humiliation largely directed towards
women and, consequently, may lead viewers to dismiss Matsumura’s
works as merely variations of the sexually-violent patriarchal fantasies
that critics like James R. Alexander and Andrew Grossman attribute to
the more ‘conservative’ or ‘bridled’ works of Japanese soft core
pornography (Grossman 2002: para 7). Similarly, given the ‘fluidity in
the conventional text of the rape-revenge genre’ and its ability to explore
a ‘range of innocence violated – from individual to cosmic’ (Alexander
2005: para 7), All Night Long and All Night Long 2: Atrocity evoke
comparisons to films like Meir Zarchi’s I Spit on Your Grave (1978) and
Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45 (1981). In the first two entries of Matsumura’s
series, for instance, male protagonists, pushed too far by the callous
cruelty of a gang of bullies, seek retribution for the degrading acts
perpetrated against them, or against characters with whom they have
established personal connections. Of course, the central protagonists’/
ictims’ gender sets these texts apart from conventional rape-revenge
films, but the narrative trajectories are, nevertheless, quite comparable.
This is not to suggest, however, that the All Night Long films fit
comfortably within such generic categories. As will become apparent
through a consideration of the series’ first and third installments,
Matsumura’s cinematic studies of ‘the effects of urban alienation’ (Mes
2001: para 1) inevitably lead to a filmic deconstruction of the simple

4 Unlike most rape-revenge films, the vengeful parties in All Night Long and All Night Long 2:
Atrocity are male. Furthermore, unlike films such as Meir Zarchi’s I Spit on Your Grave (USA,
1978) and Ishii Takashi’s Freeze Me (2000), Matsumura’s series does not take female
empowerment as a primary concern.