Girl Hell 1999 (1999)

Daisuke Yamanouchi – director of the infamous Red Room (1999) and the very infamous Muzan-e (1999 – this guy was the king of ’99) – gives us another heartwarming tale with Girl Hell 1999 – yes, the “1999” is part of the title. Its delightful bootleg title was Injure Rape Murder Film, which gives us a good idea of what we’re in for.

GIRL HELL 1999
original title: Shôjo jigoku ichi kyû kyû kyû
Japan, 1999, Daisuke Yamanouchi

Following an introduction and typically tacky straight-to-video title sequence, Girl Hell 1999 begins with a conversation between two young working men. One of them talks of how he wants to romance a girl and settle down. His friend laughs, telling his buddy dating is pointless and rape – the way they’ve had all their previous girls – is the preferable option. He goes on to casually discuss how he prefers raping older women because they don’t put up a fight. Believe it or not, these are two of the less repulsive characters in Girl Hell 1999.

After we meet the two rapists, Yamanouchi gives us the story of Misaki; a seventeen year old girl with a terrible life. Her sister has been in a car accident, leaving her deformed and scarred. To make things worse, Misaki comes home from school each day to find her crippled sister being viciously raped by her repulsive father. While she fails to help her sister, Misaki is a decent girl. She looks after and feeds a crazy homeless woman rather than joining her chubby schoolgirl friend in her sexual exploits, which includes banging sweaty old men for cash and making them pay extra for the dirty tissues she uses to wipe herself post-coitus. Misaki begins to get unwanted male attention – first from a pervert who steals her bike seat and then from the young rapist we met at the beginning of the film. Yep, the title “Girl Hell” makes sense.

I must confess, during the first few scenes of Girl Hell 1999, I assumed this was standard Japanese video sleaze. Sure, it was filled with hideous old men screeching while shooting their loads in Japanese schoolgirls and casual conversations about rape, but nothing too horrific seemed to be going on. And then this happened:

The above scene is actually quite a good summary of the general tone of Girl Hell 1999. You see, Girl Hell 1999 is filthy, depressing and evil – like any nihilistic nasty from Japan – but it’s also completely mad. The film’s most horrible moments are peppered with audio-visual weirdness whether it be over the top squelching sounds or – as seen in the above scene – insanely inappropriate stock music and confusing reaction shots. Stylistically, Girl Hell 1999 is an absolute mess. It looks like a student film, and that comes complete with head-scratching editing, odd camerawork and that indefinable cheapness created by DV tape. But somehow – as with many straight to video films from Japan – it works far better than it should. The cheapness and general technical weirdness creates a bizarre tone that jarringly jumps from being downright disgusting to oddly funny – sometimes even occurring simultaneously.

But actions speak louder than dodgy filmic technique, and Girl Hell 1999 has some very loud action on display – and by action I mean awful, politically incorrect rottenness. Girl Hell 1999‘s meagre hour long running time manages to capture a bloated stable of atrocities. There’s several disturbing scenes of rape – from Misaki’s father screwing his bandaged and bound daughter to one of the young rapists having his way with a semi-conscious homeless woman. Even the scenes of consensual sex are nauseating. Worst of all is a moment of fetishistic piss-guzzling where our schoolgirl protagonist has a run-in with her perverted admirer. This climactic scene made me feel ill. While the violent perversity left me wide-eyed and distraught, the scenes of “classic” gore are something completely different. The gore in Girl Hell 1999 consists of absurd geysers of blood that spray across the actors’ faces and impossible silliness. The madness culminates in the film’s final shot – a head being knocked off by a baseball bat. Rather than making the film an easier watch, the exaggeration of the gore only set me further on edge.

Like the last film I reviewed for Nihon Nihilism, Serial Rapist, Girl Hell 1999 manages to make Japan – a beautiful country – look like Hell on Earth. From the daunting grey buildings to the weed-ridden landscape, Girl Hell 1999 gives the impression that Daisuke Yamanouchi managed to travel to some sort of horrible alternative universe or near-future nightmare world to create his film. Add to that its endlessly offensive content, its amateurish style and its unearthly gore, and you’ve got an unbearably strange movie. Girl Hell 1999 is foul, but, like discovering (hideous) alien life, fascinating. No one but the Japanese make ’em like this.