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Lost Paradise
aka Shitsurakuen': jôbafuku onna harakiri
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0436768/
http://severed-cinema.com/index.php?...d=19&Itemid=26
http://www.gomorrahy.com/harakiri-se...t-paradise.htm
http://esotika.blogspot.com/2007/05/...kita-1990.html
http://soiledsinemass.blogspot.com/2...-paradise.html
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Since Unearthed is releasing the Harakiri Limited Edition box set on October 7th, I figured I'd make a post about these movies even though I've only seen the most well known one, Lost Paradise.
No point in posting a synopsis because like all other seppuku and harakiri films, there really is no plot or story. Much like the faux snuff movies, the only thing to be found here is extremely graphic violence, except this time around its suicide and not murder.
I've never bothered much with any of the seppuku/harakiri films since I'm not even much of a fan of the faux snuff style, so I knew I wouldn't be much interested in movies that just showed people killing themselves in the form of belly-cutting. As Anthropophagouz put it, (Since I'm not big on stealing other peoples thought and ideas and try to pass them off as my own) these movies are really tedious to watch. The majority of 'Lost Paradise' running time is taken up by the main female character taking a sword (or whatever that weapon is called) and sticking herself with it, and then slowly cutting across her stomach. Then we get to watch her bleed, intestines spill out while she cries, whimpers and squeals until she finally dies.
The effects, of course are very well done, as they should be since that is the whole point to the movie. The girl who commits the act in LP does actually a decent job of making it believable that she's dying nothing to hammy or cheesy to be found. As I said though, there really is no story here. You get small clips and bits of other things going on in the beginning and end to help establish some sort of story or idea as to who the people are and what is going on. Though, when its all said and done, at the end of the day it's really just a shallow film thats only point is to graphically portray ritualistic suicide. Some of the reviews I posted links to may disagree with me on that, which I'm sure they do, but its really hard to see them for anything else.