Of Hasebe's films, I've so far only seen the twisted (and spectacular) ASSAULT! JACK THE RIPPER, and now RAPE! 13TH HOUR. After the sleazy-goodness of ASSAULT! - I was hoping for another strong violent-pink exploit entry, and I got it - sorta...
The story surrounds Crimson - a serial rapist who takes on as an accomplice/attendant a young gas-station attendant. The two commit several rapes together as the gas-guy learns the ropes of raping women into submission. Meanwhile, a gang is on Crimson's tail (for reasons that were never made clear...) - and the gang's gay leader tries to extort sex out of Crimson in order to keep hush-hush about his "extra-carricular activities". Crimson ain't havin' it and knocks around the gang leader - causing a most unpleasant retaliation...
After watching both ASSAULT! and 13TH HOUR - I've come to the conclusion that Hasebe is a pretty weak director with some strong ideas. At least ASSAULT! has enough "nasty" content to keep ya interested - whereas 13TH HOUR proved pretty dull to me. The rape scenes are neither particularly erotic nor particularly nasty, the cinematography as a whole is amateurish, and there just wasn't enough happening (except for a lot of soft-core simulated rape-action) for me to care. That said - it's not a horrible film, and the ending is suitably strong - I just feel that this film didn't live up to it's "shocking" reputation to me, and I feel that it's "rare" status may have more to do with the stigma of the film, then the contents themselves. Worth a look to the exploit-completist...6.5/10
The story surrounds Crimson - a serial rapist who takes on as an accomplice/attendant a young gas-station attendant. The two commit several rapes together as the gas-guy learns the ropes of raping women into submission. Meanwhile, a gang is on Crimson's tail (for reasons that were never made clear...) - and the gang's gay leader tries to extort sex out of Crimson in order to keep hush-hush about his "extra-carricular activities". Crimson ain't havin' it and knocks around the gang leader - causing a most unpleasant retaliation...
After watching both ASSAULT! and 13TH HOUR - I've come to the conclusion that Hasebe is a pretty weak director with some strong ideas. At least ASSAULT! has enough "nasty" content to keep ya interested - whereas 13TH HOUR proved pretty dull to me. The rape scenes are neither particularly erotic nor particularly nasty, the cinematography as a whole is amateurish, and there just wasn't enough happening (except for a lot of soft-core simulated rape-action) for me to care. That said - it's not a horrible film, and the ending is suitably strong - I just feel that this film didn't live up to it's "shocking" reputation to me, and I feel that it's "rare" status may have more to do with the stigma of the film, then the contents themselves. Worth a look to the exploit-completist...6.5/10