Inflatable Sex Doll Of The Wastelands 1967 Written and directed by Atsushi Yamatoya. A Japanese crime film that's often labeled as a pink film because of the sex and nudity. This is Yamatoya's second feature film as a director, he only directed 6 films between 1966 and 1974. He found he liked writing films more than directing. Between 1966 and 1990 he wrote just over 40 films and 22 TV episodes. I've only seen a few of his films, Gakidama, Branded To Kill, Capone Cries A Lot, Lupin The 3rd: The Mystery Of Mamo, and his Lupin TV episodes. Yamatoya died in 1993. ISDOTW was released under the title of Horror Doll, it's also titled Dutch Wife Of The Desert or The Dutch Wives Of The Wild. A Dutch wife is a body length pillow designed to be hugged while sleeping.
Yamatoya had worked on the script of Seijun Suzuki's film Branded To Kill before he wrote and directed this film. I'm a huge Suzuki fan, BTK and Tokyo Drifter are my two favorites of his films. Both stand out for their film making style. Inflatable Sex Doll Of The Wastelands isn't anywhere near as accomplished as Branded To Kill. Suzuki was a much better film maker in the 1960s.
The story in ISDOTW isn't as coherent as I might like. Reviews and comments by fans seem to have different views on what's going on and what it means. A man called Naka hires a guy called Sho. Reviews label him a hit man or a detective. Naka shows Sho a film of his girlfriend Sae who's being abused and raped in front of him while he's tied to a chair. The baddies are filming all the action. This happened to him 6 months ago and Kana has become obsessed with the film, watching it over and over. The baddies keep calling Kana and letting him hear Sae crying.
Sho shows off how well he shots by blasting a small tree apart with two pistols. Sho knows the leader of the baddies, a guy called Kô, a man who had murdered Sho's girlfriend some time ago. He's to meet Kô and his henchmen the next day at 3:00 PM, the same time his girlfriend was killed. Sho fantasizes killing Kô with great regularity but come the showdown Sho is distracted by a woman and he fails his mission. Kana hires another man to kill Kô.
I liked the core of the film, I liked the score of the film, I liked the street scenes of the city, I liked the barren rural area where Naka meets the hit men. Mostly it's a revenge story but some parts left me wondering. There's a fair level of dream/fantasy and a touch of the surreal. Figuring out what some scenes mean isn't something for me. Film makers are such liars, who can you trust.
I don't know if I'd buy the Blu-ray, I'm leaning to no right now. I'd rather spend my cash on something different. I don't know I'd rewatch it much either, I rather spend my remaining movie watching time re-watching Suzuki's films instead. You can see a decent copy of the film on the Internet Archive, link above. You might like it, you might not. I'll probably never know.
Heavier Trip 2024 Written and directed by Juuso Laatio and Jukka Vidgren. A sequel to the 2018 film Heavy Trip.
Impaled Rektum are in prison from events in the first movie. A cruel guard won't let them play their music. The warden is a wimpy guy with good intentions. He wants people to fill his prison. The father of the guitarist has a heart attack when he learns he owes a big pile of money to the government. Sadly, the warden won't let the guitarist out to go to the funeral. The band breaks out of prison and has an adventure in the world of professional metal. All the while the cruel guard chases after the band in her Range Rover like car, all the badges are missing so I can't be sure what it is.
A promoter has offered them a gig in Vilnius but the have no money. They sneak aboard the Bloodmotor bus and ride with them to Vilnius. Once they get there the promoter wants them to play covers of other people's songs. They don't want to so he tells them to take a hike. The lead singer of Bloodmotor gets pulled off the stage and Impaled Rektum's lead singer Turo fills in to finish the song. The promoter offer him a chance for the band to record a song. The promoter decides to change the song and promote Turo at the expense of the band. What follows is a series of chaotic events puts the band back in prison where they let them play their own songs. The prison is full with fans who want to see the band. The warden is happy.
I enjoyed the film but not as much as Heavy Trip, it's less fresh and the story is more pedestrian. I don't feel the need to buy the movie, maybe if it gets cheaper. I found a copy on YouTube that's watchable. You can test drive it if you like. Link above.