Angel Guts: Red Flash (1994)

AKA Red Lightning

The Angel Guts series, and for that matter the entire body of work from series creator Takashi Ishii, is one of the finest examples of the difference in attitudes between Japan and the west when it comes to depictions of sexuality, sexual violence in particular. Given the cultural climate in the west, one dominated by censorious, perpetually offended cultists quick to call for the silencing of anything deemed “offensive” by the hive, Ishii's approach to subjects like rape and sadomasochism are bound to trigger the culturally fascistic types whereas in Japan, Ishii is seen as a feminist friendly filmmaker. Ishii has gone on record stating that his intention behind the Angel Guts manga series was a tribute to victimized women, the “Guts” in the title referencing courage. Its the same mentality that Ishii brings to his film work. Beginning with his debut, the fifth in the Angel Guts film series, Red Vertigo (1988), Ishii has made a career out of exploring the psyches of female protagonists who are quite damaged, yet resilient and what should be apparent to those not blinded by authoritarian ideology, no matter the mental and psychical trauma Ishii's heroins endure, Ishii is always on their side. Angel Guts: Red Flash, the most elusive of the series, is yet another example of Ishii subverting the “Pink Film” or Pinku eiga, putting another Nami at the center of a psychosexual mystery.

After getting blackout drunk in a fit of jealousy after discovering her lover with another woman, Nami, a young photographer, is escorted from the bar by a complete stranger, only to wake up later in a love hotel with the dead body of the stranger from the bar on the floor. The following morning, Nami receives an ominous message from a stranger demanding sex or else they'll inform the police of Nami's murdering of the man in the hotel. Although Nami has no memory whatsoever about what happened, a videotape left in the hotel shows another, unidentifiable person in the room. Along with business colleague Muraki, Nami attempts to uncover the truth about what happened in the hotel, a process that becomes all the more challenging when a troubling memory from her past creeps to the surface as well as Nami's suspicions of Muraki's motives for helping her.

Made during the height of the American erotic thriller craze, there does seem to be an attempt on Ishii's part to give Angel Guts: Red Flash (Tenshi no harawata: Akai senkô, 天使のはらわた 赤い閃光) the vibe of some of the American sex thrillers of the time. Some have compared Ishii's approach with the film to Brian De Palma, a comparison which is not unwarranted, and there are points in the film which seem to recall Paul Verhoeven's Basic Instinct (1992), particularly the nasty stabbing scenes, and much like Verhoeven's infamous potboiler, some of the characterizations are sure to send the forever outraged into offense induced seizures. Despite some of the films Americanized genre trappings, by and large the execution of Red Flash is 100% Ishii. There are essentially two different narrative threads woven together throughout the film, the first obviously being the mystery involving Nami and what happned in the hotel but its the second, the traumatic event constantly haunting Nami, that makes the first all the more fascinating. The mystery works on its own largely due to questionable motives of Muraki yet Nami's troubled state of mind gives Ishii the incentive to leave everything open to further questioning, especially after Nami's past is revealed via flashback (which naturally takes place during a rainstorm, pure Ishii) and after what seems like a logical conclusion, Ishii ends the film with an unforgettable, haunting image which causes everything that has happened prior to be mentally re-evaluated.

Unlike the majority of films in the Angel Guts series, chief among them High School Co-Ed (1978), Red Classroom (1979), Nami (1979), Red Porno (1981) and Red Vertigo, which were all produced by the Nikkatsu Corporation, Red Flash was released by Argo Pictures. The series was something of a cash cow for Nikkatsu who turned their attention to the “Roman Porno” market as a means of boosting low profits which turned out to be a wise move so its interesting that Red Flash was made independent of Nikkatsu. There are several other films sometimes incorrectly listed as part of the Angel Guts series such as Rouge (1984) and Red Rope – Until I Die (1987). Ishii's Alone in the Night (1994) is also sometimes associated with the series. Due to it being a non-Nikkatsu film, it was naturally missing from the 2005 set of Angel Guts released from Artsmagic which consisted of the five Nikkatsu films and again, it is the most elusive film baring the Angel Guts moniker, although with it being sandwiched in-between two of Ishii's bigger films, A Night in Nude (1993) and Gonin (1995), the later which gave Ishii some much deserved international renegotiation, its somewhat understandable that Red Flash would fall through the cracks. Nevertheless, its very much a film worth seeing and yet another example of Ishii's knack for combining difficult psychological themes with stylish pulpy flair.