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The Dismembered Beauty is Coming

February 25th, 2008 | Itoi, Merchandise, Uncommon Knowledge

I just spent $42 on a copy of the movie that inspired this. Whenever I get it (probably not for at least 2 or 3 weeks, it’s an old Japanese movie from 1957 after all) I’ll post a review and pics (though I’m not sure what to expect just yet…) and all that kind of stuff here

The movie is titled 憲兵とバラバラの死美人, which translates to something like “The Military Policeman and the Dismembered Beauty”. If you’re interested (and have moneyz), you can get a copy of your own here. It’s probably the cheapest you’ll find it, as shipping fees from Amazon Japan and CD Japan and places like that is very deadly.

Anyway, I also translated a review/preview of this movie a few months ago, here it is here:

The year is 1937, and it has been six months since the Sendai Infantry left for Manchuria. The rotted corpse of a young prostitute is found at the bottom of a well, but her face and limbs are gone. The military police begin an investigation and search fervently for the person responsible, but they can’t even determine the victim’s identity, much less find any clues. However, the incident is made public when newspapers give wide coverage to the story, so Staff Sergeant Kosaka is dispatched from Tokyo to solve the case. Eventually, General Tsunekichi is taken into custody by local infantrymen because of the testimony of another unit, but the spirit of the dead woman appears before Staff Sergeant Kosaka, who continues to investigate on his own…

This is the first work in Shin-Toho’s cult-hit “Military Policeman” series. The detective drama setup, combined with the sinister portrayals of corpses being chopped up and people being whipped while hung upside down, has a maniacal charm distinctive to Japanese cinema.

So we’ll see in a couple weeks what the deal is with all this. I really hope Itoi remembered the right name, though. The Japanese interview included a note saying that Itoi’s memory might be a little off about the details of the movie.

EDIT: I’ve since posted very detailed stuff about the movie here.