BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment

MonsterPerfect Good idea lost in the noise

Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

BA_Harrison Rape has long been a staple ingredient of exploitation cinema, but very few films have dealt with the understandably touchy subject in such a blatantly un-PC and misogynistic manner as Rape! 13th Hour from Yasuharu Hasebe, the director of Assault! Jack the Ripper.Not only does this film feature repeated violent sex attacks on innocent Japanese cuties by a pair of depraved maniacs, but it actually shows the victims enjoying the experience to such a degree that they willingly return for more abuse, offering cold, hard cash for another round of the same; for that reason, sensitive viewers should approach this film with caution.OK, now that you've been warned, I can get on with describing this decidedly dodgy slice of deviant filth in detail....Rape! 13th Hour opens at a gas station where the attendant on duty (Yudai Ishiyama) conceals a red-jacketed stranger from a gang of homosexual thugs seeking to do him harm. After this incident, the grateful fugitive—known only as Crimson—takes his new-found friend on a little jaunt—to rape a ballerina!!! Crimson's accomplice enjoys his experience so much that, in-between further excursions with his pal, he ventures out to sample the delights of forced sex on his own.Although not quite as graphic as the aforementioned Assault! Jack the Ripper, particularly in regards to the gore, Rape! 13th Hour is easily as nasty in tone and certainly packs as powerful a punch. Crimson and his cohort are thoroughly reprehensible fellows and their extremely disturbing assaults are made all the more repulsive by the fact that the women appear to enjoy their ordeal. Director Hasebe is no doubt appealing to an audience that harbours rape fantasies, and this makes the film uneasy viewing to say the least.Towards the end of the film, Hasebe has Crimson suffer the indignity of rape himself (by his gay pursuers, who not only bugger him but also bash out his teeth in order to violate his mouth), but this does little to excuse the movie's unrelenting mysogeny and general mean-spiritedness. A brutal finalé sees the garage attendant exacting revenge on his friend's attackers by bashing their skulls in with a wrench, before paying another visit to his favourite victim: the sexy ballerina.Whatever your views on the film's dubious subject matter, there is no denying that Rape! 13th Hour is a technically well made movie and an emotive piece of cinema: the cinematography is superb (lovely use of widescreen) and the soundtrack—a mixture of classical and baroque—works extremely well with the visuals.I'm not going to pass judgement on this film based on its moral turpitude—after all, I actively seek out potentially offensive films—so I'll award Rape! 13th Hour a rating of 8/10 for its technical prowess and ability to shock.

ebiros2 I saw this movie as part of a double feature in a movie theater I believe in Itabashi area of Tokyo around 1978. The other movie I think was Momojiri Musume, and that was the movie I actually wanted to see.I was amazed at the audacity of the character to climb up the wall of a condo to rape a woman. Then after that it was non-stop sexually themed violence throughout the movie. The movie left an impression on me that I haven't forgotten through the years. I couldn't remember the title of the movie, but I've seen it recently again. The ballerina girl I thought was Izumi Shima, but it wasn't. Each of the movie's character has a shabby poetic- ness to them. Nikkatsu's Roman Poruno series movies usually has a happy go lucky style to them, but this movie is unusually dark for this series. One of a kind sex movie that goes beyond mere porn due to its audacity. It's definitely worth checking out if you can find it.

Bloodwank Watching Rape! 13th Hour, I was truly shocked and appalled that it wasn't a serious minded and compassionate treatment of the disturbing subject of sexual violation. Actually I'm lying, it was top entertainment. Sometimes the diktats of morality, social responsibility and the like are nothing but a drear suffocation upon the soul, and Rape 13th Hour slices through them to blissful effect, smile on its face all the while. The plot is scant, we follow a young gas station attendant who falls under the wing of the suave and well dressed Crimson, a gentleman committed to the pursuit of rape. Together they rape various lovely young women, the while watched by a trio of gay vigilantes whose attentions lead to a shockingly aggressive finale. This is only the second film I've seen from Yasuharu Hasebe and probably the better of the two (the first being Attacked!), albeit slightly lacking in the same substance. But with such dedication to showing its two heroes on their spree without conscience or mercy, who needs thematic weight? The film is quite simply shameless, it cares not for victims in any fashion beyond their beautiful bodies, indeed the reaction of one rapee seems to outright mock the conventional wisdom regarding such things, instead appealing directly to sexual fantasy. Having more or less discarded the notion of victimisation or indeed morality outright, the focus is on Crimson and his pal, treating their exploits as hardly anything out of the ordinary, often attractive and even amusing. Crimson comes across as a rape flavoured equivalent of any number of engaging amoral heroes of Japanese cult cinema, as played by Akira Takahashi in a natty red leather jacket he exudes laconic cool, whilst the young gas station attendant is seduced immediately into the joys of rape and is charmingly portrayed by Yudai Ishiyama as an enthusiastic novice with a great new hobby. As far as the women go, only Yuri Yamashina stands out as a ballerina, first and last rapee and something of a catalyst, she suits the abuse well. Hasebe directs with flair, rapes carry a cruelly erotic charge, the violence is brutal and frenetic and there are some nifty visuals including a funny stop/start woodland chase, evocative sheet tearing and great use of feathers in the final scene. Nice scoring too, classical and baroque stuff with Swan Lake making a memorable appearance. All in all this one was a real winner, though it should be noted both that it is arguably highly offencive and that as far as the nastier minded pinkus go this is relatively tame (though plenty arousing for ambush love enthusiasts). Still bags of fun with solid rewatch value though, 8/10 from me.

fertilecelluloid Another impactful Japanese thriller from Yasaharu Hasebe, this mean-spirited rape/revenge flick pushed the sexual violence boundaries so far (even for Nikkatsu) that that they voluntarily put the brakes on the genre. However, it was briefly revived ten years later by Ohara's "Zoom Up: Rape Site". In this exercise in grimy nihilism, a rapist named 'Crimson' stalks and rapes a dancer with the help of an "apprentice". A final assault scene in an empty swimming pool (of a male) has to be seen to be believed, and echoes the homosexual biker rape in the same director's incendiary "Raping!". The blood and guts quotient is high and, technically, this is the most straightforward installment (stylistically) of the bunch, but is a confronting, unique pleasure.