Angel Guts: Red Vertigo

Angel Guts: Red Vertigo(1988) from Tuna

1988's Angel Guts: Red Vertigo is one of the the last of the Roman Porno films made by the Nikkatsu Corporation. It is the fifth and last in the series of Angel Guts films based on a popular Manga series, the history of which is covered in my review of Red Porno. For this one, which was made long after the other four (1979-1981), the studio actually hired Takashi Ishii, the original creator of the Manga efforts as well as the author of four of the five screenplays, to direct his own story. Ishii wanted to be a director so desperately that he was essentially willing to do it for free and to endure any necessary hardships. He later said, "The budget I had was even less than the average Roman Porno film. I recall I completed the film within 5 days without sleeping properly at night."

The story goes like this:

Muraki is having a rather hard day. He's a stockbroker who has embezzled a great deal of money from investors and lost it all. His clients are ready to lynch him, and the police are looking for him. You think that's a bad day? Poor Nami works as a nurse, and is assaulted by two patients at work who want to rape her, failing only because of premature ejaculation. Running home early for comfort, she finds her photographer boyfriend screwing his current model. (Saeko Kizuki). Too much tribulation for one day, you think? Unfortunately for her, her troubles are only beginning. She rushes out of her house, and is promptly hit by a passing vehicle driven by Muraki-san, who assumes she is dead and throws her into his car. At first he plans to rape her lifeless body. She regains consciousness and, after some distractions and an attempted escape, he catches her and plans to rape her again, but he can't get it up. Nami finally gets angry, but Muraki tells her a sob story, she bonds with him, and she gets over her anger in time to have several hot sex scenes with him before the denouement.

Some critics have trouble believing that Nami would eventually become intimate with her kidnapper, especially after a rape attempt and the other abuse she had suffered that day. Others chalk it up to Stockholm Syndrome. I save myself a lot of worry by not expecting porn to have credible motivations.

DVD INFO

Available Subtitles: English
Available Audio Tracks: Japanese
High School Co-ed, Red Classroom, Nami, Red Porno, Red Vertigo
Seven exclusive director's interviews
Five feature-length commentaries
Original sleeve art
Original trailers
Bios/filmographies

NUDITY REPORT

Saeko Kizuki, as the model, shows breasts.
Mayako Katsuragi, as Nami, shows breasts and buns in several scenes.

The Critics Vote ...

No major reviews online. You can find several reviews from genre sites linked from the IMDb page.

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.0/10. based on a meaningless 18 votes.

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

Our own guideline:

A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre.
B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)
C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are indistinguishable to you.
C means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others probably will not.
C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film, but films with this rating should be approached with caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C- and an E are indistinguishable to you.
D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-. Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor popular acceptance.
E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre.
F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this film is a C. Comments indicate that some find this the best of the series, others find it the worst. Either way, it is a solid contribution to the genre of Roman Porno, making it a C on our scale. It will certainly not be for everyone. In fact it will not be for very many people at all, given the recurring rape theme.