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6 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- Surreal film of gore madness, 26 August 1999 Author: Jim in Seattle (petpost@aol.com) from Seattle
*** This comment may contain spoilers ***
Usually when I watch a modern Japanese film and it opens with "A film by so-and-so," I know that the film is going to have some kind of message from the director; he wants to shock or surprise me. This film just basically grosses you out. The film begins with several undercover cops trying to bust up one of the worst kind of 'black market' rings---human organs. However, something goes wrong and some police are killed but the main criminals--a doctor and his one-eyed sister--get away. The cop on the case is dismissed from the force but is determined to find the perpetrators. The organ-selling doctor works by day at a local school and when he's not tending to a kidnapped no-body who provides him with organs to sell, he is killing and mutilating some of the female students. (If you're failing a class and want to pass, offer to sleep with the teacher)But the title of the film doesn't necessarily point to the organ-selling plot; it turns out that the doctor and his sister were horribly abused by their mother (naturally) and he was left with some kind of enlarged and lethal "organ" (do I have to spell it out for you?) Not only that, he either imagines himself or in reality is suffering from some kind of malady which affects his entire body; all the characters wander into and out of madness that it is hard to tell. But, you don't care about any of the characters, so who cares anyways?After the graphic, bloody climax it's hard to say what happens, but the final shot is of the doctor once again at work in another slaughterhouse.Some modern Japanese films are, in my opinion, a cry for help from a society that is desperately bound by its increasing population and mounting garbage problem (i.e., recycling=re-use of human organs). But more than that, under the beauty of the kimono and self-demeaning customs, there is a rage and frustration that wants to come out and you can see it in such films as this. This is savage, brutal and sick film-making.
5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :- I guess I liked this but I didn't necessarily understand it...., 5 February 2006 Author: TheatreX from Louisville, KY
Japanese movies can be a bit tough to follow sometimes, and this is one of those. I know it begins with cops staking out an organ-harvesting operation but beyond that it's one big "what the hell?". Not that this isn't creepy and weird and interesting to watch, it just a bit hard to follow. Maybe another watch, or two, might help. Maybe. The stake-out on this organ-harvesting operation went bad, I guess, and one cop lost his job and now he's out for vengeance and to find his former partner? I suppose that may be about as close as I could come to the plot. There's a brother and sister that are extremely dysfunctional, he's some kind of school teacher or something, and he collects butterflies and does strange experiments with plants and humans? And his sister, Yoko, is missing an eye, thanks to their deranged mom who also tried to cut off her brother's penis. Seems that brother also has some other problems, like malignant growths and stuff. One scene has a woman, the headmistress at a school (I guess) coming on to him and getting rather excited about his suppurating pustules....yow. This is a rather sick and twisted flick, most of which left me in the dust but it was sort of interesting to watch. I've read comparisons to David Lynch but to my knowledge he hasn't produced anything this "out there". If you're a fan of Asian Cinema, of the abnormal kind, then you'll probably like this a lot, if you have a weak stomach and everything has to make sense to you, why would you watch this in the first place? 7 out of 10.
4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- disappointing, muddled mess, 9 December 2005 Author: flamingyouth76 from Kentucky--United States
After reading how violent this film was and that it had been banned even in Japan, I must admit I was excited about seeing it. After watching it multiple times, I still can't get much plot out of it. I got more from reading the back of the case than from the movie... As for the supposed over-the-top gore, I wasn't impressed. The effects are straight out of a Henenlotter or HG Lewis flick and there are more greens and yellows than red. I saw nothing so offensive that it would need to be censored. Visually, the film was interesting, with very vibrant colors. Is it violent and perverse? Yes. Is it as bloody as it's billing? No. I think it was an incoherent mess, comparable to "Tetsuo".
4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Bizarre, 31 December 2000 Author: tim.nickson from Runcorn
If you want to see a bizarre film then you can't do any worse than this quickie from japan, this film resembles the likes of Brain Damage and Videodrome. The music will stick in your head long after the film has finished.If you are seeking the japaneese David Lynch then look no further than the director of Organ
7 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :- Organ and our Hellish Human-condition, 22 October 2005 Author: Matthew Janovic (myboigie@earthlink.net) from United States
I'm astonished at some of the bad-reviews of this film--ignore them. If you love extreme cinema that explores the basis of the human-animal, you have found a home in the cinematic space-time continuum. Ostensibly, this is a Yakuza and detective film, with elements of film-noir and expressionism. It is not a purely genre film at-all, but an art-film with incredible complexity about what it is to be human. Fujiwara is best-known for her role in Tsukamoto Shinya's "Tetsuo: the Iron Man", and her relationship to his work shows here. The human-body is the battlefield, as well as the human-soul. Maybe it took an inspired woman to say this, and a Buddhist at-that. And in many-ways, this feels like a tale by Edgar Allan Poe! It has that feel to it, a very visceral, filth-covered psychology--what much real horror is. In-fact, I'd say it is on-par with Poe and his Japanese-analogue, "Edogawa Rampo" (a pen-name). This is a film I have watched several-times, and it always delivers a new-revelation. One-viewing is not enough to begin to understand it. If it is ugly, it is because life has ugliness. If it has beauty (it does), it is because life does.There are roughly two narrative-paths in the film: first, the story of the outsider detective searching for his "dead" partner after their uncovering of a horrific black-market organ-smuggling ring run by Yakuza, and secondly, the story of the insiders of the ring, a brother-and-sister. The detective's-half reminded me strongly of Kurosawa's "Stray Dog" (aka "Nora Inu", 1949), and is probably a conscious-nod by Fujiwara. The brother has reanimated the lost-cop and is doing hellish experiments on him, while the sister--Yoko--runs the gang and fends-off the outside world. It's an interesting structure, which makes the film watchable numerous times, but the philosophical-themes of birth-and-death are even more rewarding. Yes, it is extremely low-budget, and shot in 16mm, but it is a well-executed film by a genuine maverick.At the film's philosophical-center is the relationship with the surgeon-brother in the organ-ring, and the reanimated-cop. As grotesque as the half-dead cop appears, he is more human than the internally-diseased brother. In-fact, he is metaphor for the surgeon's remnants of humanity; Fujiwara makes it clear that the brother and sister were horribly-abused, the origin of their spiritual-decay and sadism. The reanimated-cop is hidden-away by the surgeon in a secret room, and they have an "internal-dialog." The other-half of the narrative is also very powerful, with the outsider detective's obsession with finding his partner taking a horrible-toll on his family. It seems that being a cop hasn't done him or his home any good--even before the body-snatching incident. Fujiwara paints life as-such: birth, mutilation at the hands of others, and finally, death. Sadly, this is the fate that awaits many human-beings in this inhuman era we inhabit. Out of this, one could surmise that Mrs. Fujiwara has a strong-ambivalence to motherhood. What is puzzling is why many women do not. This film is a contemporary-masterpiece. "Organ 2" has been completed, so expect more-of-the-same!01.21.06 PS: It's hilarious how people don't get this incredible-film, but I believe it is still ahead-of-the-pack. American-audiences are used to a more linear-narrative structure, whereas audiences in Japan and Europe understand a film that is primarily thematic.
3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :- Uh...hmmm., 13 January 2001 Author: TRON-16 from San Ramon, CA
Ultra-auteur (writer, director, DP & star) Kei Fujiwara takes a bold step into a bloody landscape where Cronenburg drops acid with Lynch as D. Argento serves up livermush sandwiches to the late Mr. Fulcio.Fine. Unfortunately she forgot to bring along some extra flashlights to brighten up her plethora of grainy, murky scenes, and pack a script that was at least halfway finished before production commenced. Not so fine.Engrossing in some scenes, but infuriatingly obtuse throughout, ORGAN needs at least SOME sort of linear spine to hang its meat hooks on (and more violence would to boot). While watching the film, one senses that many scenes could have been cut in any order, and it still wouldn't affect the narrative much. Sigh. Still, it's required viewing for any blind dates, or first-time meetings with a potential mother-in-law!
2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :- The most disturbing but also artful japanese movie, 29 December 2001 Author: Da_Real_Gorehound (enderthh@aol.com) from Hamburg, Germany
I really like this movie. I think it's really artful but also disturbing. In fact I understand that some people don't like it because the movie is hard to understand, and it has so much story in it, that I can't make a summary. Also is the Japanese filmgenre very different from the American and Europe cinema, and not all people like this. But this is really a must see for fans of movies like Pi, Tetsuo or Tetsuo II. It got all in it, dream scenes, disturbing gore scenes, a good soundtrack and a bad atmosphere, because everything in the movie is dirty, cold, ugly and brutal. So if you like to watch something different then a mainstream Hollywood movie you have to get this cool journey to the insane world of Kei Fujiwara
3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- Hypnotic, slow going, bloody, weird poetry...AAAAAARRRGGH!"!!, 23 May 2000 Author: gemproductions (gemproductions@mail.tele.dk) from Copenhagen, Denmark
A strange Japanese film about illegal organ transplants, Medical experiments on schoolgirls, gangsters, blood, puss and confusion. Made by the female star of "Tetsuo", this film is probably too slow and weird for splatter fans, and probably too bloody for the normal cinema goer, nevertheless, it´s a film you will never forget, if you get the chance to see it.(It is released on "Japan Shock Video", Netherlands, Europe.)Not to be seen by people suffering from depression.
3 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :- I tried...but nope..., 11 December 1998 Author: eVan_Diesel from Michigan, USA
I tried to understand this sloppy horror movie. To me it looked like a bunch of gore thrown in with some characters running around not really doing anything.....like i said i tried.....
4 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :- A Misunderstood Gem, 21 May 2000 Author: syndrome666 from Rochester, NY
okay, I'm not going to even try to explain the plot of this unique film... instead i will say that "Organ" can honestly be considered one of the strangest, yet also most beautifully crafted, movies that i have ever had the pleasure of setting eyes on. Some will say that the director was just trying to use the back-story as an excuse to showcase graphic violence and gore in an attempt to gross-out and shock the viewer... but this is the furthest thing that i can conceive as being possible. Yes it is extremely graphic in it's depiction of the twisted inner-workings of the human soul, but the gist of the fact is that the director was trying to depict (or at least in my interpretation...) just that... that humans can be sick and perverse... even those who have been deemed to be social leaders. Granted, the first time you view this film, you may get lost. Between all the blood, violence, and distorted dream-like imagery you are sure to become at least a little confused (especially those of us who do not speak Japanese and are held captives to the subtitles). But upon subsequent viewings, i believe you will find that the story represents a masterful vision of the contrast of the conflicting sides of human personalities... even those of us who are trying to do good are not always saints... every man has his own dark side to him. Just please give this film a chance, and try not to be intimidated by the subject matter within. Instead, just allow yourself to take in all of the sights, sounds, images, and metaphors that are rooted so firmly in this film... and try not be overwhelmed... no matter how hard that may be... and i think you will find "Organ" to be as engrossing as I did.
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