Organ
DVD Synapse Films
1996, 105 minutes

review by Lee Peterson

"I wanted to describe the agony of a wounded soul of someone decaying from the inside."
--Director Kei Fujiwara
 

First-time director Fujiwara (who co-starred in the cyberpunk classic Tetsuo:The Iron Man ), has crafted an extremely sick, hypnotic mindfuck that's equal parts David Lynch-ish surrealism and David Cronenberg-esque visceral perversity (yet wholly original and oh-so Asian). 

Tokyo police detective Numata (Kenjin Nasa) stumbles upon a yakuza-financed syndicate trading in body parts (extracted from murder victims) while searching for his missing undercover cop brother. The brother's limbless, reanimated body is being kept "alive" by Seaki (Kimihiko Hasegawa), a Biology teacher(!) who kidnaps and murders virgin schoolgirls, whose blood keeps his "experiment" in the pink. Seaki's eyepatch-sporting sister Yoko (the film's director, Kei Fujiwara, who also wrote, photographed and provided production design!) is the demented, dragon-lady leader of the body part syndicate. 

Organ' s unflinching gory assault caused a huge controversy when it was released theatrically, forcing Fujiwara to release it  in a heavily-edited form even in the (normally-tolerant of violence) Japanese cinemas. The film is presented here, for the first time on video, completely uncut and unedited. 

The first entry in Synapse Films' Asian Cult Cinema Collection, Organ is presented full-frame, in its original 1.33:1 aspect ratio. While graininess is abundant in a few scenes, the overall image quality is solid. It's not a very colorful film (except for gallons of the red), but the DVD transfer looks reasonably sharp, especially considering the film's low-budget, 16mm origins. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo soundtrack is in Japanese, with removable English subtitles. 

A 22-minute "exclusive look" at Organ: Chapter 2 (the second film in a planned trilogy) is included as an extra, narrated in (broken) English by Fujiwara. It looks to be another pretty fucked-up ride (I can't wait!).

Synapse's head honcho Don May was reportedly plagued with numerous production problems which delayed the DVD's release, but patient gorehounds have been rewarded with a supurb presentation of an important, challenging work. 

The next release in Synapse's Asian Cult Cinema Collection will be the brilliant, creepy, Evil Dead Trap .

Yee-haw!
 

Official Website:

http://www.synapse-films.com