Hisayasu Sato (1959 - )
Related: Japanese erotica - Japanese exploitation - Japanese horror - Japanese cinema
At a time when Japanese horror is becoming ever more fashionable and mainstream it is always refreshing to dive straight into the darker corners of the realm to reacquaint yourself with the bits that can never follow that same route. Delve into this unnerving, dimly lit area for long enough and one name will pop up again and again - Hisayasu Sato.
The Bedroom (1992) - Hisayasu Sato
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]Director Hisayasu Sato's eclectic study of subcultures: fetishism, drug use, prostitution and pornography. Both sensual and unsettling, "The Bedroom" paints a nightmare landscape that is strangely attractive. Kyoko is a member of a club called The Bedroom where all the girls use Hallusion, a highly hallucinatory drug, and then let men do whatever they want to them. One by one, the women in the club are being killed and mutilated. Soon, Kyoko begins to suspect her lover, Kei, of being the murderer. But the truth proves to be far more disturbing. This stylish example of Japanese "Pink Cinema" co-stars cannibal murderer Issei Sagawa, who shot and partially ate his Dutch girlfriend in Paris in 1981. Issei Sagawa, Kiyomi Ito, Kyoko Nakamura, Momori Asano, Takeshi Ito; Dir: Hisayasu Sato. Includes production stills and background information on the Pink Cinema movement and director Hisayasu. --amazon.com
Muscle (1988) - Hisayasu Sato
[Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]A seemingly mild-mannered editor of a muscle magazine finds his sexual desires ignited when he becomes involved in an S&M relationship with a muscular bodybuilder in this sexually explicit, extremely controversial drama. For, during their lovemaking, he is unable to control his pleasure/pain and in a fit of sexual intensity, cuts off his lover's arm. He is sent to prison, is released and (with the detached arm in formaldehyde) searches the dark city streets for his now one-armed object of affection. A homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini, the film is quite strange and sexy. (Japanese w/ subtitles) --amazon.com
Biography
Hisayasu SATO, born 1959 in the province of Shizuoka, had his directing debut with MAD SENSATION (1985). In with movies such as THE BEDROOM (Shisenjiyou no Aria, 1994) or NAKED BLOOD (Naked Blood: Megyaku, 1996) he concentrates on the madness and the perversion of daily life. [Feb 2007]