Kichiku Dai Enkai
(aka; Banquet of the Brutes)
(R0 DVD)
(1997)
review by Don't Feed the Dead
Kichiku
is an artsy bloodbath from Japan that centers around the disarray of
a gang when it loses its leader. Opening with a jail scene, the leader
Aizawa gives orders to his former cellmate to seek out his lover and
second in command, Mikami, to give her full control of the gang and
carry out his last orders.
We then cut to Shugisara who is talking to his mother on the phone and
readying to go to see Mikami. He and his mentor head over to the gang
headquarters where we get a wonderful ass and scrotum shot of the Japanese
toad known as Yumane, as he diligently screws Mikami on the living room
floor. Yumane finds out that Mikami has taken control of the gang in
Aizawa's absence and becomes quite agitated and leaves the gang for
good. Concluding that Yumane's departure from the gang was for the best,
the remaining six members decide to celebrate with a drug induced ceremony,
led by the whore Mikami.
After a few days of partying and loafing around, the gang learns that
Aizawa has killed himself in prison due to insanity. In a graphic straight
razor scene, we see Aizawa take his own life Hari Kiri style, slicing
open his stomach and removing the innards with his instrument of death.
Unfortunately, the gang doesn't take very well to the loss of their
leader, and dissention begins to take place. The coup de gtrace takes
place when Yumane returns to gloat of Aizawa's death, and Mikami loses
her mind, ordering bloodshed all around.
Although Kichiku's DVD art boasts of "Violence and brutality"
I found that this film was more of a waiting game than anything. Scenes
were often lengthy and pointless, focusing too much on the mundane activities
of the gang during their downtime. I also felt that there wasn't enough
payoff at the end of the movie to substantiate the hour you sit bored
out of your fucking mind, waiting and pleading for something disturbing
to occur.
Kichiku also gave me the feeling that I needed to take a shower after
its viewing. Not becuase it had a great deal of filthy and objectable
content, but because the environments used were so congested and dirty.
The characters in the film were also less than desirable to look at,
giving me the reasoning to detach from them right off the bat. No intrigue
involved here folks, everyone in this film lacked personality.
On the rare instances that SFX were used, it was well worth it. There
were plenty of blood spurts and a couple of head shots well worth pausing
and rewinding. However, for a movie that is translated to "Large
Banquet of the Brutes" it was a bit on the shy side when it came
to folks kicking the bucket.
The DVD comes with a few special features such as the original trailer,
a making of featurette, scene selection and a slideshow. None of them
however, are worth watching. Again, a disappointment.
In my opinion, Kichiku was a great disappointment, leaving me empty
and without any sort of interest in seeing this film again. Yes it was
artsy, yes some parts were very gory, but there was no appeal what so
ever to the film and its contents. The Verdict: Spend your $20 on a
local Asian buffet that leaves you satisfied, this movie just gave me
the shits.
