The exploitation of Shogun’s Joy of Torture takes on different shape here when compared to Ishii’s earlier film Orgies of Edo. Less colorful and less striking, Torture is no less horrifically engrossing. Instead of debauched and perverse pleasure, the central connective theme of Torture is, well, torture itself. The focus on pain inflicted upon others - all for different means - gives the barbarism a bit more meat to sit upon, even if it is only the third story in the film that has anything resembling a moral or even just justifiable comeuppance.
The exploitation of Shogun’s Joy of Torture takes on different shape here when compared to Ishii’s earlier film Orgies of Edo. Less colorful and less striking, Torture is no less horrifically engrossing. Instead of debauched and perverse pleasure, the central connective theme of Torture is, well, torture itself. The focus on pain inflicted upon others - all for different means - gives the barbarism a bit more meat to sit upon, even if it is only the third story in the film that has anything resembling a moral or even just justifiable comeuppance.
