Gurotesuku isn't easy to watch. But today's anesthetized horror generation demand such movies. Flicks like Hostel, Saw and 'insert torture-porn flick of your choice here' have lost their original edge and this has led directors to dream up new and ever more macabre ways to shock and sicken just to stand out from the crowd. The best film I've seen that fits this 'genre' over the last few years is 'Martyrs', and while I wouldn't credit Gurotesuku as being at quite the same level it does seem to achieve something, given appropriate interpretation and invention, that many viewers seem to have missed.
On the face of it this just seems to be an opportunity to torture and maim an innocent couple with very little motivation for engaging the viewer in a story or character development, but as a psychological study of the human mind it is a potentially terrifying hour and a half that, if viewed in the right way, deserves far more credit than it will inevitably get.
The story summarises as thus: a couple venture out on their first date and after getting on fairly well (though it's obvious that the guy has far more affection for the girl) they are knocked-out by an unknown assailant and wake up chained to surgical-style beds where they undergo some extremely horrific torture for what turns out to be quite a legitimate reason (psychologically speaking) by the aforementioned perpetrator. The general point is that the assailant has never known love, and therefore decides to torture those who dare to experience it by finding out how far they are willing to go to protect the subject of their emotions.
What follows, and in particular the 'hospital' scene, is a traumatic roller-coaster of 'would you, wouldn't you' dilemmas that could surely leave anyone who watches the movie asking how far THEY would actually go to protect a loved one. I highlight the hospital scene because it seems quite clear that the aggressor is frustrated at the fact that love could perhaps indeed lead someone to volunteer unthinkable pain onto themselves in order to protect another. And in such a situation, dangling a carrot of hope in front of them, only to whip it away again, would surely be a fitting way to break one's spirit.
The fact that this transgression, and the general tone of the movie, will be missed by many is testament to the fact that American cinema has prepared viewers for a far more linear and character-based analysis than this and engaging the masses in this way will obviously; ultimately lead to a very niche-market appeal.
Despite an annoyingly redundant scene at the end of the film, those who claim to appreciate this category of disturbing cinema, and who are willing (or daring enough) to immerse themselves in the sickening extremities of human nature will be disturbed, horrified and unsettled by Gurotesuku, and considering these three adjectives are arguably the most sought-after by hardcore horror aficionados, it's difficult to argue that it doesn't succeed.
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