Branded to Kill (1967) was a left-field, highly stylized and very strange crime film about a yakuza hit-man who messes up an assassination and so becomes the next target of his bosses. It was a film which met with bafflement and indifference at the time of its release. Trapped in Lust came out a few years later and is a re-imagining of this film in the style known as Roman Porno, which was essentially a Japanese pink film which was strongly aimed at a sexploitation market. To that end, we have the bare bones of the Branded to Kill story repeated but with lashings of softcore sex.

It has to be said though, that this is no mere re-tread of a cult classic. This is a film which has some pretty unique tricks of its own up its sleeve. The story has the hit-man central character assassinate his own wife only to see her seemingly return from the grave, leading to further revelations which ends up with the emergence of one of the most disturbing character (or characters) that I have ever seen in a movie. This is of course the hit-man who is tasked with taking him out who is a man with a ventriloquist's dummy. Seen initially through a keyhole, these characters are introduced in such a way that firstly makes it very unclear just what and who they are. Once it is gradually revealed that this is a pair of killers, one of which is a (very) sinister doll with an (extremely) unsettling voice, it puts us into very strange territory indeed. These villains are not mere assassins either, they also rape women which, needless to say, is both very weird indeed as well as being highly sinister stuff. It's this type of strongly bizarre material which makes this movie one to seek out if you appreciate Japanese pink films. It has plenty of style to burn too, with lots of colour and visual invention employed throughout. It's a very obscure film but I would say that on account of its originality and sheer audacity it is one which certainly deserves a much wider audience.

For those unused to Japanese cinema, the 'pink' film phenomena of the 70s will seem particularly strange and to those, like me, used to both, this one is particularly strange. 'Pink' films are what in the west we might call 'blue films' but instead of being made for nothing with regard to nothing (except dosh) and thrust into seedy red light district cinemas to rot, the Japanese equivalent became an opportunity for aspiring or novice film makers to experiment, push the envelope or generally get into the business by doing whatever they fancy as long as it were peppered with sex. This one directed by the writer of the innovative Branded to Kill (Seijun Suzuki, 1970) and uses some of the tropes of the earlier film and trashes others. Lots of gratuitous sex (beautifully photographed),lots of shootings (beautifully photographed) and the introduction of a rather strange gangster No.1 with a mission to kill our hero (the one who had previously been doing the shooting). The infamous leading gangster here is in fact a semi automaton double act. One is a male dressed like a killer from a film noir movie and the other his doll with a very weird voice. They threaten our hero and his sexual partner and eventually succeed in having their way, as it were.