Tokugawa (SHOGUN’S JOY OF TORTURE)

Finally, Japan's sexploitation grandmaster Teruo Ishii takes us back to the Edo period and shows us, without beating around the bush, a justice system based on torture. Three episodes tell the stories of women who are broken by honor, guilt, and rigid moral codes. Despite its drastic images—even in its abridged version—the film unfolds with an oppressive beauty: dark tableaux of punishment and control that are frighteningly clear as a mirror of historical power fantasies.
(Florian Widegger)