Attacked!!

Attacked!! (襲う！！, Osō!!), also known as Attack!!, is a 1978 Japanese film in the "violent pink" style of Nikkatsu's Roman Porno series, directed by Yasuharu Hasebe and starring Asami Ogawa and Yōko Azusa.

Synopsis

A policewoman is attacked, handcuffed and raped while on night patrol. Rather than report the incident, she determines to find and punish the rapist herself. After the same attacker again rapes her in the police restroom, she becomes terrified of another encounter, and develops a victim mentality. The criminal is neither caught nor identified at the end of the film, leaving the policewoman's feelings of terror and desire for vengeance unresolved.^[2][3]

Cast

• Asami Ogawa () as Kumiko Kawai^[4]
• Yōko Azusa () as Eiko Yano
• Shigeru Ichiki () as Tamura
• Kai Abe () as Ōkubo
• Atsushi Takahashi () as Ejima
• Kunio Shimizu () as Shingo Kanai
• Yuri Risa () as Mayumi
• Noboru Migaki () as Male gangster A
• Toshikatsu Matsukaze () as Male gangster B
• Tomoko Sakurai () as Female gangster A
• Fumie Akira () as Fembale gangster B
• Jun Todoki () as Yasugi's wife

Critical appraisal

The film's ending, in which the attacker's identity remains a mystery, has generated the most polarizing comment from critics. Some consider this a suspenseful, unusual plot strategy, while others dismiss it as teasing the audience.^[5] In their Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films, the Weissers write, "the unsettling nature of this denouement generates considerably more tension than the standard thriller, as the viewer can't shake the feeling that the story hasn't ended at all. The fear continues long after the credits insist it's The End".^[5]

The Weissers judge Attacked!! to be a step back in the brutality Hasebe portrayed in his "offensively appalling" Rape! 13th Hour (1977), writing, "The film is still deplorable, but not nearly as repulsive as the former notorious entry".^[6] Allmovie also notes that this film is less extreme than Rape! 13th Hour, but that Hasebe nevertheless creates tension through the suspenseful plot. Of the attacker never being revealed, Allmovie comments, "The ending feels a bit like a cheat to those viewers attempting to guess the rapist's identity, but the film holds together as a solid thriller nonetheless".^[2]

Release

Attacked!! was released theatrically in Japan on February 4, 1978.^[1]

Home media

It was released on DVD in Japan on March 24, 2006, as part of Geneon's third wave of Nikkatsu Roman Porno series.^[7]

Bibliography

English

• "OSOU!". Complete Index to World Film. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
• Osou! (1978) at IMDb
• Sharp, Jasper (2008). Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Sex Cinema. Guildford: FAB Press. pp. 229, 344. ISBN 978-1-903254-54-7.
• Weisser, Thomas & Yuko Mihara Weisser (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications. pp. 53–54. ISBN 1-889288-52-7.

Japanese

• "ja:襲う！(1978)" (in Japanese). allcinema.net. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
• "ja:襲う！！" (in Japanese). Japanese Cinema Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Archived from the original on 2012-03-11. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
• "ja:襲う！！" (in Japanese). Japanese Movie Database. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
• "ja:襲う！！(邦画 )" (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2010-02-22.

Notes

1. ^ "襲う！！". Japanese Cinema Database (Agency for Cultural Affairs). Archived from the original on 2012-03-11. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
2. ^ Firsching, Robert. "Osou! Review" (in Japanese). Allmovie. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
3. ^ Weisser, Thomas & Yuko Mihara Weisser (1998). Japanese Cinema Encyclopedia: The Sex Films. Miami: Vital Books : Asian Cult Cinema Publications. pp. 53–54. ISBN 1-889288-52-7.
4. ^ "ja:襲う！！(邦画 )" (in Japanese). Kinema Junpo. Archived from the original on 2012-03-24. Retrieved 2010-02-22.
5. ^ Weisser, p. 54.
6. ^ Weisser, p. 53.
7. ^ "ja:ジェネオン エンタテインメントよりＤＶＤリリース" (in Japanese). P.G. Web Site. Archived from the original on May 1, 2009. Retrieved 2010-02-22.