Images from the Japanese pressbook of This Is Japan

[Baron_Mynd]

I thought some of our resident mondo movie fans may find these of interest.

These are images taken from the Japanese pressbook of lost mondo movie 日本残酷物語 / Nihon zankoku monogatari / Cruel Tales of Japan / Mondo Japan / This is Japan (1963):

This cover image appears to be of women undertaking a beautifying ritual with detoxifying face masks being applied to their skin.

This second image is taken from a scene depicting an Ainu Festival which sees a bear being skinned. The following image is also taken from this same very scene:

You may, of course, be familiar with Sadismo also containing a scene in which a bear is purportedly skinned alive.

This next scene depicted I’m somewhat unfamiliar with but you will get a good idea as to what it pertains regardless:

Finally here you can see traditional Irezumi tattoos being conducted:

[Baron_Mynd]

[Baron_Mynd]

Just some associated images for the film from its pressbook, posters and so forth you may not be familiar with.

[Baron_Mynd]

And, last but not least for now, two images from the film you won’t find posted anywhere else online. For many, this will be their first glimpse at these iconic images immortalised on the poster art for This Is Japan:

With that, I bid you all good night!

[Baron_Mynd]

@SWAT

Here are some additional images you will not have seen previously.

The same chef seen during the monkey brains segment is also seen skinning a snake, which leads me to believe both were perhaps taken from a single longer scene on exotic foods being served inside a restaurant.

The infamous monkey brains scene was, in that case, likely relatively short. As I say, I do not have this, though I am aware a trailer for This Is Japan exists as well as a theatrical trailer for Sadismo which contains footage and images comparable in both.

[SWAT]

So in your opinion this is not staged at all?
This is horrible

Don’t want to see the video and judge by myself, the picture is enough.

[Baron_Mynd]

All indications seem to be that this was real.

There is, for example, even a description of the procedure within the Japanese pressbook for This Is Japan - and a serving suggestion:

“The first step is to be cautious. The hair is cut off with clippers, and then the head is shaved cleanly. Take a drill bit and start from the top! Apply it from the back of the head to the eyes. Then the skin is peeled off and the skull is removed, revealing the brain. At this point, chopsticks are inserted, the brain is pulled out and eaten raw. It’s like beef liver with raw sea urchin on top.”

My belief is that someone behind Faces of Death had seen, or heard of, this segment and later went on to make their own reconstructive scene some years later. The recycling of ideas (and even material) as we know is very much at the heart of the mondo movie.

[SWAT]

Another time another culture…

Monkey brains

[Baron_Mynd]

I’ll purchase me a copy of the book by Leila Hadley so I can see what is said about her experience with monkey brains.

[Thuleviolenta]

i am fascinated myself by the “monkey brain eating myth” though from a purely historic/research pov…the wikipedia is somewhat “very” vague about it…for example whats the deal with “supposed” restaurants serving it…if so: did they do this in a “hidden room” isolated from other guests? the “raw” unprepared brain it isnt hazardous for health?