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| All photos courtesy of Mondo Macabro |
A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse (1975) is a strange mixture of a yakuza drama, pinku eroticism, cat demons, and a ghost-cat lady hybrid. Directed by Kazuhiko Yamaguchi (Wolf Guy, Sister Street Fighter, Wandering Ginza Butterfly), it combines all these disparate elements into a supremely watchable film that constantly defies expectations.
Based on actual historical events, sex parlors were banned in Japan to try to curtail prostitution forcing these brothels to "rebrand" as Turkish bathhouses and offer soapy sexual services as a way to skirt the ban. These bathhouses are still around today in modern Japan though they have been renamed "Soapland" so as not to offend the Turkish government.
The film begins during this transition and follows Yukino (Naomi Tani), a demure sex worker, and her smoky black cat Kuro. Naomi does not want to stay at the brothel after the bathhouse transition, so she leaves with her cat to live with her boyfriend, Shikauchi (Hideo Murota), and her sister Mayumi (Misa Ohara). Unfortunately, Shikauchi is a horrible human being that is always scheming to get more money, and he lies to Naomi about owing a large amount of money for gambling debts. In order to bail him out, Naomi reluctantly goes back to work at the bathhouse.
Although the film frequently stops in its tracks to have a kinky sex scene, it quickly ramps up with prolonged and savage torture scenes that would be right at home in a Teruo Ishii flick. Shikauchi has a roving eye and will stop at nothing to get what he wants, whether brutally beating his pregnant lover to death or sexually assaulting her sister. Throughout the film, he is a colossal asshole, and it is incredibly satisfying to see him finally get punished for his crimes. His obsession with getting more, whether it is more sex or money, eventually becomes his undoing. For the most part, the women in the film are just there to get exploited, but later on, Naomi takes control of her destiny and executes some plans of her own.
Aesthetically, A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse is a beautifully shot film with gorgeous lighting and scene composition. There is one sequence in particular where the camera pans from a bird's eye view over all the different rooms of the bathhouse, each one containing a different tryst that is eye-catching. The score, by Hiroshi Babauchi, is an exciting blend of experimental electronica and acid jazz, giving the film a chaotic feel. Once the narrative shifts into horror in the last third of the film, it can feel silly (with the cat jumping all around the place), but the stark white costume and makeup for the vengeful cat-demon lady are outstanding. Her face makeup is a combination of feline features and a hannya mask, which is fitting because a hannya mask represents a jealous female demon in Noh theater.
Overall, A Haunted Turkish Bathhouse is an intriguing mish-mash of genres that manages to entertain and shock in equal measure.
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MONDO MACABRO DISC FEATURES
Region A coded US home video premiere
Japanese language track with optional English subs
82 minutes, widescreen 2.35:1, color
Brand new 2K restoration from the original negative
Brand new interview with Patrick Macias about Toei exploitation cinema in the 1970s
Brand new audio commentary by film scholar Samm Deighan
Trailer
--Michelle Kisner