88 Films: Helter Skelter (2012) - Reviewed

Images courtesy of 88 Films

Five years after making her strikingly bold debut with the Yoshiwara set colorfully oversaturated courtesan drama Sakuran based on Moyoco Anno’s 2001 manga of the same name, renowned flashy pop still photographer Mika Ninagawa returned to the director’s chair reuniting with the manga form with Helter Skelter.  Based on Kyoko Okazaki’s 1995 award-winning horror manga series of the same name (not to be confused with a certain The Beatles song or a Charles Manson dramatization), it told the story of a fashion supermodel who has undergone too many plastic surgeries and as a result side effects of the operations crop up as she begins to physically and psychologically deteriorate.  Made into a hyperkinetic and increasingly confrontational psychosexual body horror film that’s equal parts repellent and painterly, it paved the way for something of a subgenre of fashion-based horror films such as The Neon Demon, Antiviral and later Lux Æterna and most recently The Substance.  Coming to Blu-ray via 88 Films’ Japanarchy line in conjunction with their disc release for Ninagawa’s debut film Sakuran, it represents another indelible manga-to-screen offering from one of Japan’s most idiosyncratic hyperkinetic pop visual artists.

 
Lilico (Erika Sawajiri) is one of the fashion-world’s top industry players, a multimedia giantess whose success and self-absorbed narcissism go hand in hand.  Though seemingly perfect in appearances, her beauty is unnatural and manufactured through numerous illegal plastic surgeries and injections throughout her entire body from head to toe.  However, she begins noticing black spots on her forehead that appear to be side effects from the surgery.  Taking her frustration and growing madness out on her manager and agency preceding a public meltdown, the scenario worsens when a new younger model steps in and threatens to steal her thunder.  On the side, a case is being mounted against a series of suicides with prosecutor Keita Tsukahara (Susumu Terajima from Ichi the Killer) aiming with Lilico to unearth an entire underworld of illicit organ trade and illegal medical operations.  All the while her beleaguered and frequently humiliated assistant Michiko (Shinobu Terajima) has had enough and threatens to expose the truth behind Lilico’s pitch perfect physical beauty, escalating into violence including but not limited to self-mutilation. 

 
At once bigger in size and scope than her previous cinematic venture but slightly toned down in a visual sense with less bleeding oversaturated colors despite more ornate set design, Helter Skelter is something of a star-studded event as a hyperkinetic bright-as-sunlight horror freakout.  Featuring several Takashi Miike actors including Ichi the Killer himself Nao Omori, Dead or Alive trilogy star Sho Aikawa and Susumu Terajima, subtly unnerving score by The Last Emperor co-composer Koji Ueno and luminous radiant kaleidoscopic cinematography by Tokyo Tribe cameraman Daisuke Soma, the film is a glittering pop horror nightmare spoken of the same breath as Nicolas Winding Refn and Gaspar Noe’s likeminded fashionista descents into madness, mayhem and perhaps murder.  With Mika Ninagawa’s trademark lush visuals and ornate production design, the endeavor feels like a heightened reality while also being a critique of the real-world risks associated with maintaining physical beauty through the blade of a scalpel. 

 
While a brilliant ensemble piece with many characters, the primary conflict boils down to Erika Sawajiri as the cunning scheming Lilico and the increasing humiliations endured by her assistant played fearlessly by Shinobu Terajima.  Erika Sawajira reportedly took a hiatus from acting before making her grand return to the silver screen in this picture and she, like Elle Fanning after her, understands the tightrope walk between physicality, beauty and sexual agency.  Demanding sexual favors from her assistant, Terajima is onscreen designed to be Lilico’s polar opposite: ordinary, frumpy, meek and submissive to Lilico’s domineering behavior.  It is a difficult, uncomfortable dynamic to watch unfold onscreen but Mika Ninagawa’s distinctive poppy girlish aesthete sort of counterbalances or dials down the severity of some of its horrors and both actresses attack their roles fearlessly.

 
A sizable hit at the box office, grossing somewhere around $24 million and reviewed favorably by critics, Helter Skelter went on to garner two Japanese Academy Award nominations for Best Actress Erika Sawajiri and Best Supporting Actress Shinobu Terajima and though neither won it proved to be a testament to their courageous performances.  With the ensemble cast, the lush visuals, the mixture of glitzy glamour and gory grossouts, intentional imbalances between sexy and tawdry, Helter Skelter represents another boldly beautiful manga-to-screen offering from the gifted visual artist.  88 Films’ Japanarchy Blu-ray disc release with limited OBI spine numbers, the film includes theatrical 5.1 surround and 2.0 stereo tracks, an audio commentary by Tori Potenza & Amber T, interviews with actress Erika Sawajiri and director Mika Ninagawa, a behind-the-scenes making-of video and a collectible booklet featuring essay writing from Violent Burns.  Though between the two I was more impressed with Ninagawa’s debut film Helter Skelter is also a stellar piece and 88 Films’ joint release of this and Sakuran make for a great dual purchase and subsequent double feature of ultra sour eye candied, distinctly feminine manga horror.

--Andrew Kotwicki