Grotesque.

This film has been in the news recently as it is a rare (non-pornographic) film that is denied a certificate by the BBFC, effectively banning for sale, rental, showing or broadcast in any form in the UK. Naturally, I tracked it down to see what all the fuss was about.
Some background on the film is that it was made this year (2009) in Japan. It is being marketed as inspired by films such as the Saw series that I am a huge fan of. As a fan of Asian cinema, especially horrors, I was looking forward to it, if a little apprehensive of what was in store to make the BBFC outright ban it. I can safely say that the hype surrounding it is completely unnecessary. The film is not as gory as you would imagine, it is the fact that there is no reason for it that the BBFC were unhappy. In Saw, every single "victim" has done something bad, making them almost deserve what is happening to them; it is a severe form of retribution. Here, the torturer has randomly picked this young, innocent couple off the street, and has no rationality at all for what he is doing to them. The plot consists of various horrible things being done to them, with the promise that if the torturer becomes aroused, he will set them free. Very little other than that outline happens. The torture scenes feature effects that are believable, but the filming and editing style is far too hectic. It seems to be trying to copy Saw's style of bursts of frantic jump-cuts to create a tense, discomforting atmosphere. It results in being distracting and disorientating. Another shameless rip-off is that of the music; Battle Royale (amongst other films) was very clever in it's use of well known classical music to accompany scenes of brutal violence. This tries the same, with the torturer putting on classical cassettes while attacking the people. Rather than appearing artistic, it feels very forced and seems to think it is far cleverer than it is.
Like I said before, plot is near non-existent, therefore so too is character development. This means that the three-piece cast are not really pushed. The two victims are not really given much to do other than scream in pain or humiliation, and the torturer is always shown as very stern and emotionless.
The film is a mix of pointless gore and sadism shown in such a way that much impact is lost, and with such little plot to make you care about what is happening, resulting in a rather boring movie. The climactic scene comes with a sudden burst of unintentional hilarity; truly a wtf moment that had me laughing my head off (bad pun alert).
I feel that the content itself is not much worse that films I have seen that were rated 18, but I agree that there is no context to the events. Banning it seems a little harsh, but I don't agree with films being banned unless they have truly illegal content, eg snuff movies or real-life staged aminal cruelty a la Cannibal Holocaust. I think that an unrated certificate should be allowed like in America, providing films don't break the law as outlined above.
Back to the main story though, this is a terrible film. 2/10 with one point added for the wtf moment at the end. 3/10.