School of the Holy Beast

School of the Holy Beast a.k.a. Convent of the Sacred Beast (聖獣学園, Seijū gakuen) is a film in the nunsploitation subgenre of Pinky violence made by Toei Company in 1974.

School of the Holy Beast
Poster to School of the Holy Beast
Directed byNorifumi Suzuki
Written byMasahiro Kakefuda
Norifumi Suzuki
StarringYumi Takigawa
Fumio Watanabe
Emiko Yamauchi
Music byMasao Yagi
Distributed byToei
Release date
February 16, 1974 (Japan)
Running time
91 minutes
CountryJapan
LanguageJapanese

Plot

A young woman (Yumi Takigawa) becomes a nun at the Sacred Heart Convent to find out what happened to her mother years earlier. She encounters a lesbian mother superior, lecherous archbishops, and uncovers many dark secrets. The convent also practices brutal discipline and encourages masochistic rituals such as self-flagellation. In one scene, two nuns are forced to strip to the waist and whip each other severely with heavy floggers. Later, Takigawa is tortured and whipped by a group of nuns armed with rose-thorns.

Cast

Critical appraisal

Praising the work of writer/director Norifumi Suzuki as well as the leading actors, critic Donald Guarisco of Allmovie says, "This Japanese shocker manages to [be] shocking and artistically stunning all at once."[1]

In TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion, Patrick Macias calls the film a "comic adaptation and a blasphemous sermon of high camp and knowing literary intelligence." He continues, "Trashy as it may sound, Suzuki's film is absolutely gorgeous to gaze upon."[2]

Availability

The Cult Epics company released School of the Holy Beast on region-1 DVD on August 30, 2005. The extras on the DVD included the original theatrical trailer, and interviews with lead actress Yumi Takigawa and film critic Risaku Kiridoushi.[3]

Notes
  1. Guarisco, Donald. "School of the Holy Beast : Review". Allmovie. Retrieved 2007-10-10.
  2. Macias, Patrick (2001). "School of the Holy Beast". TokyoScope: The Japanese Cult Film Companion. San Francisco: Cadence Books. p. 182. ISBN 1-56931-681-3.
  3. "School of the Holy Beast". Amazon.com. Retrieved 2007-10-08.

Sources


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