Imagine you’re watching the World Tournament of Poker. Now imagine that instead of poker it’s mahjong. Mahjong with all women who are forced to take their clothes off when they lose and once they’ve lost all their clothes they are killed. Winner take all. That is Strip Mahjong: Battle Royale.
Mahjong is one of the most disturbing, misogynistic and confusing films I’ve seen in a long time. Mostly confusing because I don’t know the rules of mahjong.
The story of the film is a simple as they get. Four women who have racked up huge debts playing online mahjong are kidnapped and forced to participate in Strip Mahjong, and underground pirate television show with an obnoxious host, and two assistants; a chipper woman and a man in a full leather mark and bikini bottom and nothing else.
It’s pretty obvious from the beginning who the survivor is going to be because the focus of the film is on her and she gets most of the voice over. Most of the film is rather dull as it’s just four girls sitting around a table playing mahjong. Then things go from boring to disturbing as the girls start to lose and are forced to strip down one article of clothing at a time until they are all pretty much in their panties. Things get even worse when one of them loses and the host gets to have his way with them physically and emotional as he forces them to bare their deepest darkest secrets before killing them.
And that’s pretty much it. Girls, nudity, mahjong, physical and psychological torture and more mahjong. If that sounds like a good time to you, then by all means, give this film a chance. Me? I hated every minute of it.
The film is presented in a 1.78:1 widescreen format and 2.0 Dolby Digital surround sound. Japanese with English subtitles. This film is supposed to be an underground TV show and the quality looks as such. I don’t know if that was intentional or not, but the film doesn’t benefit from it. It doesn’t look good at all. The sound is pretty mediocre too.
The lone special feature is the film’s Trailer.
This was a very unpleasant film. Very misogynistic. And since I don’t understand the game of mahjong it was very confusing to follow as well. I can’t recommend this film to anyone, but I suppose there is someone out there who might like this.
Danger After Dark presents Strip Mahjong: Battle Royale. Written by Ryosuke Oomine. Directed by: Mark P. Forever. Starring: Mako Higashio, Hiroaki Kawatsure and Nina. Running time: 77 minutes. Rating: Rated R. Released: September, 25 2012.Available at Amazon.com.
