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VHS Forever

Re-Wind

1h 4m

Directed by Hisayasu Sato • 1988 • Japan
Starring Kiyomi Ito, Kazuhiro Sano, Sayaka Hitomi

One of the most esteemed and transgressive filmmakers ever to work in Japan’s explosively popular pink film genre, Hisayasu Sato crafted erotic films that were both genre-defying and artful. While Sato’s work is infused with horror and thriller tropes, it boasts a punk and avant-garde aesthetic singularly his own. RE-WIND is Sato’s tribute to Michael Powell’s masterpiece PEEPING TOM. After a grisly snuff videotape shot from the killer’s point of view is found in a refrigerator, a young man becomes obsessed with discovering who made it and whether or not the brutal murder was real. As he delves into Tokyo’s underground video scene, his own perversions come to the fore. Fusing gruesome gore and raw sex while wryly playing with the artifice inherent to the video format, RE-WIND remains one of Sato’s most powerful and impressive early works.

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