original Japanese title: OSOU! [Attack!]    also known as ATTACKED!

director: Yasuharu Hasebe
starring: Asami Ogawa · Yoko Azusa · Hide Shirai · Akira Hanaue · Shû Ichiki · Hidetoshi Kageyama

      

Asami Ogawa plays a female cop who is also a rape victim. Kumiko is handcuffed and sexually assaulted by an unknown assailant during her nightly patrol. The policewoman doesn't report the rape, but rather conducts her own investigation. Days pass and she learns nothing. Then, one evening, she is attacked and ravaged in the police station restroom by - presumably - the same man. Kumiko begins to think and act like a victim, expecting the rapist will show up again.

Director Hasebe unspools his story against protocol. The movie never reveals the identity of the rapist. The film ends with speculation as to who it might be [perhaps a resentful victim of a past arrest, maybe a former boyfriend, possibly a fellow police officer] forcing Kumiko to live in constant fear. Obviously, the unsettling denouement generates more tension than the standard thriller, as the viewer can't shake the feeling that the story hasn't ended at all.

Director Hasebe was one of the kingpins of Japanese exploitation, responsible for thirty decades of films, from entries in the SCORPION (SASSORI) series, to gangster films (BLOODY TERRITORIES), to THE NAKED SEVEN. He made his notorious 'rape' films in 1976/78 (ASSAULT! JACK THE RIPPER, RAPE!, RAPE 13th HOUR, RAPING and this film). An exclusive interview with Mr Hasebe can be found in Asian Cult Cinema magazine #25. This cinematic titan passed away in June of 2009; he was 77.