Original Title: Akai misshitsu (heya): Kindan no ôsama geemu
Synopsis: How low would you go to win a million dollars? Just how desperate are you for the cash? Desperate enough to enter the Red Room?
Quick Review: You got to give it to the japanese: they know their shit when it’s about showing weird twisted human depravity.
Red Room is a typical game of survival where the last one standing wins 10 million yen. 4 People are playing the game (a married couple on a verge of a divorce, a schoolgirl and a young business woman) and they all have their own reason to be there.
What happens during the next 65mn (average running time for japanese direct to video movie) are game/torture scenes that mix soft porn and gore (especially in the last 15mn). It is not as outrageous or bloody as some other similar movies out of japan but twisted enough to make you look forward to the next sick game.
Red Room is an extremely cheap looking movie (that makes Death Tube looks like an hollywood production) with 4 people in a room for most of the duration of the film, but this format actually works in favor of the movie’s whole atmosphere.
Thanks to its short running time, enjoyable and sometimes imaginative games (great uses of a blow-dryer and a bulb) and above average acting, I did enjoy Red Room and would definitively recommend it to fans of Japanese twisted movies and survival games.
My Rating: 6/10
Director: Daisuke Yamanouchi
Origin: Japan
Warning the trailer below is definitively NSFW and spoils most of the movie!!
