The films didn’t exactly support Ichise’s 2005 statement that “Japanese horror is scarier than American horror”, but they were exemplary of his unwavering belief in the genre as an inexpensive, and therefore, low-risk arena for experimentation. Many of these kinds of absurdist horror-hybrids were ultimately able to ride the J‑Horror wave overseas to great success: Ryuhei Kitamura’s no-budget zombie apocalypse romp Versus (2000) and Takashi Miike’s fantasy musical horror-comedy The Happiness of the Katakuris (2001) both became cornerstones of the Tartan Asia Extreme collection in the UK. So why not Crazy Lips and Gore From Outer Space?
“Personally, I think the strong emphasis on eroticism and action made Crazy Lips a hard sell as a horror film,” says Sasaki. The project had been initially pitched to Shintoho Eiga – a company largely known for their softcore pink cinema – but they subsequently cancelled their plans for the film. “It then failed to sell internationally because it was deemed too erotic,” Sasaki continues. “And re-editing the film for overseas markets was difficult, because one particularly graphic rape scene was central to the movie’s core.”
By the time Crazy Lips received an overlooked US DVD release in 2004, the Japanese horror boom had already subsided. And though Ichise did produce further, under-seen hallmarks of the genre – Kurosawa’s Retribution, Nakata’s Kaidan, and Ring screenwriter Takahashi’s The Sylvian Experiments – the buzz never really came back. “It was a genre that could be produced on a low budget, and so it suffered from a flood of shoddy, mass-produced films that caused it to lose the support of audiences,” Ichise concludes. “And a second reason is that there was a failure of new talents to emerge.”
But for the Western consumer, these new releases of Crazy Lips and Gore From Outer Space mark the latest unlikely expansion on a once revolutionary sub-genre that was, for a long time, limited in exposure beyond its most recognisable works. With Arrow Video’s 2024 ‘J‑Horror Rising’ box set (featuring the Ichise-produced Noroi: The Curse); Tom Mes’ brand new ‘Frightfest Guide to Japanese Horror Films’ book; and the just-announced Imprint Films ‘The Origins of J‑Horror’ box set, which collates foundational works produced before 1997, the strange and uneven lineage of the last great Japanese horror explosion is now more accessible than ever. With that, the weirder and lesser-known oddballs of Japanese horror cinema are finally finding a home overseas – kung fu kicks and all.
Crazy Lips and Gore From Outer Space are available to purchase on Blu-ray via Third Window Films and will screen at The Nickel Cinema on September 28.