[1995-08-21-IWA Japan] Tarzan Goto & Mr Gannosuke vs Keisuke Yamada & Shoji Nakamaki (Bath House Death)

[Jetlag]

This is the Bathhouse Deathmatch. They put a wrestling mat into a bathhouse and tag partners have to stay in hot tubs until tagged in.

 

The concepts sounds flat, but they actually manage to keep this entertaining the whole way through a combination of wrestling and surreality. Goto and Yamada start out with a bunch of fast mat exchanges, with Goto busting out Fujiwara armbars and Magistral Cradles and whatnot. In order to win you have to pin the opponent and then drown him in a nearby tub for 5 seconds. Lots of running around the bathhouse ensues, in the process of which lots of naked japanese women and men are scattering about the place looking for cover. I wonder if they put some of these tit and ass shots on the commercial tape cover. Goto also bashes the fuck out of Yamada with plastic buckets and then throws wooden baskets at him, while Yamada bumps like a madman for all that.

 

Gannosuke and Nakamaki eventually get tagged in and immediately take the brawl to the streets. Another amazing thing here is the video editing, as there are constant cuts (including a dual screen while Gannosuke and Nakamaki are outside), they also constantly cut to a female host (who is holding a giant walkie talkie and a microphone in front of her face) and a bathhouse worker that keeps adding wood to the fire. I assume the bathhouse worker also explains some of the intricacies of hot tub heating in the process. Also, bluesy riffs play in the background here and there, and an announcer that is occasionally dubbed in shouts the names of some wrestling moves.

 

Then this match also has it's tag psychology in place. Wrestlers keep leaving the hot tubs to break up submissions or pour cool water on themselves and get yellow carded for it. Yamada is the babyface in peril, gets bowled across the slippery floor and soaped up in a pretty creepy scene by Goto, he also does another slide across the floor to get the literal hot tag. Then it finally dawns on you that this is a partially inverted southern tag where the heat is on the guy who is tagged out, as Gannosuke and Yamazaki are selling the hot tubs like motherfuckers. In the end the video editing and inverted heat section come together for this amazing shot:

 

 

There's also one woman who tries her darndest to not let her day at the bathhouse be disturbed by wrestlers drowning eachother nearby and stays in the tub. Eventually Goto beats Yamada and then shoves his face into her butt to make the invasion of privacy scenario complete.

 

Truely a crowning achievement of our civilization, best japanese arthouse movie of 1995. What would YOU do if you saw a literally boiling Tarzan Goto coming your way at the bathhouse?

[El-P]

The greatest achievement on 90's Japanese indie sleaze. A classic.