Rare: A Dead Person 2 Review from Aroma Planning and Baroque!
Back in 2019, I reviewed a bit of a controversial shockumentary from Aroma Planning and Baroque, called Rare: A Dead Person (see review here). The genesis came from seeing a trailer on the end of another flick off the label, Women’s Flesh My Red Guts (see review here). I, of course, then went hell bent on the internet to track as many as possible down. Look, in this field of nightmares, you have two camps, the intelligent studies like these, Orozco the Embalmer (see review here), Death Scenes (see review here), and The Killing of America (see review here). Then there’s of course the exploitation fun, Faces of Death, Traces of Death, etcetera.
Fast forward to now. I have a fellow sicko reviewer by my side in the form of my Partner in Gore, Willow Brian. She’s watched all the above with me, so we decided it’s time to sit and check over something ghoulish like Rare: A Dead Person 2 together. This isn’t a thrill seekers parade and circus, this is very deep, as was its predecessor.
Beginning with a street scene, tons of rubbernecking citizens all staring at a bare footed bald man who’s laid out, his face down, head in a pool of blood. There’s a cop shouting out orders and we see there’s a fair few empty bullet casings scattered around. Like the original film, the police camera lovingly oozes up the body, taking in every detail front and back for future investigation. He’s been shot multiple times obviously. He’d also chosen a bad day to wear white, as his t-shirt and pale pants aren’t too clean now. The camera documents the crowd constantly, no one looks shocked, in fact many are smiling and laughing. One bloke is jerking his body (we can only see his top half) like he’s having a good ol’ hand shandy (that means masturbating for all non-UK readers). A couple of girls are practically posing.
Yummy, he’s been blasted in the face. Measurements of the holes and distances are recorded before he’s wrapped up in paper (yes, paper, standard police issue as in the first) and moved.
Next up comes a brutal motorbike accident — and another white t-shirt. This guy’s cranium is cracked wide open like a big egg. Fuck me, we both sat forward, this one is graphic — blood, bone, and teeth all caved into one big morbid soup. Trying to ignore the chorus of chirping police whistles, which accompanies most of these, we shuddered in horror, for the dead bloke wore flipflops… we loathe and detest flipflops…
Via his license plus ID and what was with him, we see his face when he breathed, and he appeared to be a police officer. After a lonely chunk of brain cowers on the concrete as it’s been pointed at a few times, he’s turned over. His face has gone. I mean it’s literally gone!! He’s hit something whilst at extreme speed. Wow. Flipflops are a curse. Onwards we go. A young woman dead on the sidewalk. Side of her head is pulverised. Fuck those fucking whistles!! Interesting observation, two lots of casualties have bare feet but they are clean. Seems in that country passers-by steal shoes off a corpse, or the police do — nobody wants flipflops though. Smashed skull, exposed brains, she’s turned over. I suppose some embalmer still would have her. Massive respect to the woman who’s cleaning up remains and really chilled out picks up brains with her hands.
For the rest of this atrocity exhibition there’s a gunned down criminal who has a thin bad dude moustache, a dead fella in a field who’s full of rigor mortis. Probably suicide, it’s hard because there’s no translation available, but he’s full of water and his pants are off. Me and Willow enjoy playing detective. Then comes the show stopping aftermath of an explosion — BBQ man and vehicle merged, looks rather delicious. Still smouldering, as he is moved, a voice starts yelling out of control. After a bit of digging, they discover a burnt child in the wreckage, a bit more intact but dead. The flesh is still glowing. Nearby there’s a multitude of gas cylinders and some are heard leaking, which are obviously the cause of the carnage.
Speaking of carnage, we’ve got another sidewalk cadaver, and it’s a flattened head, absolutely caved in and flat, empty, the contents are spread out alongside. For once instead of grinning gawkers, two women are crying, family members we assume. A cop interviews a handcuffed man who is pulled from the scene. Compared to chapter one of this series of gruesome records of death, Rare: A Dead Person 2 is a bit mellowed down. Far more information is given, in their native tongue with no subtitles or such.
If you Google the band Last days of Humanity’s album covers and you recoil, then please stay away, this is for only a select few. It’s like those who stop and stare — why do we? Any real gore or death in the street, you witness crowds. Is it that chance to see and reflect over what’s to come? We are after all only vessels carrying something more. This isn’t people dying for the camera, they’re already deceased — criminals, accidents, laid out for the police to file away. The human machine is rather fragile, films like these are raw down to earth hardcore. It is what the people who gawk and think about afterwards want to see. There’s no difference between this and serial killer documentaries, except that many worship mass murderers without thoughts to the families and friends of victims and of the killer themselves.
What’s worse? Consider animals dying in movies, for the movie. Another rather random example, weigh up against one of the later Sadi-Scream (reviews for volume 1 & 2 here) movies from Japan, as a topless woman is repeatedly punched in the guts whilst she chokes and cries. Yeah, that’s faked, but exists to excite and thrill certain audiences. The central cast members here and in those before, they are gone, they are cold, and have been for a while in some cases.
The DVD-R for Rare: A Dead Person 2 is totally void or extras, which is fine, it doesn’t need much, but a translation somewhere along the line or simply a quick synopsis of the segments would have been welcome.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
According to various websites, including IMDb, photographer Kiyotaka Tsurisaki is credited as the director of the Rare films but this information is false. I have spoken to Tsurisaki and he confirmed he did not direct this series. The series is not directed by anyone. They are a compilation of crime scene footage from the studio.
AKA: RARE ーレアー 人間であったはずの肉塊 総集編②
Directed by: N/A (Kiyotaka Tsurisaki did NOT direct this)
Year: 1998
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Colour: Colour
Runtime: 1h 31min
Studio: Baroque
Distributor: Aroma Planning