There's not a whole lot to say about this one. It exists to show Japanese girls being tortured, generally in states of undress. Because everybody knows that the Japanese love their upskirts, there are torture devices designed apparently to give us a good look.

I didn't really understand the plot, and I'm not sure it had one. It's something to do with a pretty girl who starts at a Japanese girls' school. She apparently tries to steal the underwear of another girl and is coerced into joining the school's "Torture Club". The tortures, while not pleasant, are surprisingly not that violent. It should really be called "BDSM Club". The torture apparatuses used seem less designed to inflict harm on the girls than to display their bodies.

The movie's attitude to torture is bizarre. It's treated like any other hobby a girl might have. The leader of the torture club is an ice cold high school senior, completely heartless and devoted to the humiliation and discomfort of the other members. But our protagonist falls for her, the torture brings them closer together, and they end up in the sixty-nine position.

There is perhaps a statement to be made about Japan's collectivist society intensified through the microcosm of teenagers that "The Torture Club" doesn't make. Why, for example, are there no teachers in the movie, or parents? When you're young, its not their approval you crave: it's your peers. People do all kinds of crazy - and even cruel and sadistic - things in those years because they want approval, they want popularity.

"The Torture Club" doesn't address any of this. It's a cheap exploitation flick, a knock off of all those "pinky violence" flicks from the '70s that were made before bondage porn became available at a mouse click to anyone who's interested. It does have a couple of beautiful girls - not all of the cast are beautiful or even attractive - and they do get naked and undressed a bunch of times. But the lack of any real plot or character development taxed me, and I was just waiting for it to end.