Helter Skelter (Herutâ sukerutâ) is an early 2010 Japanese film that has decidedly Jing & Jang quality.  It blends lush, grand, and multi-coloured visuals with cruelty, manipulation, and deprivation. The film focuses on a top fashion star/ actress, at the height of fame, and her steady decline/ unfurling. The film sits somewhere between pitch-black satire, drama, and psychological thriller, with touches of body horror, crime investigation, and glitzy arthouse. Here from 88 Films is a Blu-ray release of the film, taking in an HD scan, a new commentary track, and a few other extras.

Helter Skelter was directed by Tokyo-born photographer turned movie maker  Mika Ninagawa. Between the early 2000s and early 2020’s, she has four other features to her name. These are colourful period geisha drama Sakuran (2006), stageplay like crime drama Diner (2019), popular Japanese novelist biopic No Longer Human (2019), and fantasy adventure XxxHolic (2022).

The film kicks off with an overloaded multimedia college - taking in flashing lights, stretched streets, people on traffic crossings, magazine covers, darting adverts, excited teenage girls, and a woman slowly unwrapping herself from bandages in front of a bright red and white backdrop.

Fairly soon, we get to meet our lead, and the focus of many of the images we’ve just seen- twentysomething Lilico (Erika Sawajiri), who is seemingly one of the most well-known faces in Japan- as she models, acts, and appears on big TV shows.   She is very much of a narcissist, and is constantly belittling & putting her down, Hada( Shinobu Terajima), her mid-aged, frumpy and bespectacled PA.

Also in Lillico’s life, we have her pushy/ blunt middle-aged female manager. Her long-haired/ neatly bearded, and equally vapid boyfriend Shin Okumura (Gô Ayano). And her smug photographer.

When we first meet Lilico- things are very good for her, as she is at the height of her career- but as the just over two hour film unfolds, things start to unfold- first off, her multiple cosmetic surgeries are starting to show weird grey patches on her body, and a new younger blue beret model is starting to get her work.

As mentioned earlier, Lilico treats her PA badly, and boy, do I mean it- she constantly puts her down, spits water in her face, makes Hada go down on her, makes her sleep with her boyfriend in front of her, and attacks people

The lush and colourful set dress, locations, and clothes are joined by an urgent, bombastic, and pompous orchestral music, which at points very much reminded me of the Michael Nyman scoring for Peter Greenaway's films.

I’d say you’ll have to enjoy a mix of visual lush/ glossy, and nasty/ bitchy drama to get Helter Skelter. Yes,  there are elements of body horrors, unfolding sanity, and psycho drama- but these are just smaller facets of what the film is about, as its heart is first and foremost a drama.

The region A/B Blu-ray features an HD scan, and this most certainly enhances the colourful & lush visuals. The English subtitles are large, clear and easily read- with the balance between dialogue and music just right.

Moving on to the extras, the only new thing on the disc is a commentary track by genre writers/ experts  Tori Potenza and Amber T. They begin by declaring they are huge fans of the film, and are so glad to see it getting a release. They talk about how the film is based on a manga by Kyoko Okazaki, giving her a short bio, with a few quotes she made- sadly, Okazaki was involved in a bad car crash, and has not completed any work since leaving the series, rather up in the air.  The talk about how the film has a more girly pop art feel, than the manga. We get a bio of director Mika Ninagawa, touching on/ describing her photo work. Later on the point out/ discuss moments of queer BDSM in the picture. We get interesting facts about the actors- for example, the actor who plays the PA bleached blond hair boyfriend can sweat on cue.  They talk about the general pressure on modern women to look a certain way- we find out that Japan is the third most popular country for cosmetic surgery, with the most popular being eyelid surgery, adjusting them to a more western look.  The track is fine enough- though it’s somewhat chatty, lacking focus/ depth of research in places.

On the archive side of things, we have the following: Interview with Director Mika Minagawa ( 6.22).  Interview with Erika Sawaji (5.50). Behind-the-scenes footage of the making of Helter Skelter(12.03). Japanese Premiere Stage Greeting (10.49). Opening Day Stage Greeting(15.40). Taipei Film Festival Q & A (5.19). Original rehearsals ( 12.54). Stills Gallery. Teasers and Trailers

The finished release comes with an inlay booklet featuring an essay by  Violet  Burns. The release is limited to 4000, with a numbered obi strip.

Helter Skelter is a heady collusion of bright pop art and emotional/ psychological cruelty, with sidelines into body horror and crime investigation. The scan on this new 88 Film Blu-ray certainly amps up the visual impact of the film.