The Film (3/5)

After graduating from college, wholesome adolescent Yuki goes straight from school books to integrating herself into a Catholic nunnery.  Stepping into the black and white habit, Yuki transforms into her Christian persona of sister Maria and there, she faithfully becomes assimilated into the convent.  Yet, while sister Maria is the epitome of  being a servant to God, she is set a part from the others with her impeccable virtue as most of the covent is part of a devious and deadly secret order lead by corrupt priest with dealings in prostitution for donations, illegal abortions, and murder.  With the convent's abbess failing health, the secret order seizes opportunity to widen their deviant methods inside an already debauchery-laden nunnery full of perversion and inauspicious prayer toward blasphemous intentions.

"Nun Story:  Frustrated in Black" is a Japanese nunsploitation from pink filmmaker Nobuaki Shirai and the film is part of the Roman Nikkatsu Porno Collection, a subversive label of re-mastered classics from Synapse’s Impulse Pictures.  At first glance, Japanese women as Catholic nuns might seem a bit out of the ordinary, but, in fact, there is a contingent of Japanese nuns so the idea isn't as far-fetched or radical as initially thought.  If you think seeing white women break the habit, Japanese women break it better and badder, slipping out of their clothes and into the fornicating arms of their co-stars is the most sinful of this 69 minute confession.  Also known natively as Shudojo:  Kokui no naka no uzuki, no screenwriter is credited and can only assume that Shirai, who at times goes under the moniker of Shinmei Shirai, penned the sacrilegious miscreant of a film as well.

Yukie Ishii stars as Sister Maria, aka Yuki, with chaste appeal.  Her innocence is quickly stripped away when she becomes forcibly involved with the convent she optionally joins.  Inside, Sister Eri runs the show as head mistress while Abbess lays ill.  Sister Eri, Eri Kanuma, is sadistic as they come under the false pretenses of her habit.  Eri Kanuma plays the lustfully faithful deviant well alongside Masato Furuoya played by Hirohi Mitamura as a powerful and corrupt priest with manipulative powers over his sadistic sisterhood.  The cast rounds out with Yuri Yamashina ("She-Beast, Warm Bodies"), Nami Misaki ("Bruce Against the Iron Hand"), and Rie Akagi ("Rape Hurricane:  Saku!!"). 

One aspect that will bother the typical moviegoer is that the Shinmei Shirai script tends to go in various directions without a clean segue.  Is the corrupt priest whoring out his nunnery and taking care of the abortion arrangements for large sum of donations from vice-riddle affluentials?  That particularly interesting subplot is unclear.  Is the whole covenant in on being a cult of abetting sisters who torture, rape, and kill anyone who stand in their way?  The magic eight ball once again comes up with it's unclear.  So many questions, yet so few answers can be pulled from Shirai's script that its surprising Nobuaki Shirai was able to somehow piecemeal the fragmented story together into a slightly coherent narrative.

Audio/Video (2/5)

Synapse releases "Nun Story:  Frustrated in Black" onto DVD via their provocative Impulse label that aims to shell out the best of the best of the Roman Nikkatsu Erotic Porno Collection.  The transfer is presented in an anamorphic widescreen, 2.35:1 aspect ratio.  The image quality on this transfer bares the same viewing from behind a screen door effect seen also with one of Impulse Pictures other recent releases,  "Female Prisoner 101:  Suck," as "Nikkatsu Films did not provide us [Synapse] with any better quality master materials for the feature."   Though the entire barely an hour runtime isn't perfection through the soft, sometimes rigid details, coloring is surprisingly stable and no obvious notations of pointless enhancements made to attempt improvement.

The Japanese language Dolby Digital 2.0 mono track with removable English subtitles.  Subtitles are on point and flawless. Also include is a rather par for the course dialogue track that has moments of unflattering hiccups in forms of hissing and granular pops, but the dialogue is clearly present and the range of ambient effects in comparison is well within the parameters of depth.

Extras (0/5)

No extras are included with this release.

Overall

Being in absolute disdain of the Catholic Church these days with the rampart reports of young alter boys being sexual abuse in perhaps one of the biggest and notorious scandals to ever hit religion factions everywhere, a little Sister-on-Sister action seems not so blasphemous in comparison.  Nobuaki Shirai's film is one part revenge thriller, one part deranged cult, but all pink film that's greatly unapologetic for touching upon all the sensitive, taboo topics the Roman Catholic Church has had firm stances on for centuries and, God, it's refreshing.  Recommended.