Name: Ôru naito rongu 3 saishû-shô
Genre: Horror
Released: 1996-08-09
Duration: 1 h 16 min
Rating: 5.4
Cast: Yûjin Kitagawa, Ryôka Yuzuki, Tomoroo Taguchi

The third film in Katsuya Matsumura's All Night Long series (originally a trilogy, but currently standing at six films) is disturbing, even more so than the director's previous two ANL movies, which goes to make it the most 'successful' of the original trilogy. If, like me, you felt that parts one and two weren't quite grim enough, this tale of utter moral turpitude should definitely do the trick.

Yûjin Kitagawa stars as loner high-school student Kikuo Sawada, whose job cleaning rooms in a love hotel allows him access to all sorts of goodies: pubic hairs, used condoms, dirty tissues etc. Kikuo's interest in yucky detritus becomes an obsession when he discovers the trash of pretty grocery worker Hitomi Nomura (Ryôka Yuzuki). Rummaging through her waste, he finds such treasures as dirty panty liners, old stockings, a used toothbrush, half-eaten food, and personal documents, which he takes home to create a shrine to the young woman.

One night, while diving into Hitomi's rubbish on the sidewalk, Kikuo is approached by fellow 'dust hunter' Kawasaki (Tomoroh Taguchi of the Tetsuo trilogy), who takes the lad home to show him his own collection, all neatly catalogued and filed.

As Kikuo continues with his hobby, he becomes more and more divorced from reality, viewing people as little more than garbage. So when he discovers a schoolgirl unconscious at the local dump, the girl having been raped, urinated on, and bludgeoned by his co-workers at the hotel, he takes her to his home and treats her like just like one of his pieces of refuse, prodding and examining her and cataloguing her details. When the girl finally recovers enough to object, calling him trash, he strangles her. With no further use for her, he saws up her body in the bath and takes her back to the dump. While Kikuo is digging a hole, Kawasaki shows up with some helpful advice for getting rid of bodies, directing the young man to a nearby furnace. Not wishing to leave things to chance, Kikuo kills Kawasaki with a shovel and throws his body into the fire as well.

Kikuo descends even further into madness (yes, even further) when he spots Hitomi entering the love hotel with a man. Spying through an air vent, he sees Hitomi having sex, and his idealistic impression of the woman is destroyed; after pulling down his shrine, he arms himself with a gun (found in a drawer at Kawasaki's home), and goes on a bloody rampage. The film ends with Kikuo taking Hitomi back to his home, just another piece of rubbish to be catalogued (and we know what happened to the last girl he treated that way!).

Director Matsumura doesn't shy away from showing acts of extreme violence, rape, degradation, humiliation and general deviancy in detail (especially the despicable treatment of the throwaway character of a mascochistic girl with scarred legs). However, it is the film's relentlessly nihilistic tone, and its extremely pessimistic message that humans are nothing more than living garbage, that go to make this a particularly challenging watch. There is not a single ray of light or positivity in the whole film, making it an essential watch for fans of transgressive cinema.

Japanese cinema is celebrated for its refined minimalist dramas and avant-garde experimentation; it also introduced popular genres like jidaigeki (samurai epics), kaiju, and anime. Across both high art and mass entertainment, it often explores morality, impermanence, and the pressures of modern life.

Hidetoshi Nishijima and Tôko Miura in Drive My Car (2021)

The horror genre features stories that aim to elicit fear, suspense, and a sense of dread in its audience. Horror stories often explore themes related to the unknown, the supernatural, and the macabre, and they frequently evoke strong emotional reactions such as anxiety, terror, and unease.

A bellboy stalks a woman who frequents the hotel where he works.

All Night Long 3: The Final Chapter (1996)

The Biggest Movies and TV Coming in September

See which big screen releases you can watch from the comfort of your couch.

Theatrical Releases Coming to Streaming

See who dazzled on the red carpet and took home gold at the 78th Primetime Creative Emmy Awards.

Primetime Creative Arts Emmys: Photos We Love

Priscilla Alden in Criminally Insane (1975)

All Night Long 3: The Final Chapter

Photos

Top Cast20

User reviews9

More like this

Related interests

Storyline

Did you know

Top picks

Details

Tech specs

Contribute to this page

More to explore

Recently viewed