One thing is for certain, Kiyoshi Kurosawa's success did not come fast and easy right out of the gate. Before the recognition of The Cure, Kairo, and long before the days when Bright Future had a comfy spot on the Cannes festival lineup, like many directors, he paid his dues in the direct to video genre. Guard from the Underground (1992) comes from those earlier days. It is a fairly straightforward horror-slasher piece that finds a rawer K. Kurosawa at once pandering to a genre while flexing some of the personal instincts and trademarks that would later define him.

The film begins with art curator Akiko Narushima (Makiko Kuno) on her way to her new job at Akebono Corp. A news report on the radio talks about how a former sumo wrestler who murdered his cheating lover and friend but got off on an insanity plea is going back on trial. It also happens that Akebono Corp. has another new employee in the security division, a gigantic, former sumo named Fujimaru (Yutaka Matsushige).

So, you can see from the start, the film is playing it pretty straightforward, no subtleties there. Basically, Fukimaru becomes a bit obsessed with Akiko, watching her on the security monitors, wearing an earing that she dropped, and keeping pics of her by his ragged, makeshift bedside. Fujimaru is a thin but hulking figure, living in the bowels of the building, at first picking off a few people that displease him, but as Akiko finds him out, he puts the building into lockdown and tries to pick off Akiko her business buddies one by one.

The slasher elements are handled pretty well, though it is a strictly, nothing special, b-grade affair. The film aims for more brutality than gore. Fujimaru's weapon of choice is a baseball bat, but he's not beyond whatever might be laying around, or just stuffing you in a locker and smashing it nearly flat with his shoulder. A couple of good tension scenes, like Akiko getting locked in the document room and Fujimaru trying to bang the door down to get to her, pepper the film until the final climax which is one long suspense scene, typical of any slasher film, be it Halloween or Friday the 13th.

What makes it interesting, more than a cruddy ol', direct to video slasher picture, are those ingredients that can be attributed to Kiyoshi Kurosawa. First there is his minimalist direction, even in these earlier days he favored wide master shots, sparesly framed, and not much cutting. In the subplotting , he plays cute with corporate politics. After his first murder, Fujimaru is caught by his boss, the security chief, who doesn't turn the psychopath in purely because he see's it as a chance to use the monstrous man to get rid of an employee that has been bothering him. Likewise, when Akiko really begins to suspect something is seriously off with Fujimaru, she is dissuaded from reporting her fears purely because of interoffice policies and the trouble it will make. The crass human resources exec, Hyodo (Hatsunori Hasegawa), for example, is a guy high up the ladder and bothered by anyone below him, spending most of his day napping in his office and avoiding any contact with his subordinates.

The DVD: Artsmagic.

Picture: Anamorphic Widescreen. Well, it is a low budget flick, so one must start with some automatic forgiveness with the source. The film actually looks pretty decent and has some effective, low light, shadow drenched, horror photography. The non-progressive source has some obvious roughness leading to some grayed contrast, higher levels of noticeable grain, and lacking color details. Again, since the source isn't likely to be a good one, I think Artsmagic did the best they could given the nature of the material.

Sound: Japanese language, Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.0 channels, with optional English subtitles. Again, pretty simple stuff, centered vocals, sound and fx a bit more to the side. The film wasn't made in the surround sound era, so despite the presence of a 5.1 mix, you wont find a whole lot of audio workout on your sound system. The score is is pretty funny, so abrasively stock and cheesy it works in the films favor.

Extras: Bio/Filmographies for Kurosawa and the cast.--- Commentary by MidnightEye writer and Japanese film scholar Tom Mes. When it comes to doing commentary tracks, Mes is a veteran at this point. He's interviewed Kiyoshi Kurosawa a few times and has kept an eye (a midnighteye- hah!) on him since his first rumblings on the scene. A decent job covering the basics.

Conclusion: Guard from the Underground is a b-grade slasher picture that probably wouldn't have any attention whatsoever if it hand't been made by a filmmaker who went on to establish some cult success. I'd liken it to Oliver Stone and The Hand or Stanley Kubrick and Killers Kiss, a fair to sub-standard film made by a talented director in their emerging, less polished days. Fans of Kiyoshi Kurosawa's films will probably want to pick it up just purely for the curiosity factor. Your more casual Asian film and horror fan might want to stick to it as a rental, though a casual purchase shouldn't be ruled out.