The Films of Hisayasu Satô: Volume #1 - Re-Wind / Lustmord / Love Letter in the Sand – Pink Line (Blu-ray)

Theatrical Release Dates: Japan, 1987 (Lustmord), Japan, 1988 (Re-Wind, Love Letter in the Sand)
Director: Hisayasu Satô (All Films)
Cast: Nanako Fujitani, Yui Hoshikawa, Yutaka Ikejima, Yutaka Ikejima, Narutoshi Ishikawa, Kiyomi Itô, Bunmei Tobayama, Asami Yûki (Lustmord), Masae Abe, Sayaka Hitomi, Kiyomi Itô, Reika Kazami, Kazuko Kobayashi, Yukio Ono, Kazuhiro Sano, Rino Shimazaki, Kôji Suzuki (Re-Wind), Maya Shiraki, Yoko Fujita, Shigeru Sasaki, Masahiko Itô, Takeshi Itô, Tomokazu Hashii, Shôichirô Sakata, Akira Sokura (Love Letter in the Sand)

Release Date: October 21st, 2025
Approximate Running Times: 57 Minutes 20 Seconds (Lustmord), 64 Minutes 42 Seconds (Re-Wind), 61 Minutes 28 Seconds (Love Letter in the Sand)
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen / 1080 Progressive / MPEG-4 AVC (All Films)
Rating: NR
Sound: DTS-HD Mono Japanese (All Films)
Subtitles: English (All Films)
Region Coding: Region Free
Retail Price: $59.98

Lustmord: "Eiji, a reclusive and awkward teenage boy, is fixated on creating a serum capable of breaking down the barrier between pleasure and pain, much to the dismay of his research physician mother. Deciding to conduct his own experiments, Eiji slips the serum to several women, but is unprepared for the horrifying results.." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Re-Wind: "After a grisly, point-of-view snuff videotape is found in a refrigerator, a young man becomes obsessed with discovering who made it and whether or not the brutal murder was real. As he delves into Tokyo's underground video scene, his own perversions come to the fore as he grows ever closer to uncovering the shocking truth, alongside a female reporter who calls herself Crime Hunter.." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Love Letter in the Sand: "During a month of unusually heavy rain in Tokyo, a mystery assailant has been brutally assaulting and killing people with a metal bat. When a handsome young man with amnesia is found outside an area hospital, the nurse who discovered him begins to suspect that he may in fact be the assailant. But her own strange erotic fixations with him, and the questionable involvement of the doctor tasked with the amnesia victim, lead them all down an increasingly twisted path of deeply-rooted trauma and violence.." - synopsis provided by the distributor

Video: 4.5/5 (All Films)

Here’s the information provided about this release’s transfers, "Each newly and exclusively restored in 2K from their 35mm original camera negatives with newly translated English subtitles, all under the supervision of Satô himself.”

Lustmord, Re-Wind and Love Letter in the Sand come on a 50 GB dual layer Blu-ray.

Disc Size: 46.1 GB

Feature: 14.1 GB (Lustmord), 16.1 GB (Re-Wind), 15.3 (Love Letter in the Sand)

All of the sources look excellent; they far exceed any of these films' previous home media releases. Flesh tones look healthy, colors are nicely saturated, image clarity, contrast, and compression are solid, black levels are strong, and the image always looks organic.

Audio: 4.5/5 (All Films)

Each film comes with one audio option, a DTS-HD mono mix in Japanese with removable English subtitles. All of the audio tracks sound clean, clear, and balanced, and ambient sounds are well represented.

Extras:

Extras on disc one include an audio commentary with Japanese cinema expert Jasper Sharp for Lustmord, an audio commentary with film critic Simon Abrams for Re-Wind, and an audio commentary with film historian and author Samm Deighan for Love Letter In the Sand 

The bulk of the extras are on a second Blu-ray disc. Extras for Lustmord include an interview with director Hisayasu Satô titled Kill Kill (13 minutes 9 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles) and an interview with screenwriter Taketoshi Watari titled Written in Blood (22 minutes 35 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles). Extras for Re-Wind include an interview with director Hisayasu Satô titled Visual Pleasure (16 minutes 41 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles), an interview with actress Kiyomi Itô titled Caught in the Act (26 minutes 8 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles), and an interview with writer Yumeno Shiro titled Shooting His Shot (31 minutes 13 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles). Extras for Love Letter in the Sand include an interview with director Hisayasu Satô titled Medical Mayhem (13 minutes 14 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles) and an interview with film critic Risaku Kiridoshi titled Pretty in Pink (26 minutes 49 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles). Other extras include a locations featurette with director Hisayasu Satô covering all three films titled Walking in Circles (22 minutes 44 seconds, Dolby Digital stereo Japanese with removable English subtitles).

Other extras include reversible cover art, a spot gloss hard slipcase + slipcover combo (limited to 4,000 units) and a 40-page perfect-bound book with an essay titled An Industry of Gazes: On Re-Wind written by Ariel Esteban Cayer, an essay titled Shinjuku Madness: Through the Lens of Hisayasu Satô written by Jasper Sharp, and an essay titled Transforming Pain to Pleasure: Pleasure Kill’s Exploration of Grief Through Body Horror written by Tori Potenza.

Summary:

All three films were directed by Hisayasu Satô, a filmmaker who worked extensively in Pinku Eiga. He's most known for An Aria on Gaze, aka The Bedroom, and Splatter: Naked Blood (which is a V-Cinema remake of Lustmord). His films are textbook examples of body horror and themes like alienation, obsession, and voyeurism.

Lustmord: A reclusive teenage boy creates a serum that breaks down the barrier between pleasure and pain.

While there have been Pinku Eiga films that incorporate horror elements, like gory carnage and torture, the way in which Hisayasu Satô blends horror and eroticism is unlike any of his contemporaries. Although most of his Pinku Eiga films have horror elements, they don’t lean into them as heavily as he does with Lustmord. That said, when it comes to sexual moments in Lustmord, they shock more than they arouse.

Something that works greatly in Hisayasu Satô’s favor is the brevity of his Pinku Eiga films; where most clock in around 70 minutes, Lustmord is only 58 minutes in length. With the opening setup, he does a remarkable job setting the foundation for the events that follow. Lustmord has a considerable amount of exposition, letting it guide the narrative, while the moments of eroticism don’t come as often as one expects from a Pinku Eiga film.

The protagonist is a teenage boy named Eiji, whose mother is conducting an experiment on three women. Isolated and consumed by deviant thoughts, Eiji has created a serum that breaks down the barrier between pleasure and pain. Needing test subjects, he sneaks his serum into the doses she is administering to her test subjects. He then watches them from afar as the serum slowly transforms them.

Comparisons drawn between Hisayasu Satô and David Cronenberg are easy to see; both of them are filmmakers at the forefront of body horror films. The characters in Lustmord discover pleasure in the pain that they inflict on others and themselves. In fact, it is blood that drives their limbos, with each carnal pleasure becoming more gory than the last. Although Hisayasu Satô’s remake Splatter: Naked Blood would transform Lustmord into a straight-up horror film, there is something about the original that the remake is lacking. Ultimately, Lustmord is a well-crafted film that serves as a perfect gateway for those who enjoy horror but are not sure about Pinku Eiga films.

Re-Wind: A sex shop employee becomes obsessed with a snuff video he found while cleaning out a sex booth.

Hisayasu Satô’s films, when compared to other Pinku Eiga films, are on the darker side. His film Re-Wind is a reimagining of Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom; its narrative revolves around a killer who uses a camera with a knife by its lens that captures victims’ fear before their death. Although there are many areas where Re-Wind overlaps with Peeping Tom, the result is a truly unique film that could have only been made by Hisayasu Satô.

Voyeurism is the theme that drives Re-Wind; a man becomes involved in what's unfolding after discovering a snuff film that someone abandoned at his job. Instead of feeling disgusted by what he has just witnessed and turning the tape over to the authorities, he becomes fixated on it, replaying it repeatedly. His journey intersects with a crime reporter who assists him in investigating the tape's origins and determining its authenticity.

Pinku Eiga films are known for their required sexual content, and Hisayasu Satô does a superb job blending these moments with exposition. Its premise quickly draws you in and builds to an exemplary climax that provides one final shocking reveal. Although the sex scenes are well-executed moments of eroticism, they are nowhere near as graphic or stylish as most Pinku Eiga films are. When it comes to the moments of carnage, there is an ample amount of blood. Ultimately, Re-Wind is an exceptional Pinku Eiga that perfectly blends horror and eroticism.

Love Letter in the Sand: A nurse suspects that a patient being treated for amnesia is the metal bat-wielding serial killer who's been terrorizing the city.

Love Letter in the Sand is a Pinku Eiga that’s infused with neo-noir elements. That narrative is anchored by a man who has amnesia, and as he starts to remember events, things come into focus. Helping him is a nurse; he suspects that he’s the metal bat-wielding serial killer. There is a subplot with a doctor who's been conducting experiments and his story ultimately links with the man who has amnesia.

The narrative does an excellent job balancing erotic moments and exposition. Another strength of the narrative is how it always holds your attention by effectively building upon tense moments that culminate with a finale that perfectly brings everything into focus. Another area where the narrative excels is its twists and turns that keep you off balance and not sure where things will ultimately end up.

Although Love Letter in the Sand has many elements that are associated with horror cinema, it is, after all, a Pinku Eiga film, which is known for its graphic erotic sequences. These erotic moments deliver an ample amount of heat, notably a scene where a doctor oils up a nurse's body while they have sex. Ultimately, Love Letter in the Sand is an exemplary example of a Pinku Eiga film, making it a must-see for fans of this genre.

Pink Line debuts with The Films of Hisayasu Satô: Volume #1, an exceptional release that gives each film a solid audio/video presentation and insightful extras; highly recommended.

Written by Michael Den Boer