Gate of Flesh (Nikutai no mon). Seijun Suzuki, 1964.
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Edition screened: Criterion DVD #298, released 2005. Japanese language with English subtitles. Runtime approximately 90 minutes.
Summary: Graphic slaughter of a cow.
Details: The thief Shin leads a cow into the house and begins to talk about butchering it. Immediately thereafter, at 1:01:20, he kills it, the blood flows and he carves it up. This extremely graphic scene is over at 1:02:45.
I recommend watching this film and skipping the cow butchering scene. You will miss nothing of plot, dialogue, or anything else by skipping to the 1:02:45 mark, where the action has cut to a girl standing on a bridge talking with soldiers.
Gate of Flesh is a visually outrageous film, with color effects, sets, and costumes unlike anything else other than another Suzuki movie. It’s also sexy, fun, and full of visual surprises. Suzuki intended the cow butchering to be just one more over-the-top surprise, but it’s very gruesome and interferes with the Go-Go groove. So with that warning stated clearly, Gate of Flesh is a great introduction to Suzuki and to the general spectacle of wild 60s Japanese pop film outside the ghetto of imbecilic monster movies.