What a fantastic movie! Of course, the enticing description it bears on its back could not have led me to believe otherwise. It proclaims that It is a race against time as a group of detectives must unlock the secret behind a series of bizarre murders being committed by a beautiful woman who is possessed by the spirit of the mythical goddess Hera, a nymph who seduces men and kills them during the moment of ecstasy. Beware of her spell! Still, even this wonderfully lurid come-on in no way belied the wonders that these glorious 93 minutes held in store.

The plot of Hera Purple: Devil Goddess is quite simple. A woman, feeling uneasy, goes to see a psychiatrist in hopes that he will be able to find the root of her discomfort. Quite perplexed by her case, he proposes use of "the hypnotic method" to figure out what ails her. It's not long before she is telling him stories of various murders that she has committed. It seems that she is possessed, and has a tendency toward putting young men in her spell (via crotch-grabbing), mating with them, and then drawing their essence from them at the moment of climax.

Meanwhile, back in reality, we follow a group of police, chasing a serial killer who makes love to men, then castrates them and carves a number into their flesh. Unfortunately, this little entourage is rather handicapped by general ineptitude. For instance, one policewoman hypothesizes that a man found by a pool, died of drowning, despite the fact that his corpse is bloody. To say that this is not exactly a crack team of investigators is an understatement.

Eventually, the team receives a communiqué from a Harvard professor who heard of the case on the Internet and believes that they may be dealing with the mythical goddess Hera. (Why the wife of Zeus would possess a modern-day Korean woman and use her to go on a nymphomaniacal killing-spree is still left a mystery.) The police readily accept this theory since it will further the plot, and so continue on in their pursuit.

And that's basically it. Plot is, admittedly, not exactly the strong suit of Hera. What DOES make Hera so endearing is the fact that it knows it is complete trash and revels in this fact. The movie's sex scenes come fast and furious (though those participating in them don't necessarily do the same), and their breadth of variety rivals the - fucking - Kama - Sutra! In addition to this, the movie is filled with all sorts of delightfully vulgar details to sustain interest. Within Hera you will see a cop who seems to be characterized by a fascination with penis size, a scene with Hera's husband masturbating to such a powerful climax that he ejaculates on himself, and, of course, the aforementioned crotch-grabbing.

After an hour or so the film seems to realize it must conclude, and so it throws in some flashbacks to a rape that justify the murders and a final confrontation between Hera and the police who have been tracking her, as well as a final sex scene that is sure to catch most everyone off guard.

It was quite tragic to see Hera end, as I definitely felt that I could have watched it for another 93 minutes without complaint. Films like Hera Purple are just not made often enough anymore, and that is a tragedy. While Hera is not a good film in a conventional sense (dialogue is rather inane and characterization almost non-existent), it is GREAT in an exploitation sense and so garners my vote as one of the most important trash releases of the year.

With that in mind, I'd like to give a whole-hearted thanks to Pathfinder Entertainment, the organization that has brought this wonderful film to US shores, even though its DVD presentation is less than perfect.

The film itself is in rather nice condition, letterboxed at 1.85:1 in a non-anamorphic transfer. It bears a few scratches, but overall it's a fine-looking presentation, especially when compared with its trailer (we'll address this later). As for audio, there is a choice between the original Korean-language track with optional subtitles (which bear a few typos) and an English dubbed track. The subtitled Korean option is by far preferable, as the English dub seems to have been done by Koreans as well. Pieces of dialogue are nearly incomprehensible because of the thick accents, and this track also seems to omit some lines of dialogue. Stick with the Korean audio and you'll be pleased, though it is a little difficult to select this option. It seems no matter which language I selected on the configuration menu, I got the English dub, and so I had to manually switch the audio as the movie played to get to the Korean track.

Extras are rather limited. There is a photo gallery of about 25 stills from the movie and a few posters from various theatrical releases. In addition to this, a delightfully sensationalistic (and rather poorly translated) trailer is included as well.

While the extras are few and the DVD may be a little confusing to operate, I still believe Hera Purple: Devil Goddess to be a more than worthwhile purchase. If you're in the mood for some softcore erotic goodness laced with a few horror trappings, Hera is just the ticket. Full of sexy men and sexy women doing sexy things together, Hera has easily secured a prominent place in my personal cinematic pantheon. This is one devil goddess truly worthy of worship.