I knew nothing about it. One day, I added a bunch of recommended Japanese movies in my netflix queue, so I get the randomly. I casually popped in the DVD and I had no idea what was happening. I'm still not sure if I know what is happening lol. It is not gorey, just strange. Very very very strange. So strange that I would not recommend it to someone unless I personally knew they could handle it. However, I would not say it was all shock for shock sake. I got the point, and I think that it makes a very interesting comment from a literature point of view. I won't watch it again, and I may not have if I had heard about it before I saw it, but I'm glad I have. Idk if that makes sense.