Imprint

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Horrorphile - September 2007

Imprint

September 20th 2007 00:19

If you’ve never seen a film by Takashi Miike then you ain’t seen nothin'. The Japanese director is in a league of his own; a true maverick, agent provocateur, and all-round boundary-pushing freakophile. He’s also an exceptionally talented director who makes deeply cinematic movies.

He tackles elements of the surreal, magic realism, theatricality, cinema verite, and the cinema of the absurd. He also employs violence, cruelty, and blood and gore with a passion not seen since the days of the French Grand Guignol. Yes, Miike is not a filmmaker to be taken lightly, and certainly a director whose tastes are to be acquired (if that’s your cup of cold congealed blood).

Billy Drago as Christopher

The American cable TV series Masters of Horror (having now completed a third season) employs the so-called best directors of horror (an arguable selection, but I won’t go into that here) to each make an hour long self-contained tale of the macabre and horrific. I’ve seen a handful of the earlier episodes and unfortunately I haven’t been that impressed. Still, apparently the better ones are from the current series.

Youki Koudoh as the deformed whore

Takashi Miike’s entry into the series, Imprint (2006), was considered so disturbing and graphic that it was not given a screening on television, and instead was only made available on DVD. Fair enough. So I bought the DVD. John Doe and I watched it a few weeks back during one of our horror marathon screenings. I needed to watch it again (yes, I’m a sick and twisted guy, we all know that now), just to get a firm handle on it. It’s a very confronting little film.

Mitchie as the courtesan Komomo

Set in the mid 1800s, Christopher (Billy Drago) is an American journalist in Japan searching for the local prostitute Komomo (Mitchie) he loved and yet abandoned years earlier. He ventures to an island off the coast and learns that human demons and whores rule the land and a deformed courtesan (Youki Koudoh) awaits his arrival. Christopher demands to know what has happened to his ex-lover, which leads the scarred whore into telling several different truths and lies; an unholy tale of duality, duplicity and perverse vengeance.

Despite Billy Drago’s less than convincing acting style, although his craggy, ghoulish features do provide an interesting parallel to the facial deformities of the scarred whore, the performance of Youki Koudoh, with her subtle nuances of expression, is superb (especially considering the prosthetic makeup she’s under).

Imprint is based on a novel by Shimako Iwai with a screenplay by Daisuke Tengan. The themes of inhumanity, cruelty and nihilism make it a very difficult film to recommend to those of a weak and sensitive disposition, yet the movie is instilled with a controlled sense of poetry (like much of Miike’s work), albeit dark, twisted and incredibly nightmarish.

But please be warned as some of the imagery, especially the extended torture sequence and an abortion scene, are some of the most wrenching, cringe-inducing, sequences I’ve ever had to squirm through, and I’m a hardened horrorphile.

Cruelty and perversion in the whorehouse

The revelation of what the title Imprint refers to, which comes late in the story, is both fantastic (in the true outlandish sense of the word), but borders on absurd. Still the relatively short journey to this point has been so intense and passionate in its intent and delivery you can’t help but feel strangely astonished.

Pain upon pain upon pain

Imprint is easily one of the most vividly original and aberrant tales of the grotesque and macabre I’ve seen in quite awhile. Recommended to those with iron nerves and steel stomachs.

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Posted By: Bryn - Category: movie reviews

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Comments

10 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Cibbuano

September 25th 2007 23:28

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twisted... Miike is a master, to be sure, but there's only so much I can take.

It's interesting to note that Asian filmmakers have been using torture in films for years, and now it's gained mass popularity in America with the 'torture porn' films. Somehow, though, in the Saw series, it's lost it's edge, I find...

Comment by Bryn

September 26th 2007 00:38

Horrorphile

Cibby I agree ... Saw was way too contrived. The first one had some chutzpah though ...

Comment by JohnDoe

October 3rd 2007 04:31

Film & TV on DVD

What a fun night it was watching this one with you....tru;ly a modern horror that follows through. Twisted and macabre, if you are interested I did a review for it HERE

Comment by Bryn

October 8th 2007 05:25

Horrorphile

Nice. Cheers JD.

Comment by Cibbuano

July 1st 2008 03:42

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I don't know if I can take more Miike torture.

he likes pins, doesn't he?

Comment by Bryn

July 1st 2008 05:17

Horrorphile

Cibby, Imprint will provide you with enough nightmares to last the rest of the year. And yes, pins.

Comment by Morgan Bell

July 23rd 2008 07:07

Deep Pencil
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those movie stills look amazing . . . something of a beautiful nightmare!

Comment by Bryn

July 23rd 2008 07:41

Horrorphile

Morgan,
yes, Miike's like that, his movies are often very surreal and dreamlike, errr, nightmarish. He loves to meld the grotesque with the gorgeous ...

Comment by Anonymous

December 26th 2008 05:17

The movie was amazing....but I dont know, not as scary as I expected it to be. It was beautiful no doubt, even throughout all the torture scenes she still looked beautiful to me. I dont know how Miike did it, but I guess thats why he is good. I watched the movie few times...but still not scary to me.

Comment by Bryn

December 27th 2008 06:12

Horrorphile

Takashi Miike doesn't really make "scary" movies per se, he makes movies that are more about grotesquerie and nightmarishness, surrealism fused with reality.

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