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"I RECOGNISE TERROR AS THE FINEST EMOTION AND SO I WILL TRY TO TERRORISE THE READER. BUT IF I CANNOT TERRIFY, I WILL TRY TO HORRIFY, AND IF I CANNOT HORRIFY, I'LL GO FOR THE GROSS-OUT. I'M NOT PROUD." --- STEPHEN KING ::::::::::::: Spoilers for plot points and resolutions can occur within my movie reviews with or without warning. Read at your own risk.

Imprint

September 20th 2007 00:19
Imprint DVD cover art
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).

Imprint Billy Drago
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.
Imprint Youki Koudoh
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.
Imprint Mitchie
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.

Imprint Youki Koudoh
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 whore house
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.
Imprint strung up whore
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.
Imprint sore gums
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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10 Comments. [ Add A Comment ]

Comment by Cibbuano

September 25th 2007 23:28


Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
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


Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
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


Science News
Deep Pencil
Business News
Movie Train
Artist Quirk
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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