sorinapha After starting my out-of-sequence watch through of the Masters of Horror series with Jenifer (which was a bit of a disappointment), I decided to go all out and watch Imprint next. Having just seen Audition (1999) last night, I guess you could say I was feeling ambitious.And just...wow.Wow.I would be lying if I didn't admit that I had to pause this a few times and come back to it. It was visceral and uncomfortable and wild, with a torture scene that, in my opinion, was a little harsher than the notorious acupuncture scene in Audition. The plot was surprisingly solid for an hour-long television episode (would-be television episode, I guess I should say), but then I think a great deal of that has to do with the fact that this was based on a preexisting written work; I would be interested in reading the source material sometime.Billy Drago's performance was a bit lackluster, and it seemed clear that he was cast because of his looks and reputation rather than talent. That did take away from the outermost part of the frame tale, but all of the flashbacks were sound, and I was especially intrigued by Miike's use of colors. It was admittedly a bit ham-handed at times, but an interesting choice nonetheless.I would rate this higher, but it does lack the cinematic finery of Miike's previous work, Audition, but scaled up on the shock value, which did feel out of balance and a little forced. However, despite its flaws, I liked it, and between this and Audition (1999), I nervously await the opportunity to see more of Miike's work.

super marauder The story itself is about an American returning to an island in Japan to rescue his true love from a life of prostitution only to find out she's dead. He listens to the story from another prostitute to find out what happened.I myself can't go into too much detail because the story is all over the place. I think it would have been better if for one thing if with the exception of the prostitute telling the story to Billy Drago it should have been in Japanese with subtitles. You can tell the rest of the cast didn't have a good grasp of English. Billy Drago is a much better actor than he is here because he really over acts. And there are too many images that are a little too disturbing for me, oddly it is not the famous torture scene. But I can see it as true horror is not monsters in the dark, but what people really do to each other. One more thing, the reveal at the end was really cheesy! So to some it up I gave it a 6 because there is a good story here somewhere. And I have to give a shout out to the actress who was being tortured because she really sold me on that! On the DVD extras she said she really enjoyed filming that and the only injury that she got was a headache from being hung upside down. So that took some of the edge off of this to remind this is a movie. The Godzilla movies aside, this is my first taste of J-horror and I think I'll be back for more.

willworkman Takashi Miike is supposed to be some kind of over-the-top auteur with a unique if disturbing vision, willing to go places that no other director can or will. But you only have to see a few of his movies to realized that there's a formula: take some ill-developed cliché'd characters, stick them in a sketchy plot with a "shocking twist" ending, and drown them in buckets of gore and excruciating torture. Imprint is a perfect example.The acting is appallingly bad, porn-movie-shot-entirely-on-one-couch bad. Mumbling actor Billy Drago seems drugged and can barely remember his lines, and his character is so forgettable, I can't blame him. The setting, a haunted whorehouse in the middle of an impassable swamp, would seem to require some explanation. Since there is none, we have no choice but to conclude that it's a metaphor for a journey into HELL ITSELF. And that's about as subtle as the movie gets. The highlight of the film is a 10 minute-long torture-porn scene that's intensely graphic and at the same time intensely stupid, with the torturers leering theatrically to show their blacked-out teeth. In this movie, the more evil you are, the worse your teeth. Apart from the torture, there is your standard incestuous alcoholic, his wife/sister who performs abortions (and yes, we see every bloody rubber fetus dumped into the river) and their deformed daughter. There's a conjoined twin ala Basket Case, but instead of being a head, it's an improbable hand with a puppet face. And there's a midget! And more incest! Scared yet? Or just grossed out? Advice to horror fans: skip this turkey and watch any episode of Tales From the Crypt instead--all you'll miss is graphic torture. Advice to Takashi Miike: Lock yourself in a room with some Alfred Hitchcock and Wes Craven, and learn how real horror is done.

boudreas The last one in the series was a stinker. First if you want to watch this hour long piece of crap that you will never get back, make sure your either well drunk up or baked out of your tree. Do not watch it with any form of female, they would freak out at certain parts. First half of the flick was slow, terrible and the main actor was terrible. Picture a stick twig anorexic version of Clint Eastwood with gay hair. Second half was better but also took a sharp turn to F town. Fetus disposal, strong hands growing out of heads, Kimomo Siamese twin whores. Those are just some of the messed things that went on. Maybe the Asian version makes sense, but the English one clearly does not.