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May I remind myself that I live in the Philippines, meaning its extremely hard to find great horror flicks here. Seriously, I think the goriest movie we have on a regular video store would be Hostel and The Hills Have Eyes (Remake.) About two weeks ago, I was finally able to find Takashi Miike's AUDITION (It's a pirated DVD thank you very much). But since I haven't seen a Miike film before, I first decided to watch this first to see what he is capable of. I literally forgot that I had a DVD of Imprint lying around until I watched it a few hours ago.
Imprint is only an hour long so expected to see a lot of moving. But what I saw I just an ugly whore telling lies to a bad actor American. The story of Imprint is so shallow, that they used that whore to mislead the audience the audience from the truth.
Is it disturbing? Yes. Thanks fully to the image of bloody, dead, aborted babies. But using dead babies to use freak the audience out is both wrong and desperate. I remember watching the morgue scene from Faces of Death. None of the dead bodies bothered me until I saw a body of a baby all opened up for an autopsy. There was also the scene in Feast 2 where they used a baby to get the audience's attention and sympathy. I've been to seminars where they show real pictures of aborted babies to teenagers to discourage them from having premarital sex. The pictures from the seminar was far more disturbing, but they had a purpose of showing those pictures. The scenes of dead babies in Imprint was purposeless, thus desperate. A great filmmaker can use disturbing images with a purpose. (MARTYRS)
The torture scene was able to make me cringe. This is the definition torture porn. And it had the purpose of showing how far a person is willing to go to protect his/her own secret. Even if it means seeing a "friend" suffer in front of you.
And I know this isn't just me, but wasn't the thing in the girl's head just ridiculous?? She calls "it" her sister... IT'S A HAND WITH A MOUTH!! My first impression of Takashi Miike isn't what I really hoped for, but at least I know that he totally capable of getting into the viewer's head. I hope Audition won't disappoint. *sigh*
i dont know overhyped i was expecting an alltogather better movie from what i was told about it,the torture was a bit unnerving but realy what else did it have to offer?
This short film tells the tale of a man looking for his lost love, whom he promised he would come looking for. It follows the man to coming close to his love, only to be told the grisly truth about her, told through words of a 'friend' of hers.
This film really had some disturbing images which without them, would not have given the viewer a correct vibe and feel for the story being told. I like how Miike goes a little farther and touches some ground that others might not go near, in this films case, dead babies.
The story is disturbing and creepy to listen to, and the images of torture displayed go well with the story. And I believe I caught some ghastly images of a ghost or 'being' of some sort behind the main character that really gave me chills. This is recommendable if you enjoyed Audition, as it moves a lot faster and the story is layed out quicker with images of horror, slight gore and torture in less amount of time.
It's saddening to me, really, that I would ever have to give anything
Takashi Miike has so much as touched a score this low. Like Quentin
Tarantino before him, Takashi Miike understands that originality is
what is lacking from the entertainment industry, and he understands and
has the capability to fix that. While Imprint expresses some of Miike's
talent and understanding, it's no where close to what he has done in
full-length films in the past. At all. Period. Imprint seems a lot like
a single scene, drawn-out to an hour long, from one of his full-length
movies.
The story itself is only slightly above average. Man is trying to find
his lost wife. While this is certainly nothing new, the subplots spoken
by the whore he is entangled with are certainly, at very least, highly
creative. The ending plot reveal (calling it a plot twist would be
misleading) is nothing short of disturbing, and isn't something even
the hardened horror fan is going to forget a few hours later. So, in a
sense, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the underline story.
While not totally mind-blowing, it works for the time space Imprint was
given.
With that said, the main reason for my low score isn't because of the
story. It's because of how ineffectively the story is told. The first
major problems started with the English-spoken dialogue. Simply put,
it's atrocious. I never again want to see an obviously Japanise movie
spoken in complete English. It takes away a lot of immersion right
there. After that, the poor special effects in the ending and sometimes
in the middle really became distracting. In opposite, however, I have
to commend Miike's aesthetic choices. His use of white on the corpse in
the opening was amazing, and likewise well as his color choices. The
use of color isn't as over-the-top and ridicules as Suspiria, and that
made the blunt colors work very, very nicely.
As for the torture and gore, both were more well-done—and thankfully on
screen this time—than typical Miike, showing he is improving. Some of
the torture scenes were relatively brutal, using needles, which have
become a Miike signature. Though I wouldn't call the disturbing element
much better than average, Imprint is a lot less easy to watch than I
expected it to be. The repeated use of bloody, dead fetuses was also
something much more ballsy than your standard American R-rated film and
your standard Japanese horror movie alike. So, in a way, I was both
impressed and unimpressed with the gore scenes here. But, as I said,
nothing is too far above average, like most other Miike films I've
seen. Compared to American torture films, like the Saw series, Imprint
and his movies in general, just look weak on the gore front. He only
points the camera at the wall while something gory happens three feet
out of view once, thank God. Miike has done that repeatedly in his
other films, and it has to be the most annoying and least brutal film
making method in regards to gore ever.
Characters themselves, however, are more disturbing to look at than the
violence. You'll see everything from a whore with an open cut running
across half her face to a midget who appears to have a live bird
growing out of her head. What more is there to ask for when designing
truly original disturbing characters? In the end, Imprint was very much
worth watching. It is a great place for someone who's never seen a
Miike film to start, being it's one of his most disappointing and
strait-forward. If you have seen Miike, it's a necessary view, but
don't go in with high standards. At all.
Holy fuck i havent been this scared during a movie since the grudge (i know i know, only about half of people found the grudge scary). i love gore and torture, but that torture seen was totally over the top (in the best possible way, i almost couldnt watch it). I know what Mr.Disgusting means by the language being wrong, that hand could have been alot more beleivable and less... i dont wanna say funny, but almost... otherwise. (if you havent seen this you dont know what im talking about, watch the movie!) solid movie, SOLID
Posted By: Anthropophagus at 11:27pm, September 10, 2008
Mike's most well-crafted, disturbing and brilliant film. Wonderful.
I was really disappointed in "Imprint." It was the only Masters of Horror that I watched, but wasn't really into the story. I dig the whole torture thing, just that girl and telling the story wasn't sure what to think about it.
Posted By: thedescent08 at 5:34am, August 20, 2008
I’m in the process of watching all of The Master’s of Horror on DVD. I must that I’m a huge Miike fan too. But this one is on the weaker side for both the Master’s and Miike. So far, in the series it’s been the least enjoyable one. However this film did lead me to a new source I didn’t know about. On the DVD there are several interviews with the writer, Shimako Iwai. I would love read more of her stories…especially if they are in the horror genre and I’d love to see them adapted into films.
ok.so i am currently in the process of watching all of the masters of horror movies and this one come in the mail.i was pretty excited because it sounded good and i adore Takashi Miike's gore fests.but this one.ehhhh.it was good-ish.there was one memorable scence where in classic japanese horror fashion a scary geishia looking face descretly creeps into frame that gave me the heebies.but after that it was just good.not terrifying or anything.still worth watching in my opinion.
graphically horrible. I was uneasy all the way through this.
It's dark and very macarbe.
My friends hated it but it has a place in my heart. Story was interesting and the directing was professional. It keeps being replayed in my head which means in affected me deeply. I do recommend it, but it's not for the faint hearted. It's the only horror edition in the masters of horror that's really deep and dark.
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