Imprint

In the Nineteenth Century, in Japan, the American journalist Christopher (Billy Drago) is traveling through the country searching Komomo (Michie), the missing love of his life that he had abandoned years ago promising to come back to her later. He arrives in a shadowy island inhabited by whores and caftans, where he has an encounter with a deformed prostitute that tells that his beloved Komomo had passed away. He drinks sake with her and later he asks the woman to tell the story of her life. The prostitute discloses a dark and cruel story about her life and the sad fate of Komomo.

The macabre "Imprint" is another disturbing and brutal movie of Takashi Miike. Using magnificent camera-work and impressive make-up in an awesome atmosphere, "Imprint" approaches gruesome and gore theme like abortion, fetus, incest, torture, perversions and abuse along 63 minutes running time of pure and sick horror with many twists. I confess that I felt uncomfortable and disturbed with the sadistic sequence of the torture of Komomo. Takashi Miike really honors the title of this series, being a Master of Horror. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Marcas do Terror" ("Marks of the Terror")

Takashi Miike of "Audition" and "Ichi the Killer" fame directed this 13th episode of the Showtime series "Masters of Horror" - apparently it was never aired in the USA because the Showtime people were horrified at the episode, and probably with good reason. I like to think that Miike intentionally parodies "Memoirs of a Geisha", and "the last samurai" with this one. He combines the two in the story of a broken down American man who goes back to Japan to find the whore he fell in love with years before - the parallels with the serious movie "The Last Samurai" are unmistakable. The outlandish and over the top crazy costumes mimic the audacity of the costuming in "Memoirs of a Geisha", and the fact that this was done in English rather than Japanese only strengthens the parallels between "Imprint" and MoaG - and yet again Youki Kudoh (who was in Moag) makes an appearance, this time as a deformed prostitute. There are great lines such as "There is nothing on this island but demons and whores", and others less fit for print, but instant classics nonetheless. There are the classic Miike elements - violence, rogue abortions, murder, and incest, and a torture scene only outdone by Audtion. I couldn't give it a full 10 because Miike doesn't seem to work well with just a 1 hour window, and the plot doesn't make for a solid and clean short story, but fans of Miike should try to get their hands on this one, it is worth a look.

Imprint lives up to its name. This movie will not scar you but it will definitely leave and impression. I would consider this film a work of art on so many levels. The art direction is just amazing. How can such disturbing scenes look so beautiful.

If you are a fan of horror and want to see something you have never seen before, something truly shocking, then give this film a try. Granted it does take about 20 minutes to start coming together and the lead actor comes off a bit cheesy but once it gets started it never lets up to until the end. Takashi Miike is a genius. He can make your jaw hit the floor and just when you think you can pick it up again he stomps it back down. A lot of his films are not as bad as people make them out to be but this one definitely lives up to what I have read about it. Truly Creepy!!!!

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.

OK just a quick little comment from me. This short film, imprint is based on a Japanese book. I haven't read the book but it seems like a good thing for Miike to direct as it includes familiar Miike themes such as prostitution, hints of pedophilia and torture. The story is quite good, told in flashbacks mainly it is about a beautiful prostitute who died. The story is revealed nicely and keeps you guessing and misleads you to maintain the intrigue.

Their are some very disturbing scenes such as some torture and abortion bits. Its shot quite nicely with some nice lighting and camera movement. The story ends up surprising you and disgusting you at the same time.

This is the best Miike film for a while, graphic, intense, shocking, true horror.

Its easy to see why it didn't play on showtime.