DVD Review - Masters of Horror: Imprint
Rating: 
Showtime’s Masters of Horror series has a great concept: each hour-long episode is directed by a famous (or semi-famous) horror director. The roster of directors is international and impressive. John Carpenter, Dario Argento, Tobe Hooper, and Stuart Gordon all take a hand in creating the first thirteen episodes, and Takashi Miike’s Imprint is the final episode of the first season.
Miike is a director who can’t be labeled; he’s done everything from children’s films (The Great Yokai War) to touching comedies (The Happiness of the Katakuris) to gory psychological action movies (Ichi the Killer) to the just plain weird (Visitor Q). His horror films are few and far between, but Imprint is quite possibly the best entry in the first season of Masters of Horror, and proves that Miike can create terror with the best of them. But Miike is still Miike. Imprint was never aired on Showtime, due to its extremely graphic content, and is only available on DVD.
The film is based on a novel (not translated into English, unfortunately) by Shiwako Iwai. Christopher is an American journalist who is searching Japan for a woman he loved and promised to come back for, a prostitute named Kumomo. He arrives at a small island and begins combing the red light district. When he doesn’t find her, he prepares to leave, but is forced to stay the night as no boats will take passengers during the night. He chooses a woman to spend the evening with, a quiet girl who hides in the shadows due a facial deformity, but who claims Kumomo is dead, and that she committed suicide when Christopher didn’t come for her. Distraught, Christopher drowns his grief in sake and asks her for a bedtime story, and she obliges with a tale of horrific cruelty- the story of her life, and of her part in Kumomo’s last days.
The woman’s story tells of her parents, siblings driven to poverty and madness, her father a drunk and her mother a backwoods abortionist. She tells of Kumomo’s kindness toward her and her ghastly end. But the first version of the story isn’t entirely true. Nor is the second. As Christopher tries desperately to ferret out what really happened to his lover, each version successively more horrifying. By the end, some pretty awful special effects have reared their ugly heads (or hands, as the case may be).
Most of Miike’s films are set in modern Japan, but Imprint shows he can pile on the atmosphere when he wants to. He juxtaposes the elegance and simplicity of traditional Japanese decoration and architecture with the gaudy, sinister feel of a carnival in Hell. Painted women beckon to men through barred windows, like caged demons. A midget pimp offers Christopher a place to stay the night. The prostitutes wear grossly exaggerated versions of traditional fashions; garish kimonos, unwieldy hairstyles, plucked eyebrows and blackened teeth. Through it all moves Christopher, with his ravaged cowboy face and top hat, like a devilish ringmaster.
The acting is excellent all around, though Drago, veteran of numerous television shows and b-movies, is the real standout. The episode is in English, and some of the Japanese actors have heavy accents that can be difficult to understand.
What is so horrible it couldn’t be shown on American cable T.V.? Well, there’s a truly distressing torture scene, a drowned pregnant corpse, implications of a child being molested by a Buddhist priest, images of aborted fetuses floating down a stream, incest, rape, and murder most foul. There is also a clever reference to Miike’s film Ichi the Killer in a painting of the Buddhist Hell, which sharp-eyed fans will catch.
Those who aren’t familiar with Miike will probably be sickened and disturbed by this episode of Masters of Horror. Miike fans will also be disturbed, but in a good way- they will know what to expect. Imprint is a little gem from one of Japan’s most extreme and creative directors.
Details
Publisher:Anchor Bay
Director: Takashi Miike
Stars: 4
Running Time: 63 minutes
MPAA Rating: Not rated
MSRP: 14.98
Release Date: 9/26/2006
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