Rating: 3/5
Hooptober 2.0 | 15/31 | Takashi Miike 5/5
Cold open on Miyuki Goto and Kosuke Hasegawa fucking. It’s important to know that these two fuck. And they both like to fuck each other. The ice blue lighting reminds me of the Game Boy Pocket I had in the same color.
The camera takes voyeuristic positions as we watch Miyuki do her laundry — through a spyhole, outside her window. From the upstairs balcony, we watch her read over the script for a play she’s in, based on the most famous Kaidan of all time, Yotsuya Kaidan. Watch The Ghost of Yotsuya, also an adaptation of Yotsuya Kaidan — it rules. Anyway, back to this movie. Kosuke comes to Miyuki’s rehearsals. Miyuki, a famous actress playing the lead, Oiwa, pulls some strings and gets Kosuke cast as Iemon. As they perform the play, the world of the play becomes more realistic. The elements of the actor’s life blur into the play and vice versa.
Sometimes, I wish the play were my real life.
With films like The Girls and Millenium Actress in the world, a movie about stage life and real-life blurring needs more than the premise itself to attract. So, in classic Miike form, we get visceral gore, but not until an hour in.
The pace will be slow for most audiences. I can deal with a slow burn if it keeps the tension taught. This one takes a long time to build up, but it builds.
I’m not sure why I watched this movie of Miike’s. I made this list ages ago, and there are more popular horror movies in his filmography. Still, I enjoyed this one more than some of the others that I have watched. It helps that this is 94 minutes.
The version of Tubi is dubbed, and poorly so at that, which may have contributed to my liking this less than others. The last 15 minutes are incredible visually, so dubbing doesn’t ruin that.
The director who did Audition remains elusive in his other films — nothing I’ve watched of his captures that same, or even similar, magic.