 I
wish I didn’t start off my reviews of Asian horror films
like this. You’ve heard the arguments from me and from
more talented writers countless times: the pacing that mistakes
itself for tension; the idea that above all else, ambiguity
is valued no matter how flimsy; the inappropriate Japanese
pop song always attached to the end credits; the lack of art
direction or visual flair – while I might have been
on the boat when Audition came around, that
ship has sailed far, far away a long, long time ago.
No, not all horror films need to be blood splattered and
sweat drenched, but Asian horror is getting more predictable
than hardcore pornography – you sit, you wait for the
eventual money shot and when it’s over, you lie in your
bed drunk, crying yourself to sleep.
Seemingly wanting to stretch out more than usually allowed
in the genre, director Takeshi Shimizu presents Marebito more like a traditional Lovecraftian story. But while all
is well for about an hour, Shimizu bungles the “twist”
in the storyline and produces a finale that is so apathetically
revealed that I will tell you exactly what it is later in
the review.
Actor/Director
Shinya Tsukamoto stars as freelance cameraman Takuyoshi Masuoka,
an emotionally dead man who spends his days video taping the
grisly events surrounding him in hopes of stirring his own
emotions. He seeks fear like a holy grail, hoping to experience
the same feelings that he finds in a videotape he shot of
a man committing suicide. Chucking away his Prozac medication
(no good can come of this), Masuoka investigates the suicide
scene (uh-oh), leading him to a subterranean underworld (turn
back now) and the ghost of the man who killed himself (you’re
fucked).
 Masuoka descends deeper in this underground hell only to
find a feral young girl, armed with fangs and chained to the
wall. He takes the little darling home, names her F and tries
his best to bring her out of her mute shell. Of course hellish
netherworld beasts tend to live life a little differently,
and F’s ability to function in the “real”
world is non-existent – she doesn’t eat, or drink,
and sleeps 21 hours out of the day. Matters are complicated
further when he finds out, God damn it, F requires
fresh blood for survival.
The paranoia heightens as two people stalk Masuoka –
a mysterious man who knows where Masuoka has been and what
he’s brought back to the “real world,” and
a woman who insists that she is married to him and F is their
horribly abused daughter – which is true, by the way.
Yes, Masuoka is an insane man who has been abusing his daughter
all along.  Think
that’s a spoiler? Well the revelation is just as frivolously
revealed as what I’ve just written. The issue apparently
doesn’t matter enough to the story despite
an entire subplot devoted to it. But Masuoka is too
far-gone to come back from humanity: he is fully dedicated
to F, and will do anything to keep her alive.
So the first half of Marebito, while not
scary in any way, evokes that old Lovecraft-esque dread -
from the atmospheric setting to the idea that too much knowledge
of the unknown is enough to drive a man insane. From here,
the ideas keep piling up haphazardly, drawing greatly from
Richard Shaver’s crackpot theories, the mysterious legacy
of Kaspar Hauser, the saturation of violence in the media
and its desensitizing effect on human emotion, pharmaceuticals
– and that’s before they even get to the whole
vampire angle.
Sadly, nearly every bit of intrigue is completely wiped out
as soon as F is introduced in the film. Everything that has
been built up in the first half of the film is replaced with
standard sensationalism. All that’s left is an admittedly
ponderous slasher flick, capped off by a head-scratching finale
that will feel familiar to those who are well-versed in Japanese
horror.
I feel that if the film were to remove most of the “horror”
aspect of the movie – the vampirism and the “shock”
ending specifically - this film would have been a darkly dramatic,
genre-bending look into the mind of a man who is emotionally
dead inside and is willing to delve into hell to find some
kind of meaning in life. But no, in the end we have a feral
teen sucking on baby bottles full of blood.
Oh well.
 Disc
Presentation
One
of the more interesting aspects of the film is the overall
look of the production: a lot of direct-to-video films in
Japan are known for using simple video cameras and a basic
point-and-shoot technique that does nothing to benefit the
film, but Marebito has more in common with
the intentionally degraded Dogme95 style of shooting. Handheld
and intentionally murky at times, Tartan’s transfer
is appropriate considering the nature of the film; what you
expect from the video format is presented here – a slightly
dull image that can be a bit noisy during the night scenes.
For the audio, there are two 5.1 soundtracks, one Dolby Digital
and the other DTS. Both provide an immense soundscape in comparison
to the rather uninvolving stereo soundtrack. However, both
5.1 soundtracks are indistinguishable from the other; there’s
no boost from the DTS audio. You’ll be satisfied either
way.
Extras
I have an innate fear of Japanese interviews,
as they tend to be as fluffy and inane as your typical Access
Hollywood or Entertainment Tonight interview. So of course my heart sank when I noticed Marebito’s
extra features were interviews with director Takeshi Shimizu,
actor Shinya Tsukamoto and producer Hiroshi Takahashi.
These interviews haven’t changed my mind on the subject
of entertainment interviews, but they’re certainly more
personal and interesting than what is typically found in the
bonus features section of your Japanese horror DVDs.
The interview with director Takeshi Shimizu discusses
Shimizu’s fascination with horror – a genre that
he’s compelled to work in, yet repels him greatly. The
interview also delves into the specifics of making the film,
though rarely explains the film itself. Shimizu might not
be the most engaging interview, but what he says is interesting
enough.
Sure,
Tsukamoto’s character in Marebito is
stone-faced enough to make Beat Takeshi wince, but the interview
with actor Shinya Tsukamoto is more lively than expected.
Tuskamoto answers questions from both an actor and director’s
perspective, and five minutes
into the interview even suggests going more in-depth with
the answers he’s already given. Tsukamoto thankfully
manages to even talk about his own films, which is welcome
considering his own work comes out on featureless discs.
 The
last on the disc, the interview
with producer Hiroshi Takahashi, is a bit odd considering
Takashi admits to not really having his hand in the initial
script stage nor the actual production of the film, but this
turns out to reveals a lot – Takahashi presents Marebito as guerilla filmmaking with the director and writer given
free reign over the project. Takahashi also gives his opinions
on the Japanese horror movement, and it’s not wholly
pretty. Shimizu might be genial and Tsukamoto might be animated,
but it’s Takahashi’s flippant attitude (plus his
disheveled appearance and love of chewing gum) that grabs
all of the attention.
Outside
of the interviews, the only thing that’s left
are a collection of trailers, including a rather
effective trailer for Marebito, and a collection
for Tartan’s Asian Extreme line, which includes Sympathy
for Mr. Vengeance, Spider Forest, R-Point, Unborn But Forgotten and Tuskamoto’s own A Snake Of June.
The Bottom Line
A film full of ideas that still falls
into the trappings of its genre, fans of Japanese horror will
find a lot to like about Marebito. Detractors
won’t find enough to change their minds on the subject,
there’s still a lot going on in the film to warrant
a viewing.
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