Uzumaki, for those of you who have been living under a rock, is the Japanese word for "spiral"...it's also a word that implies "snail". It's one of those words that has deeper shades of meaning as well. Uzumaki can also indicate a descent into madness, which is in and of itself, a spiral of sorts. So, here we have a concept that represents three seemingly disparate ideas. Or are they? Higuchinsky's film "Uzumaki" takes all of those meanings and rolls them into one unified, surreal, icky mind-fuck of a story. As such, it's one of the most original horror fantasies I've seen in years.
The synopsis...
"Uzumaki" begins quietly, with a pretty young girl named Kirie (the stunning Eriko Hatsune) running somewhere, while checking her watch repeatedly. She's in a happy mood, it's clear, but already, we get the feeling that she won't be happy for too long. She runs into a middle-aged man named Toshio Saito (Ren Osugi), who is wrapped up in filming a snails' slow ascent up a brick wall in loving close-up. He pretty much ignores Kirie, and she goes on her merry way. She comes to the mouth of a tunnel, where she is met by her bicycle-riding would-be boyfriend, Shuichi Saito (Fhi Fan), whom we learn is the son of the man filming the snail. Shuichi seems troubled about his father's recent obsession with snails and spiral images; the elder Saito has started a collection of any-and-everything that is emblazoned with a spiral, from road signs to pottery, and it's an obsession that is sending his son and put-upon wife Yukie (Keiko Takahashi) into spirals of confusion in their own ways. Concerned and confused, Kirie tries to be supportive of Shuichi. This task isn't made any easier by the fact that Kirie's own father Yasuo (Taro Suwa), a pottery artist, starts to slowly become obsessed with spirals himself. In fact, more and more people in the small town, where most of the action takes place, become equally spiral-crazy...so much so that an intrepid reporter named Ichiro Tamura (Masami Horiuchi) comes to town to investigate. He's got to be the least-effective reporter in history, as he doesn't find out any information at all, save that the "spiral curse" seems to focus around a small body of water in town called "Dragonfly Pond", which is something that just about everyone else in the movie knew anyway. Shuichi's father eventually goes totally bonkers, and offs himself in a bizarre and highly original way. Futhermore, students at the local high school start becoming more and more spiral-obsessed...including a young, pretty, image-centric girl who starts sporting an increasingly curly, wild hairstyle, and a boy who starts exuding slime and who comes to school only when it's raining. Will Kirie and Shuichi ever figure out just what the hell is going on? Will the intrepid reporter ever get the stick out of his ass long enough to actually do something? All I can say is that the plot I've descibed here (very loosely, by design) "spirals" more and more out of control, and literally plummets the viewer into ever-mounting madness.
...and that's all I can say without ruining it for those who haven't seen it. Suffice it to say that "Uzumaki" is one strange, surreal film. Some might argue (correctly) that "Uzumaki" isn't a horror film in the traditional sense of the word. The horror here is in the minute details. It's in the moments. I seeps like slime from a snail. Frankly, I wasn't sure where the film was going. I was worried that Higuchinsky might spoil the whole thing by explaining too much. What's the nature of this strange "spiral curse"? Can't say, really...it's never explained. That's a good thing, in my mind, because any explanation for these kind of images and events would be so ludicrous that they would ultimately be laughable. It's a credit to all involved that they had the balls to keep it simple, and keep it mysterious. Oh, there are some extremely vague allusions to the origin of the curse, but they remain steadfastly vague. That's part of the charm of "Uzumaki", actually. Why bother to explain the inexplicable? Kirie and Shuichi deal with the chain of events the best that they can. They witness their friends and family slowly being driven batty by the spiral curse, and they don't understand it any better than we do. Shuichi seems to be the first to really begin to put his finger on what's happening, but even then, it's clear that it's too little too late. It's a little bit like time slowing down just long enough to allow you to see a bullet speeding toward your forehead...you can react, but you can't move or otherwise do anything to save yourself. It's this all-encompassing sense of impending doom that truly makes this a horror film, and a quite effective one, at that.
I will be the first to admit that there are some who will simply not like this film. Furthermore, I will play devil's advocate by saying that I can fully understand why they would feel that way. It's not an easy film. It works on the nerves. You've heard of "willing suspension of disbelief" before, right? Well, "Uzumaki" asks the viewer to willingly suspend their disbelief more than any film I've seen recently. Some viewers, especially those expecting a "traditional" horror movie or even a "traditional Japanese" horror movie, will find themselves staring at the screen in disbelief, and perhaps even boredom. It's a slow-moving film, to be sure, and it contains no big action set-pieces, and relatively few "jump-scare" type moments. So, you have to pay attention to the details. And what details there are! The whole look of the film just screams "watch me!" The cinematography is simply stunning, the unique look of the modern-but-old-fashioned village locale enhances the dreamlike nature of the film, and most interestingly, "Uzumaki" contains literally dozens (if not more) shots that contain digitally added spiraling vortices. These are often fairly obvious, but sometimes you'll have to look very closely to find them. This tactic pretty much forces the willing viewer to watch the film every bit as closely as the filmmakers intended...so that not a detail is lost. Really, it's little touches like that which make this film a joy to watch.
As most viewers are likely aware, "Uzumaki" is based on a popular manga series by Junji Ito. Some diehard Ito fans may balk at "Uzumaki" not following the storyline to a tee. However, given the constraints of time and budget (not to mention narrative clarity), Higuchinsky has done a smash-up job of translating the world of the manga to a faithful, but unique cinematic world. So, long story short...this is indeed a "comic book movie", but this ain't "Spider Man" or even "Hellboy"...though "Uzumaki" does share some quasi-Lovecraftian imagery with the latter. All in all, "Uzumaki" is an absolutely delightful, creepy, surreal film that will leave your head spinning and your entire body feeling a bit disoriented. For those reasons alone, "Uzumaki" should be required viewing by horror fans.
This DVD from Elite Entertainment contains the full, uncut version of "Uzumaki". The film is presented in a 16x9 Widescreen transfer, and includes a beautiful 5.1 Dolby Digital surround audio track...and the sound is quite expansive and eerie in this film. Extras, while not exactly comprehensive, are pretty good, and include a behind the scenes featurette, cast/crew interviews, and more tidbits. It's a shame that Higuchinsky didn't do a commentary track for this release, as that would have been quite interesting to hear. Still, this disc ain't exactly barebones, but it's not an overflowing cornucopia of value-add features, either. Not too bad, all things considered.
"Uzumaki" is an interesting, spooky, highly entertaining horror flick that really deserves a special place in every fan's J-Horror collection. Trust me...it's one of the more surreal cinematic ventures in recent memory. One extra note: I understand that this film is widely believed to be very "Tim Burton-esque". It seems that no review of "Uzumaki" would be complete without at least a passing reference to that man, so without further ado, here's my obligatory Tim Burton reference...
"Tim Burton"...
Honestly, I just don't see it. To me, the only possible thing that ties in "Uzumaki" to anything even remotely connected to Tim Burton is the fascination with spiral patterns (which Burton seems to love). I don't think this was a "tribute" to Burton or his films...I simply think that when you're making a movie whose very title means "spiral", you can hardly fucking help putting in some spirals. Aww, what the hell...people are going to see what they want to see, I suppose, so who am I to tell you differently?
Trust me...don't hold this film up to any standard...Tim Burton, or otherwise...to do so would be to partially rob yourself of a truly original, eerie film experience. Highly recommended!
Uzumaki, for those of you who have been living under a rock, is the Japanese word for "spiral"...it's also a word that implies "snail". It's one of those words that has deeper shades of meaning as well. Uzumaki can also indicate a descent into madness, which is in and of itself, a spiral of sorts. So, here we have a concept that represents three seemingly disparate ideas. Or are they? Higuchinsky's film "Uzumaki" takes all of those meanings and rolls them into one unified, surreal, icky mind-fuck of a story. As such, it's one of the most original horror fantasies I've seen in years.
