Takashi Miike's IMPRINT (includes trailer)
August 29th 2010 13:53
“This island isn't in the human world; demons and whores are the only ones living here”
Prepare to be thoroughly disturbed. For those of you who like their horror films full on, this might just be for you. For everyone else – beware.
Nineteenth Century, Japan - a boat sails closer to an island of the damned, there lies a haunted house of disrepute, where ladies of the night and their wretched black souls wait to serve your every desire. An American journalist, Christopher, played by Billy Drago (The Untouchables, Mysterious Skin) is searching for his love, Komomo who has been left there. As he searches for her, he has an unsettling encounter with a deformed hooker who reveals the true story of Komomo’s cruel and final fate.
Directed by the infamous Japanese director Takashi Miike (Audition, 3 Extremes, Sukiyaki Western Django, Ichi The Killer), Imprint is a 60 minute film that is the 17th inclusion in the cable series MASTERS OF HORROR, a quality series involving a different episode each being directed by a maestro of the genre. If the producer’s were looking for true horror by seeking out the top gore hounds and horrorphiles in the game when creating this series, then with Miike they got what they asked for. The result – Imprint was banned from airing on cable as part of this series.
As this woman tells Christopher the dark tale, he shivers in emotional pain as she works her way under his skin. Little can prepare us for the images that will spread and rot into our minds very shortly. There isn’t a large amount of bloodletting, but instead one particular scene which is horrific to enter into imaginatively, leaving it’s viewer and also victim stuck, twitching and suffering in anguish. More unthinkable visions of torment constantly await, but Imprint revolves around one central scene that it builds towards then uses as it’s defining centre piece. This is the first film I have ever watched where I couldn’t help but make my reaction vocal, as I cringed, I bellowed out in shock. It was intense.
Leeches and parasite eat away at your senses as you watch Imprint, Miike pushes the boundaries with fetishist torture, aborted foetuses that slop around the river banks, cursed imagery which brutalises you quietly, along with paedophilia, deformed freaks and suffering. Executed and conceived masterfully at times, the fringe dwelling in this ambiguously demonic world will leave you hollow with dread and possibly scarred if you enter unprepared, as the shock and cringe factor here is turned up like never before.
While Imprint is a fine addition to the horror genre and is one of the most extreme experiences you’ll ever sit through, as a film I found it noticeably flawed. Certainly the cinematography provides a perfect pallet to build on Imprint’s intensely dreaded tone and these visuals are the film’s boldest and most resonant point, but the atmosphere is still spread thin. While the film’s wildly visual, murky photography is perfect and the fabulously eerie production design constantly emphasises the colour red, little work seems to have gone into the sound design which lacks the imagination of all the film’s other elements and while it may at first seem to have the necessary atmosphere to create a true nightmare, the lack of sound design seems to be the missing piece. This isn’t as much a flaw as it is just a missed opportunity, especially considering how well other horror films use sound design to create something intensely inescapable (for an example of a horror film that uses sound design like no other, then look no further than Kwaidan as a brilliant example).
Imprint is wonderfully stylised during it’s first and second act, perfect in it’s exploration of a terrifying, demented world. Billy Drago’s performance, as well as the entire female cast in all their crazed grandeur, are sublime, adding to the horrors of this tale. Unfortunately, by the end of the film, the vision of this twisted and disturbed world has become so over the top that it at times borders on ridiculous (and sometimes the ridiculously disgusting as well).
Billy Drago was born to play this part in Imprint, his pained face speaks volumes as he howls away in emotional torment through out. Imprint creeps closer towards the edge, as the spirits of hell cackle and cry out all at once. Drago is like a soul trapped in purgatory, suffering for some sin we couldn’t possibly imagine, scratching away helplessly as he witnesses the horror and loss as Imprint dwells at the bottom of human darkness.
Where does Imprint lie on the shock scale? I’d say somewhere between Antichrist and Martyrs. Not for the squeamish.
MASTERS OF HORROR presents IMPRINT
Prepare to be thoroughly disturbed. For those of you who like their horror films full on, this might just be for you. For everyone else – beware.
Nineteenth Century, Japan - a boat sails closer to an island of the damned, there lies a haunted house of disrepute, where ladies of the night and their wretched black souls wait to serve your every desire. An American journalist, Christopher, played by Billy Drago (The Untouchables, Mysterious Skin) is searching for his love, Komomo who has been left there. As he searches for her, he has an unsettling encounter with a deformed hooker who reveals the true story of Komomo’s cruel and final fate.
Directed by the infamous Japanese director Takashi Miike (Audition, 3 Extremes, Sukiyaki Western Django, Ichi The Killer), Imprint is a 60 minute film that is the 17th inclusion in the cable series MASTERS OF HORROR, a quality series involving a different episode each being directed by a maestro of the genre. If the producer’s were looking for true horror by seeking out the top gore hounds and horrorphiles in the game when creating this series, then with Miike they got what they asked for. The result – Imprint was banned from airing on cable as part of this series.
As this woman tells Christopher the dark tale, he shivers in emotional pain as she works her way under his skin. Little can prepare us for the images that will spread and rot into our minds very shortly. There isn’t a large amount of bloodletting, but instead one particular scene which is horrific to enter into imaginatively, leaving it’s viewer and also victim stuck, twitching and suffering in anguish. More unthinkable visions of torment constantly await, but Imprint revolves around one central scene that it builds towards then uses as it’s defining centre piece. This is the first film I have ever watched where I couldn’t help but make my reaction vocal, as I cringed, I bellowed out in shock. It was intense.
Leeches and parasite eat away at your senses as you watch Imprint, Miike pushes the boundaries with fetishist torture, aborted foetuses that slop around the river banks, cursed imagery which brutalises you quietly, along with paedophilia, deformed freaks and suffering. Executed and conceived masterfully at times, the fringe dwelling in this ambiguously demonic world will leave you hollow with dread and possibly scarred if you enter unprepared, as the shock and cringe factor here is turned up like never before.
While Imprint is a fine addition to the horror genre and is one of the most extreme experiences you’ll ever sit through, as a film I found it noticeably flawed. Certainly the cinematography provides a perfect pallet to build on Imprint’s intensely dreaded tone and these visuals are the film’s boldest and most resonant point, but the atmosphere is still spread thin. While the film’s wildly visual, murky photography is perfect and the fabulously eerie production design constantly emphasises the colour red, little work seems to have gone into the sound design which lacks the imagination of all the film’s other elements and while it may at first seem to have the necessary atmosphere to create a true nightmare, the lack of sound design seems to be the missing piece. This isn’t as much a flaw as it is just a missed opportunity, especially considering how well other horror films use sound design to create something intensely inescapable (for an example of a horror film that uses sound design like no other, then look no further than Kwaidan as a brilliant example).
Imprint is wonderfully stylised during it’s first and second act, perfect in it’s exploration of a terrifying, demented world. Billy Drago’s performance, as well as the entire female cast in all their crazed grandeur, are sublime, adding to the horrors of this tale. Unfortunately, by the end of the film, the vision of this twisted and disturbed world has become so over the top that it at times borders on ridiculous (and sometimes the ridiculously disgusting as well).
Billy Drago in Imprint - the perfect casting
Billy Drago was born to play this part in Imprint, his pained face speaks volumes as he howls away in emotional torment through out. Imprint creeps closer towards the edge, as the spirits of hell cackle and cry out all at once. Drago is like a soul trapped in purgatory, suffering for some sin we couldn’t possibly imagine, scratching away helplessly as he witnesses the horror and loss as Imprint dwells at the bottom of human darkness.
Where does Imprint lie on the shock scale? I’d say somewhere between Antichrist and Martyrs. Not for the squeamish.
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Comment by Jason King
Sydney Table
Salty Popcorn
Total Randomness
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Given my awareness of your tastes Jason, I think I would pay money to be able to film your reaction to this movie as you sat through it - let me know when and I'll bring the cam corder
Thanks for reading buddy.
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
This is the highlights of the Masters of Horror series for sure. Possibly my favourite though I did love John Carpenter, Joe Dante and Lucky McKee's efforts in season1 too.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
Comment by Bryn
Horrorphile
Did you read mine?
This is my fave of Masters of Horror, although I also really liked Argento's Jenifer, even if it was cut before broadcast.
Comment by ShaunK
Screen Adventure