Kuchisake-onna (2007) Reviews

• Stands Out To Me

  Necrotard2007-12-21

  A town is haunted by the myth of a woman whose face has been mutilated in a very awesome looking fashion. She wears a mask over her mouth and shows up to people asking "Am I pretty?" Their answer almost always leads to their death. I loved this movie. The story was different. I haven't seen anything too similar to it before. The story was interesting, even a bit touching at points. It never got laughable to me. The whole thing stayed pretty dark and serious. (I'm sure the horrific involvement of children in the story helped that...) The camera work was really slick. I loved the lighting and the atmosphere towards the end. It had a great pace. It moved fast, even by American standards. (This is surprising for an Asian flick.) The ghost was unique by Asian standards. (She didn't have the hair over her face, nor did her hair seem to be alive.) The woman with the sliced mouth was a very cool visual. This has been one of my favorite Japanese horror films yet. Another big difference from most Asian films I've seen is that IT ACTUALLY MADE SENSE. Many Asian flicks like to have ambiguous endings that don't seem to have a definite meaning, so the audience can discuss their take on it. That, or the films are just made very bizarre, outlandish, and hard to follow. But this one actually made sense to me all the way through. Most of what I've read say it's "average"... I'm sorry, but all of the really famous Asian horror flicks I've seen seemed to be very similar to each other... I'd call those "average". In my eyes, this shied away from Asian routines, (which are sadly becoming American ones now...). I highly recommend this to any supernatural horror fan. I thought it was a great little ghost flick with a good story and some awesome eye-candy.

• Half slasher and half drama

  kluseba2013-05-19

  This is the first relevant "Kuchisake-Onna" movie. It's a dark slasher vaguely inspired by true events that hit Japan back in the seventies. Several pupils are kidnapped on their way home. Soon rumours are spread about a possessed woman with a long trench coat that wears a mask to cover its mutilated face that kidnaps the children to cut their mouths up to the ears as that evil woman has lived the same torture in the past. The police doesn't find any relevant trace but several pupils seem to know more about that mysterious woman. A young and sometimes unstable female teacher who has been through a difficult divorce and who has a troubled relationship with her daughter joins a shy and young male teacher who seems to have telepathic powers and who hears the voice of that mysterious woman but always arrives a little bit too late at the scene of the crime. Together, they try to find the hideout of that evil woman. They soon realize that the evil woman is more some sort of a spirit that can easily possess anybody if her head isn't definitely cut off. As more and more innocent people die or get kidnapped, the young male teacher understands that he has a very special connection to the killer and that the final showdown will lead to unnameable sacrifices for both teachers. I really found this first movie very intriguing. It convinces with a very dark atmosphere and a good balance between gripping slasher scenes and a surprisingly well done character development. The two young teachers incarnated by Eriko Sato and Haruhiko Kato play quite convincing roles and both characters have to face their own inner demons before they confront that evil woman. The movie doesn't only belong to the horror genre but has also a few dramatic and emotional moments. I really liked the unconventional attitude of this movie. One could think that a soft love story would develop between the two young teachers but this isn't the case and one doesn't get distracted from the solid main story line. The film also includes some minor twists and some tension filled and unexpected moments. I also like the polarizing ending of the movie that really send shivers down my spine. I guess that this ending wants to make sure that you won't forget this movie all too soon. All in all, this is a very atmospheric and well played dark slasher movie that also focuses on some dramatic scenes and a very well done character development. This mixture of two distinctive genres is very well done and makes this flick more accessible to a larger crowd in my opinion. It's nothing revolutionary after all but surely a quite gripping and entertaining movie. Fans of Asian horror cinema should surely grab this solid movie and will have quite some fun.

• Disappointing to say the least

  asian-cineblog2013-10-28

  After penning Noroi: The Curse, one of the scariest J-horror movies of the last decade, Kôji Shiraishi decided, two years later, to focus on the Japanese urban myth of the slit mouth lady, which has been known in Japan for several generations. The legend has survived and has spread as any other urban myth, with the story of a woman asking the ones who cross her path if she is pretty and consequently showing them the hideous scar on her face and thus either killing them or disfiguring their face in a similar way. Among other terrifying (and sometimes hilarious) details, the slit-mouthed woman is supposed to carry with her a pair of scissors as her weapon, being able to run up to 100 km/h and having a bizarre interest in special Japanese candies. Interestingly enough, the director has however decided to distance from the urban myth, although one character refers the fact that the rumors of the slit mouth lady have been heard for decades. The appearance of the evil entity is, as always, explained on the basis of a cruel vengeful spirit that comes back for revenge, as it became a cliché in the J-horror panorama for the last few years. The plot lacks consistency, and even though the history of the slit-mouthed woman is well explained and detailed during the movie, bottom line, her initial appearance appears to be left to interpretation although a few possibilities may come to mind – the result of an earthquake and the opening of her own tomb, the result of a critical mass of believers sharing the rumors of the story of an evil entity, or simply the fact that her appearance may seem to symbolize an explanation for adult's cruelty towards children. Unfortunately during the movie, events simply seem to carelessly pile up, with a few scenes being particularly dumb to say the least. No effort is put into creating an atmosphere of intrigue. The repressed memories of professor Matsuzaki simply came back off a sudden when he visited his old home. No crescendos were registered, no increasing tension or hype were observed before each appearance of the slit mouth lady. Something could have been said regarding the abusive treatment and negligence towards children during the film, as well as the consequences of violence and these abuses. Unfortunately, the number of abusive or neglecting mothers would just serve as a way to keep the evil spirit coming back. In fact, violence is somehow excused in these cases as a result of insanity or an abrupt change of the familiar background. Apart from the female teacher, the remaining characters were particularly uninteresting. The majority of the scenes lacked credibility, the abductions were always particularly random, and no patterns were observed with the slit-mouthed woman usually coming out of nowhere. Contrarily to what is usually common, the present ghost entity exhibited a physical body. For some reason however, the characters would not be able to fight back, being hilariously knocked down unconscious after being slapped by the slit mouth lady herself. Which is usually used to explore supernatural powers, was in this case a sequence of characters staring at the ghost, gasping, screaming and crawling, as the slit-mouthed woman, wearing heels, would continually kick each one of them. The making-of suggested Kôji Shiraishi didn't put a particular effort or thought into the plot, with the movie being shot in a considerably short period of time. Probably as a result, the film seems to lack consistency and interest for the most part, with a few elements of interest being nonetheless terribly explored. Asian-cineblog.blogspot.com

• A Typical Asian Horror Film, Slightly Better Than Average

  gavin69422007-08-02

  Children tell the story of the slit-mouthed woman, a killer with a deformed face, surgical mask and very long scissors ready to slice up the kids while asking "Am I pretty?". As rumors of the woman spread, the panic in town grows and the rumors become true -- remarkably so, as they seem to come from nowhere. What is the origin of this killer? Something about Asian horror is both appealing and distressing. I can't pinpoint it. The films are different enough from American films to give a special feel to the viewer for when we've had enough of the classic slasher. Yet, no matter how different one Asian film is from another, they seem to all co-exist in the same universe. This film is no exception: while not relying on the same techniques as "Pulse" or "The Grudge" or even "The Ring", there's a sense that we haven't left those worlds too far behind. Like many Asian horror films, there is a sense of the supernatural here. American horror often tries to explain its stories in a reasonable way (even when the villains are of an other-worldly nature). Asian horror is less likely to do so. Here is another example of that. As the film progresses, we learn more about the slit-mouthed woman, but we never really understand how or why she does what she does. I enjoyed the rumors element. I think this was very clever and if the film were longer, I wish they'd have gone into this more and made the plot and background deeper. At one point, a child is asked where the slit-mouthed woman lives and she responds in a house with a red roof on the hill. Despite having no reason to know this (she never saw the house or even the woman), the rumor invariably turn out to be true. I found this very interesting. I also liked the makeup. Having recently seen "Pan's Labyrinth" I saw how cool it was to have a person with a mouth slit open to their ear (and, by the way, if you haven't seen this film you really must). This film makes it the selling point of the movie, not just a brief scene -- the way the woman is shown with the mouth and dead eyes is pretty cool. I didn't find her particularly scary or creepy, but an interesting villain just the same. Perhaps some of the film is lost in translation. A key aspect of the film is that the kids think the woman says "Am I pretty?" and later we are told she says "Aim my neck." I am under the impression that whatever the original wording was, these two phrases are even more similar to create a parallel. Here, the words "pretty" and "neck" are a bit of a stretch. But it slid. If you like Asian horror, I suggest checking this one out. The copy I watched was pre-release, so the picture wasn't fully touched up and there were numbers counting across the top. Once the official DVD is out, I suspect this will be a bit crisper and the sounds even creepier (maybe like the comb noise from "The Grudge"). Either way, I liked it, and it was a good vacation from the same old teenagers in the woods movie.

• A different J-Horror

  vmorda2010-11-06

  Carved is different from most Asian horror flicks in the regard that the story doesn't become overly convoluted and confusing, yet at the same time, it does little to add complexity to the explanation or back story of the Slit-Mouthed Woman. Essentially a really evil person dies, so naturally their ghost continues to have the same actions of the person that they once were. If you can go into this movie accepting this fact, and not with the mentality of expecting something smart or challenging from the story, then you should easily enjoy this. With that said, this is indeed another norm of the Asian horror genre, "vengeful ghost girl." However the concept of the ghost, and the urban legend revolving around it (which is based on a real legend), does feel fresh and unique. The main selling point of the Slit-Mouthed Woman's motif is that she specifically targets children with overly sized scissors. Which naturally makes for perfect, innocent victims in this film, as they are easy to sympathize for. Carved is not shy in having the kiddies get hurt or killed. I wouldn't say the visual execution of such is excessive any way, but the idea of it may be too disturbing for some viewers. So if you're sensitive to the idea of child abuse (which this film's story is primarily based on) or seeing a corpse of a kid, then avoid watching this. Though I feel that this reason alone is what makes Carved successful as a genuine horror flick. Unlike American slasher films, where horny teenagers make stupid decisions quickly and you ultimately we care less about what happens to them in the end (not to say that there isn't some merit in that). The main characters are as interesting just as well, as Matsuzaki was once a victim of child abuse, and Yamashita was regretfully an abusive mother herself. So there is motivation for their characters to stop the Slit-Mouthed Woman from kidnapping and harming another little tot, while over coming their own, personal conflicts. With a visually grotesque and interesting antagonist (regardless of having a nonsensical weakness and catch phrase, that is more related to the actual legend then the movie's character), I can't help but to recommend this for those who feel tired with most Asian horror flicks and are looking for something different.