IHR induction #41: "Marebito" (2004, Takashi Shimizu)

This sort of thing doesn't happen often; usually, after seeing a movie for the first time, I'm able to make a snap judgment and stick to that judgment for the rest of my life. They're not supposed to haunt the viewer, to make them question various events that take place throughout the running time and pay close attention even on subsequent viewings for any and all small details. "Marebito" is just such a movie. Almost two years after watching it for the first time, I still don't know quite what to make of it, and while ordinarily this is a very frustrating plot aspect, it all somehow feels completely at home within this prime slice of J-horror goodness.

First things first, I'm a big mark for the guy behind the madness. Takashi Shimizu is somewhere on my figurative Mount Rushmore of horror directors, but Marebito was a HUGE departure for the guy. Up until this point, Shimizu had cut his teeth on the "Ju-On" series, both Stateside and in Japan, having cranked out five movies starring his meal ticket Kayako Saeki within short order. The "Ju-On" and "Grudge" films are, for better or worse (depending on your outlook) all the same - a certain croaking villain, a dark, mysterious atmosphere, and a decidedly non-gory tone. Within the first five minutes of "Marebito," the audience is treated to the sight of a man ramming a knife directly through his own eyeball. Amazingly enough, this is only the beginning of the insanity.

It does virtually no good to explain the plot of this film. If you really want the complete blow-by-blow, look it up on Wikipedia. The bare bones version is this: extremely morbid photojournalist Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto) is in search of the ultimate in fear, and with the AFOREMENTIONED knife-ramming incident as his impetus (which he caught on tape, conveniently enough), descends into the Tokyo underworld to find it. From here ensues one of the most baffling narratives in the history of film, comprising flashback, hallucination, things which may or may not be, and ultimately winding up leaving the viewer completely shell-shocked as to what they've just seen. And this isn't just the words of some J-horror obsessed loser; essentially, damn near everyone that I've talked to about this flick has the same experience. Namely, "the hell?"

There have been other horror movies that are less about their A-Z plot development than their hallucinogenic flavoring, and "Marebito" is the "Citizen Kane" of this type of movie. Every major and minor event in the movie is off-the-charts weird, starting with what the movie is really all about - Masuoka's discovery of a restrained, nude mute girl (played by Tomomi Miyashita in an ungodly performance). Taking her back to his apartment and naming her "F," the relationship (which is completely non-sexual) unspools, as Masuoka finds out that this girl is barely a step up from feral. Oh yeah, there's also the catch that the only thing she will eat or drink is human blood...

The other central theme of this movie is the nature of urban legends. Of course, the "city within a city" myth has always been a popular topic of discussion in the "unexplained phenomena" community via the hollow earth theory and the works of Richard Sharpe Shaver. Shaver himself is actually name-dropped within the movie several times, and for the uninitiated, he claimed to know the reason for virtually every problem on Earth - detrimental robots, or "deros," demonic, sadistic beings left behind by alien visitors centuries ago, engage in every practice from abducting women to causing natural disasters. Yup. That's what Shaver wrote. In addition to the Deros (who look extremely creepy in the fleeting glimpses we get of them in this film), "Marebito" features Men in Black, Shangri-la, and, of course, hot feral chicks who lap up blood directly from freshly cut-open fingers.

As mentioned already (I've already got one AFOREMENTIONED in this induction and don't need another one, dammit!), this movie is far gorier than any movie that Shimizu had done before, or since. The "vampire" aspect of "F" is played up to full hilt and given to the audience to absorb in its entirety. In some of the more disturbing scenes, the character of Masuoka becomes a kind of murderous father to "F," killing innocent victims and bringing them back to his charge. Sick, sick stuff, and while there is the implication within the film that everything we are seeing is hallucination, these scenes have both symbolic and literal power.

By this point, you've probably decided whether or not "Marebito" is for you. Most assuredly, it's not for everyone. If you're expecting to walk away from a movie completely satisfied and with a clear understanding of the meaning of what you just saw, you're not going to get it with this film. If the more frustrating aspects of this kind of film don't bother you, however, there is much reward. While the movie is shot on digital video, Shimizu shows his deft hand with both camera tricks and coaxing phenomenal performances out of actors, as both Tsukamoto and Miyashita join the pantheon of great horror film performances (especially Miyashita).

Of course, the purpose of any horror movie is to scare the audience, and this is one of the very few movies that I've seen in the past five years that scared the bejesus out of me. In particular, Masuoka meeting a ghost underneath Tokyo and the game of cat-and-mouse with strange agents looking to reclaim "F" did quite the number on me. My most ringing endorsement? I began to watch this movie on a Friday night, as usual having not slept for almost 24 hours and fully ready to get lulled to sleep with a movie in the background. This movie, however, not only kept me awake, but absolutely ran me over, and continues to do so.