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Marebito (2004)
R1 - America - Tartan Video US Review written by and copyright: Jari Kovalainen (21st July 2006). |
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The Film
 The subway networks in the big metropolitan areas have always offered something quite unique. Millions of different people rush to work, to home, to a bar, to a football game - anywhere you could imagine. The sense of urban lifestyle is so strong that you could almost touch it. In a way, there´s always that sense of hostility also, like subways would hide many secrets and would attract the strangest - and scariest - individuals you could imagine. Nowadays, when the word “terrorism” can be read from everywhere, to some people a subway can be a place where they wouldn´t go, if they don´t have to. To most people though, it´s just public transportation, nothing more. One of the most extensive systems in the world is the Tokyo subway, with 168 train stations and over 5,5 million passengers per day. But is this only what we´re allowed to see? There is an urban myth, that around 2 000 km of secret tunnels and passageways are located beneath Tokyo. Their existence is denied, which of course is like fuel to the fire to certain groups of people. This myth probably also got director Takashi Shimizu interested, who made his mark during the 2000s in Japanese horror-cinema with the original “Ju-on: The Grudge (2003)” and the US remake “The Grudge (2004)” (the sequel to the US remake, “The Grudge 2 (2006)”, is coming soon). Between the production of the Japanese “Ju-on” and the US remake, Shimizu made a small film in just 8 days with digital cameras called “Marebito (2004)”, which used the idea of these urban passageways, but took it much further. Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto) is a freelance cameraman, who is obsessed with fear and odd events. He wanders around Tokyo with his Mini DV-Cam, collecting footage from everywhere; people on the streets, a strange woman in a window, homeless people arguing - just anything connected to people, anything to capture something strange. He then watches them in his apartment, which is full of TV-screens and monitors - small video cameras and web cams. He´s what you could call a modern peeping tom; he has the urge to see the world through his viewfinder and his monitors, and it´s giving him some sort of pleasure that is way beyond the sexual desire. This video footage is the drug for him. His recent footage gave him something that he has been truly seeking; a strange suicide in the subway. In the footage, a man horrified by somebody - or something - stabs himself in the eye in a rather grizzly way. Masuoka sees the fear in his eyes, and the way he looks into the unknown. Is this the clue that he has been searching for? The essence of fear? He goes back to the scene with his trusted video cam, and eventually goes deeper and deeper into the underground. He´s not alone. He sees a strange creature through the viewfinder. The homeless person. He talks to the man who just killed himself in front of Masuoka. The lights go out. Soon he´ll find it; the strange subterranean world under Tokyo, and the most peculiar discovery of them all; a young, naked girl (Tomomi Miyashita) is lying chained in the cave. Masuoka takes her home, naming her “F”, soon discovering that “she” could be more than “it”. Bit by bit, the obsession by Masuoka takes new heights, with his new pet, who´s hungry for blood.. Let´s get this out of the way quickly; if you´re looking to see a more “mainstream” Japanese horror with sudden spooks, girls crawling out from the television and cursed videotapes, you´ll probably be disappointed. The film can be spooky, but more than that it operates on the psychological level, by creating a disturbing and unsettling mood and making the viewer confused about what is real, and what is just the hallucinations of an unstable man, if any. This is not as “sick” or graphic as some of the other films made in Japan and Asia (e.g. films like “Entrails of a Virgin AKA Shojo no harawata (1986)”), but it still tends to be more “disturbing” than “horrifying”. You can hear (as a “narrator”) the thoughts from Masuoka during the film, and this is also quite an effective way to guide the viewer into his messed world. To me it also reflects to todays society, which is very much Internet and TV-orientated, and where you can have a world of your own inside your apartment, via computer, TV and other electronic equipments. For the man like Masuoka, the outside world doesn´t mean anything anymore, unless you look it at through the viewfinder or his monitors. He is emotionally numb, probably has been for a long time, and he hangs on to his obsessions - the only things that actually interest him. With the girl “F”, he finds something new, something that could help him to understand “fear” and where he could play “master and servant”. Soon it´ll become unclear who´s the “master” and who´s the “servant” after all. During the early part of the film, we also see a glimpse of some sadomasochist act via Masuoka´s monitor, which has some resemblance to snuff-footage. With this clip and certain events with his lead character, director Shimizu also adds some strange sexual wipes to the movie, since Masuoka probably has turned his sexual frustrations to these obsessions. Like most humans, he has to find some way to release these “frustrations” - too bad that for the person like him, that takes some very twisted features. Along with these minor “subconscious aspects”, what I liked about the film was these various connections to the urban myths that the world is full of. In addition to the stories of Tokyo´s secret underground, we have implications to “Hollow Earth Theory”, where new races would actually exist in subterranean cities beneath our planet and the “Shaver Mystery” about the sadistic race living inside the earth called “Deros” (detrimental robots), sometimes kidnapping people. These weird tales are originally written in such a way that some people really believe them, and they add some interesting connections to the film. Perhaps the film plays with the general idea, that if the person truly - and I mean truly, believes in something, whether it´s some higher power or some wild theory, it becomes a reality to him. There´s no need for the more rational thoughts. “Marebito” is not a very easy film by any means, and quite frankly it´s not a masterpiece either. It´s probably good to have at least some experience with Japanese horror and underground-cinema before seeing this one, since it´s a film which you probably have to see a couple of times to really find all its hidden meanings and symbols, and even after that it eventually leads to many different interpretations. It´s an “urban nightmare”; very interesting and at many times solid film, but eventually you´ve a feeling that this was more like a quick experimental project of guerilla filmmaking for director Shimizu; that´s all. “Marebito” is a film that you´ll do early in your career, before moving to some other projects.
Video
Released as part of the “Tartan Asia Extreme”-line in the US, the transfer is presented in Anamorphic 1.78:1, and all things considered looks good. The main core of the film is shot with Digital Betacam, and that material looks quite sharp (some shots are softer, though) and very clean. Since it´s shot in video, the overall look tent to be a bit “flat” with harsh contrasts and unnatural colors, and the film has a rather darkish and greyish look throughout. Black levels in video are probably not as good as they would be on film, but generally the transfer looks fine. There´s also material shot by the lead character Masuoka in Mini DV-Cam, and that´s way more rough looking with Moire patterns, intentionally very “home made” and shaky. I also had a feeling that many exterior scenes are done mostly in natural light, and the look of the film is low-lit. “Dual layer” disc has 20 chapters, and it´s coded “R1”. The film runs 91:44 minutes (NTSC).
Audio
The disc offers something for everyone, all in Japanese; DTS 5.1, Dolby Digital 5.1, and Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are included. My option was DTS, which sounded just fine. Although this is “J-horror”, in this case it doesn´t offer a huge amount of strange sound effects and directional cues, so in the end this is one of the more subtle DTS-tracks out there. There is some good ambience and a few selected scenes with surround-activity in the rear channels, but like the film itself, the audio is also more low key. DTS is the recommended choice here, although there are no major differences with the 5.1-tacks.
Extras
Extras include a selection of interviews, along with trailers. Interviews are all in Japanese, with optional English subtitles, but trailers include “forced” English subtitles. The interview-segments are very amateurishly done, dark and soft, and it seems that they´re taken from sessions by the French media or similar. They also include basically all the footage that was shot, so there are silent moments and generally bits and pieces that could´ve been edited away. Fortunately the interviews themselves are fairly interesting. “Interview with director Takashi Shimizu" -featurette runs 22:52 minutes, and starts off with questions about the “fear” generally, and what it means to Shimizu. Like many other horror-fans, he was influenced by the films like “Friday the 13th (1980)” and “The Evil Dead (1981)” when he was young, but he doesn´t really enjoy too graphic movies. Some issues about “Marebito” are also being discussed, but this interview doesn´t go very deep with regards to the production itself. It´s interesting to hear that in the original screenplay the young girl was actually a child, but was changed for the obvious reasons. "Interview with actor Shinya Tsukamoto" -featurette runs 12:59 minutes, and here the actor tells about his relationship with the director Shimizu, and the way they worked during the production. Tsukamoto is a cult figure in his own right, directing films like “Tetsuo AKA Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988)” (and the sequel) and “Gemini AKA Soseiji (1999)”, but he clearly wanted Shimizu to do “his thing”, and was just a regular actor in the production. Based on Tsukamoto, there wasn´t much preparation for the role, partly because this was a quick production. “Interview with Series supervisor Hiroshi Takahashi” -featurette runs 16:30 minutes, and although Takahashi is labeled as a “producer” in the DVD, his title is “Series supervisor” in the credits, refering to the “Horror Bancho Series” (4 low budget features shot in Digital video, which along with “Marebito” include “Fateful AKA Unmei ningen (2004)”, “Tsukineko ni Mitsu no Dangan”, and the film directed by Takahashi; “Sodomu no Ichi (2004)”). Takahashi talks about “Horror Bancho”, and generally about the more recent Japanese horror boom, and he´s quite honest by saying that the Japanese simply took the old idea of ghost stories seen in the e.g. American and British cinema, and made it a bit differently. He calls “Marebito” as a “rough and messy project”, and that director Shimizu shot it basically like it would be a bigger film (meaning the different locations and footage). Original Japanese theatrical trailer runs 1:47 minutes, we have also some (original) bonus trailers for “Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance AKA Boksuneun Naui Geot (2002)” (1:33 min), “Spider Forest AKA Geomi sup (2004)” (2:22 min), “R-Point (2004)” (1:55 min), “Unborn But Forgotten AKA Hayanbang (2002)” (1:54 min), and “A Snake of June AKA Rokugatsu no hebi (2002)” (2:07 min). You can also use “Play all”-option with bonus trailers (9:47 min). Keep case comes with a slipcase.
Overall
“Marebito”, considering the shooting schedule, is a good attempt to create something unique; something that makes you feel disturbed, interested, and horrified at the same time. It does that, but in the end also leaving something to be desired. “Tartan Video”-release comes recommended with a nice transfer and a DTS-track, and some English friendly extras. For more info, please visit the homepage of Tartan Video (US).
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