UZUMAKI (a.k.a. SPIRAL)
PLOT-A young couple's lives are tuned all wacky when their small town is taken over by Spirals. You read it right: SPIRALS.
VIOLENCE-People are killed in many bizarre ways, all relating to the theme of the spiral. One guy gets squished up inside the tire wall of a car, another falls and twists up his neck, and one person stabs themselves in the ear with a piece of glass (because of the spiral thingy in the ear canal).
SEX/NUDITY-I don't remember seeing any.
WHY I WATCHED IT-Over the past few years, I've been watching more and more Japanese horror films. Why? Because pound for pound, they are way better than what passes as horror in the U.S. right now (the huge success of our re-make of the hit Japanese horror film THE RING is proof positive of that). If you've never seen anything by Takashi Miike, for example, you're missing out (the final minutes of his film AUDITION are almost unbearable to watch). Unfortunately, these movies still aren't easy to find here. You gotta dig a little bit. UZUMAKI played on the Sundance channel this past Halloween, so I made sure to tune in. After all, FANGORIA did a full article about the film a couple months back, and I was amazed by all the surreal imagery in the photos. It looked awesome, and grabbed my curiosity to say the least.
THE DOPE-Well, UZUMAKI sounds odd, and it is. If you like movies that make sense, don't look for this film. It's one of those half linear/half art kind of movies, in the grand tradition of ERASERHEAD and TETSUO THE IRON MAN, with a touch of Brian Yuzna's underrated SOCIETY thrown in. The visuals are astounding, and the amount of creative camera & editing techniques will have any self-respecting genre fan's jaw on the floor. You never really know what to expect, there are shocking moments all through the movie. There's a definite plot and story flow, it's just a weird one is all. So it isn't one of those films where it's so surreal that it's boring to watch. Definitely out there, definitely original, definitely cool. I loved it.
MEMORABLE SCENES-A man removes his glasses, only to reveal that his eyes are cartoon-like spinning google things. Images like this pop up unexpectedly through the whole movie, and are the kind of thing that stays in your memory for a long time. You have to see it to fully understand.
NOTES-As far as I know, UZUMAKI isn't available on DVD in the states. However, I've seen several copies for sale on ebay if you're interested in picking it up. This movie is definitely one to have in your collection.
(November 2002)