Features: DVD
Editor's Note
Based on a Japanese comic book, Higuchinsky's UZUMAKI follows the residents of a remote town as they inexplicably become obsessed with spiral shapes. Kirie (Eriko Hatsune), a young schoolgirl, first notices this phenomena when she encounters her boyfriend's father (Ren Osugi), maniacally videotaping a snail crawling up a wall. Later, her brooding beau, Shuichi (Fhi Fan), reveals that the odd behavior goes further--his father has filled an entire room with various spiral objects. And that's merely the beginning of the insanity--soon one classmate arrives at school covered in thick, clear slime (and only on rainy days) and the leader of a girl gang begins wearing her hair in gravity-defying swirly strands. Before long, this growing madness leads to a series of gruesome and unbelievably bizarre deaths. Are Kirie and Shuichi next? Unlike most horror films, UZUMAKI is almost entirely unconcerned with explaining its strange scenes; the movie's mono-named director is preoccupied with "how," not "why," these sequences happen and revels in their ridiculousness. The ensuing deaths and transformations--and there are many--are simultaneously amazing, silly, and disturbing. An absurdist thriller of the highest order, UZUMAKI literally wears its weirdness on its twisted sleeve.
|
