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5
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10
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SNEAK
PREVIEW
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DVD Release Date: May
10, 2005 |
Hiruko
the Goblin is the
first film I've seen by Shinya Tsukamoto, celebrated Japanese
director of Tetsuo: The Iron Man
(1988). In the past I've avoided his work because (a) I'm personally
not into Asian cult cinema to the degree I am the European stuff;
and (b) in broad terms, I generally dislike surrealistic films.
It's extremely rare for me to come away from a movie thinking,
"Whoa! I barely understood any of that — but it sure
was cool!" At one point during the interview with Tsukamoto
included on this DVD (see below), he speaks of a film about
a boy with a telephone pole growing from his back... I don't
recall which movie he's referring to, but that's exactly the
kind of stuff that leaves me cold or downright pissed off. (Lest
I be thought a complete philistine, let me say that I do
appreciate the work of surrealist painters. Of course, contemplating
a Dali or Picasso doesn't eat up 90 minutes to two hours — or
more — of one's time...)
So, having read
a bit about Tetsuo, I didn't quite
know what to expect of this one. Happily, for the most part
it's a fairly conventional monster movie: an ancient demonic
force — the titular Hiruko — escapes from a subterranean chamber
where it's been entombed for centuries; it kills people; the
heroes race to learn the magic spell which will once again banish
the evil thing to its prison beneath the earth. Within its supernatural
framework the story makes sense and the various plot threads
are tied up. Now I'm not saying the film isn't odd (there's
actually an abundance of quirky weirdness on display) but this
perception likely stems to a great degree from this reviewer's
almost total lack of knowledge concerning Japanese legends and
folklore. A Japanese goblin is apparently quite a different
thing altogether than what the typical Westerner might envision.
Almost the
entirety of Hiruko takes place
at a small rural high school closed for summer break. A teacher,
Mr. Yabe (Naoto Takenaka), has disappeared, along with pretty
Reiko (Megumi Ueno), one of his female students. Before vanishing,
Yabe wrote a letter to his estranged brother-in-law Hieda (Kenji
Sawada), an archeologist ostracized in academic circles for
his belief in goblins. In the letter Yabe says he's discovered
an ancient burial mound near the school that could possibly
vindicate Hieda's crackpot theories, and asks him to join him
in exploring it. Heida arrives in the village and learns of
Yabe's disappearance; some people believe the middle-aged teacher
ran off with the girl. At the deserted school he encounters
Yabe's teenage son, Masao (Masaki Kudo), who came there with
two classmates looking for Reiko and his father. Masao's buddies
have just been killed — bewitched into committing suicide by
the siren song of Reiko's severed head! Possessed by the evil
goblin Hiruko, the girls' decapitated noggin scuttles about
the darkened hallways and classrooms on spider-like legs, hunting
for victims. At first Masao thinks the murders are the work
of the school's janitor (Hideo Murota), a strange, belligerent
old man who knows more about what's happening than he lets on.
Hieda seems like a complete fool, babbling about evil spirits
and waving around his homemade "Goblin detector". But what can
explain the painful burn marks that appear on Masao's back every
time someone dies... burn marks which clearly take the shape
of the victims' faces?
The look of Hiruko
the Goblin is marvelous, with director Tsukamoto displaying
a keen visual sense both lyrical and nightmarish. Be it an idyllic
nature scene in the bright glare of a summer's day or the horror-haunted
dark of the goblin's subterrene lair, he amply demonstrates
that particularly Japanese sensibility for melding the weird,
the beautiful and the grotesque in interesting combinations.
The enthusiastic performances of the small cast, giving it their
all no matter how off-the-wall the situations become, really
help to sell the story and its bizarre imagery. Where the film
misfires is in its decidedly schizophrenic tone, turning from
full-bore slapstick comedy (mostly in the Ghostbuster-ish
antics of the Hieda character) to deadly serious and back again,
all on a dime. One approach or the other should've been adopted
and stuck with. So sorry, Mr. Sawada, but you're no Bruce Campbell.
Speaking of
which... It continues to amaze me just how profound an impact
Sam Raimi's Evil Dead films had on Asian genre cinema. Many
of the goblin POV shots in Hiruko
are obviously inspired by them. In the freaky severed head/spider-crab
things another influence can be readily discerned, that of John
Carpenter's The Thing. But even if
these elements are somewhat derivative they're also nicely
executed, coming off as appropriately creepy (and cool) rather
than mere rip-offs. Stop-motion effects — the old fashioned
way! — are used to create the horde of creatures that Hiruko
controls; these 15-year old sequences hold up remarkably well
against the best of today's modern computer-rendered monsters.
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Rather
than release Hiruko under its more
well known Tokyo Shock imprint, which specializes in Asian
films, Media Blasters has decided to issue this DVD as part of
its Fangoria International line. (Other F.I. titles to
date include Spain's Rojo Sangre
and Choking
Hazard, a zombie comedy from the Czech Republic.) The
1.85:1 transfer looks absolutely terrific with nary a blemish
to be seen, presenting the film in anamorphic widescreen format.
Audio is also very good; the Japanese language Dolby track does
justice to the various creepy sound effects. Optional English
subtitles are clear and easy to follow.
Along with the
original theatrical trailer (also subtitled) and a photo gallery,
three very brief featurettes are offered. The first (8 minutes)
is of director Tsukamoto, recorded in 2000, talking mostly about
how Hiruko differs from his best
known works, chiefly Tetsuo, Tokyo
Fist and Bullet Ballet. The
other two relate to the film's special effects (neither running
more than 4 minutes in length): an interview with the unnamed
effects designer and a demonstration of the animatronic spider-crab
creatures. A slate of MB trailers (Choking
Hazard, Rojo Sangre, One
Missed Call and Deadly Outlaw Rekka)
is also included.
5/05/05 |
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