Marebito (2004) - Archive

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Arei Furoki(Kazuhiro Nakahara)commits suicide in a train station by stabbing himself in the eye. The cameraman at the scene, Masuoka(Shinya Tsukamoto)is a fear-freak and desires to experience the fear that took a hold on Arei that day. He takes a camera and heads into the underground dwellings of old Tokyo underneath the train station and finds an odd mountain-like habitat..and a young woman chained! He gives her shelter and names her "F"(Tomomi Miyashita plays her). She seems almost inhuman, she doesn't eat and sleeps endlessly only awakening for a few hours at a time. After a difficult run-in with a man on the street, Masuoka comes home with a cut finger. F lusts for the blood on his finger and he allows her to lick it, and she does quite passionately. Masuoka sees that she ever so greatly cherishes the relish of blood. He cuts his hand and watches as she slops it up off the floor. He gets a high off of this(!)and decides to find animals for her to drink, until he discovers that they aren't as fulfilling as human blood. So guess the lengths that Masuoka will stoop to please his little pet? Shimizu has crafted a very disturbing film which, like many others he has directed, uses technology as a source for terror. I must admit that the film can be quite elusive and mysterious. Within the film is a mystery which could or could not be true. We hear of underground creatures called Deros, who seek the taste for blood and live without talking. This could be a fiction created in Masuoka's disturbed mind. He says early as he throws his nerve medicine away that he needed to "focus." It may also be implied that those he kills may be closer to him than he realizes. The film offers and then makes the viewer decide what is real or fiction. I feel that what we see is a figment of a psychotic's pleasures. I feel he is fantasizes these ugly images and those violent acts were destined to come to fruition. I feel we are watching a truly sick individual willing to go to many extremes to relish his fantasies.

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--April 6th, 2006