Review of Imprint

The final entry of the series, Takeshi Miike's Imprint was banned from American TV. Mick Garris claimed it was the "most disturbing film iv ever seen". I wouldn't go THAT far! I can see why it was banned - Miike is still refusing to back down and STILL has a total disregard for limitations on what he is allowed to show on film (i think this is the first time iv seen an abortion in a movie). The story follows an American who has travelled to Japan to find the love of his life, Komomo, and take her back to America with him. While there, he meets a woman working as a whore, who used to work with Komomo and has to break the news about her death. The whore (i cant remember her name, so i'll have to refer to her as "the whore") tells how she has been outcast as a "freak" all her life because of the deformities on her face, and the film is shown in the stories she tells, of their life as whores and how Komomo died. The twists come when we find out the whore isn't telling the truth, and we see different versions of the story, and what really happened is slowly revealed, along with the true extent of the whores deformities. This is the first English language piece Miike has directed, as far as I'm aware. The broken English kind of gets in the way - as do the moments of bad dialogue - but apart from that, this is what Miike does best - his trademark style of disturbing and bizarre imagery and dark humour, which i can NOT get enough of! This is not one of his best, but is quite a horrific little film. Miike retains some of usual themes (its nice to see his obsession for torture with needles is still there! VERY nasty scene!) and the haunting atmosphere throughout and some of the events are very reminiscent of Gozu - probably his best film!

This final entry has left the series hanging on a high note, it is 1 of the best ones in the series (along with John Carpenters f**ked up entry and Lucky McGees episode) i cant wait for Season two, baby - BRING IT!