There has always been something that has been bothering me about this director and I never really understood why until I saw this episode. Because "Imprint" is really a good summary of Miike's flaws.
See, if there's one thing this director knows, it's torture. He knows it and does it very well. Even the build-up is nice and if you can get past his weird view on women (which is pretty obvious in most of his movies), you have a really scary story developing in front of you. Because people can be cruel. And Miike likes to tell you just how cruel they can be.
...And then comes the rubber ducks.
There are two ways to ruin a perfectly good story about human cruelty. One is by adding too many elements of confusion. The other is to place a talking piece of latex on top of someone's head.
Miike manages to do both. I could forgive the lack of conclusion since the torture scenes are brutal and very well made. But no, I can't forgive the talking hand that adds an unwanted element of "tales from the crypt" to the story. It worked in "Ichi the killer" as it is not the most serious movie around, but he should have kept his hands away from the play dough for this one.
sadly, he doesn't. and this episode of Masters of Horror turns into the worst executed one.
See, if there's one thing this director knows, it's torture. He knows it and does it very well. Even the build-up is nice and if you can get past his weird view on women (which is pretty obvious in most of his movies), you have a really scary story developing in front of you. Because people can be cruel. And Miike likes to tell you just how cruel they can be.
...And then comes the rubber ducks.
There are two ways to ruin a perfectly good story about human cruelty. One is by adding too many elements of confusion. The other is to place a talking piece of latex on top of someone's head.
Miike manages to do both. I could forgive the lack of conclusion since the torture scenes are brutal and very well made. But no, I can't forgive the talking hand that adds an unwanted element of "tales from the crypt" to the story. It worked in "Ichi the killer" as it is not the most serious movie around, but he should have kept his hands away from the play dough for this one.
sadly, he doesn't. and this episode of Masters of Horror turns into the worst executed one.