Marebito

2004 Directed by Takashi Shimizu

Halloween Marathon 2024 Day 28 Film 56

A videographer (Shinya Tsukamoto of Tetsuo fame) finds obsessive desire through the real reality of his camera. Everyday life seems to fade into obscurity as the camera is able to capture the underlying reality of the world. He’s able to see the addicts- the unkempt dregs of society that no one else wants to. He replays a man’s suicide video, seeing the terror rise up in his eyes, and in the videographer’s mind this is the ultimate experience.

His quest leads him into urban adventuring— sinking beneath Tokyo’s vastness to the hidden life of homeless dwellers and hollow earth. It’s completely atmospheric- an insomniac bubble dream like experience of Lynch soundscapes and digital voyeuristic fetishism. The world spins into its own mythology- a girl fastened to some rock like a Greek myth or trapped by cybernetic human-dogs. All of this blends amounts of weird tales stories and Lovecraftian first-person narrative.

The girl he finds needs blood to feed; his flesh is hers— nurturing an unending need for thirst. The experience rolls along- infects his mind while paving the way towards his own destruction. The script by Chiaki Konaka, writer of the cybernetic nightmare-scape of Serial Experiments: Lain, weaves in world building and isolation through the calling of technology.

Videodrome messages through eerie distortions of the film seep through the frames; the digital and shitty direct on video- found footage - style feels authentic to the story, but certainly there are points where the film meanders. The plot doesn’t go anywhere- missing cohesion, but the general insomniac atmosphere works well. Unfortunately this means that a lot of the film could be shaken away as just a psychological nightmare void, but the premise of a whole labyrinth of tunnels and delving into an unknown world is more interesting.

Apparently this film was made in just a week between the Japanese and English version of The Grudge- and it seems like the bigger ideas aren’t able to fully realize themselves. It would have worked better as a Weird Tales short film- as the slow gradual descent fizzles out of energy. Stare into the abyss and see how far it goes…..

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