Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman — movie review
Taking inspiration from an old Japanese folkloric tale, and its subsequent popular urban legend incarnation in the 1979, Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman tells a tale of a vengeful female ghost with a penchant for carving up unsuspecting victims. While the original tale involved an incredibly beautiful, yet vain and adulterous woman, whose wicked ways ultimately lead to a horrible punishment at the hands of her husband, who expanded her mouth widthwise using a sharp blade, later incarnations feature the Slit-Mouth Woman in spectral form, appearing to lone travelers on misty evenings, querying them from behind the guise of a surgical mask as to whether or not they find her pretty. According to this form of the legend, answering this question would then result in the woman removing her mask, revealing her gaping maw, and subsequently chasing down and killing the person with a sharp instrument.
At the height of the legend’s popularity the Slit-Mouth Woman had evolved from simple wayfarer slayer to exclusive child predator. Fueled in no small part by the recent increase in domestic (parent on child and child on parent) violence and murder reported in the Japanese media, it is this peak variant that Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman uses as springboard for telling its tale.
Being that the basic story of Carved is quite similar to that outlined above, I won’t bother to further summarize it here. However, the film does take the liberty of one final and major change to the 
previous legends: this time around the Slit-Mouth Woman (Miki Mizuno, Bayside Shakedown) was not a loose beauty turned victim of an enraged husband, but simply a child abusing single mother. How exactly she came about her famous face I’ll leave for you to find out, but it is no less shocking than the original tale. Still, a problem remains in this film’s changing the origin story of the Slit-Mouth Woman. While she repeatedly asks her victims “am I pretty?,” it makes no sense within the context of the story, as no effort is ever made to convey any sense of vanity on her part. Only rage. Still, that doesn’t mean she’s any less frightening a character. One might even argue that this seemingly illogical questioning only serves to make her appear all the more mad and dangerous.
The structure of Carved is not unlike that of most contemporary “J-Horror,” outings ( I know, I hate the term just as much as you do), featuring an intrepid team (this time a schoolteacher, played by Cutie Honey’s Eriko Sato, and a mysterious man, by Pulse’s Haruhiko Kato) investigating the origin of the killer ghost and in hopes of a possible solution. In fact, the film follows all established genre conventions so faithfully one could say it verges dangerously on the edge of cliché. Sure, the cinematographic stylings may be a little hipper, and its female ghost possessing the surprising ability to pull her long dark hair out of her eyes (not to mention carry those huge shears), but throughout its initial setup I kept asking myself whether I could possibly be doing something better with my time. However, just after the 40 minute mark the thrills kicked in, and I found myself turned happy camper. The ending proved a little illogical and anti-climactic, but given the suspense of the latter half, I can’t complain too much.
In closing, Carved: The Slit Mouthed Woman may not be the revelation or revitalization Japanese Horror (or horror in general) so desperately needs, but it did have its moments. As familiar as its trappings may be, Carved: The Slit-Mouthed Woman manages its fair share of shocks, suspense, and disturbing situations. Seriously, as jaded as Kris and I may be when it comes to horror films, there were moments that made us gasp in awe and wince in disgust. It may be only be half a great film, but it is still miles better than the majority of “me-too” horror efforts. If you’re at all curious, check it out.
Note that if you have any sort of reservations regarding depictions of children in peril, you might want to think twice about seeing this film.
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