MOVIE REVIEW . Marebito

by Kris   ⋅   April 9, 2006   ⋅   Comment now   ⋅    RSS

A friend once jokingly said, “if you expect the worst from the world, you’ll never be disappointed”. Such must be the mantra of paranoid psychopaths like Masuoka (Shinya Tsukamoto, director of Tetsuo, actor in Ichi the Killer) who wanders through Tokyo with his only friend (a video camera) and a supposed mission: to find others with the “Fear”. An invisible drone, he emphatically creates whatever he wants to see in his encapsulating society (director Shimizu accomplishes this by cleverly melding ethereal and tangible–spooky ghouls and real-life maniacs). His hub is like his simultaneous sanctuary and torture chamber. Although he spends countless hours reviewing survellance screens oddly monitoring the inside of his apartment, he loves to roam outside, if only to incessantly check in on his remote PDA and cellphone. Thank God for GPS, I guess.

So what’s so interesting about the inside of his apartment? He believes to have rescued a girl from one of his favorite haunts, the Netherworld. Yuh-huh, this guy is looney. At first you think maybe he’s a perv, filming her skin and inspecting her sharply filed fang-filled mouth. Then as he reveals his sinister side, offering fresh carcasses and bottles of blood to feed the “girl”, there is an almost paternal gesture involved. But then the rescuer becomes captor, chaining her to the bed, refusing to release her even though some pesky asthmatic demon keeps wheezing warnings about her impending death in a mortal’s world, blahblahblah. Give me a break, Masuoka should say, I’ve just invented a new blood catchment system using old tarps and good ‘ol gravity. But instead, because director Shimizu (of Ju-on fame) is fond of white-noise and deadpan portrayals, Masuoka remains in catatonic recess and dramatic stupor. I assume he’s attempting to build suspense and intrigue, but some scenes just don’t cut it, literally.

But no matter, Marebito is one of those movies that sinks in slowly, washes frightening behavior slowly and designs its conclusion slowly. And the conclusion is actually one worth taking note; at least what I walked away with was that in our quest for affinity with others (Masuoka’s exploration and incessant filming of strangers that “share” the Fear) we formulate our own dissolution and ultimately, a disconnection with creating satisfying relationships. While Masuoka may actually possess homicidal tendencies (part of the specifically humanistic plot twist where he murders his ex-wife and tortures his own daughter) while harboring a broader passive disdain for humanity, he is just as normal as anyone else you would overlook on the street. Self-pity and self-piety and a sereptitious secret realm are all other aspects the “normal” proletariat may also overlook; Masuoka has found them and will continue to relish it. Don’t we all have our own forms of escapism?

About the Author

Kris Kobayashi-Nelson says these directors/screenwriters rarely disappoint: Peter Greenaway, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Krzysztof Kieslowski, Gus van Sant. Gregg Araki. Kris claims that Jake Gyllenhaal, Cillian Murphy, Desmond Harrington and Casey Affleck are much more than pretty faces.

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