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The Guard from Underground — movie review

by Kris ⋅ June 19, 2006 ⋅ Comment now ⋅ Subscribe RSS

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dreamlogic.net's MOVIE REVIEW . The Guard from Underground Poor Miss Narushima. On her first week at a new job, she is sexually accosted by her new boss, informed that her department will soon be eliminated, she gets trapped in the creepy storeroom and is stalked by a giant (albeit welterweight at best) ex-sumo wrestler turned security guard with a penchant for wearing her jewelry and killing his coworkers. A senior guard thinks it’s all fun and games at first, treating the behemoth like a personal henchman, sicing him on employees he doesn’t like. But encouraging the criminally insane does not ensure immunity and soon the murderer’s only “friend” is just another victim.

But everyone in this macabre tale is not as innocuous as their appearance veils. Character quirks quickly unfurl following seemingly normal introductions, all to the backdrop of a weird corporate office built like an abandoned hospital with no electricity, blaring Hitchcock-type music (which is deliciously over-the-top in all the right spots), and Francesco de Goya’s painting of “Saturn Devouring One of His Children” (which, if you haven’t already guessed, is gory in its own right).

In this early and most literal (and shortest) Kiyoshi Kurosawa film, the security guard smacks and smashes his prey, fond of cracking skulls and snapping joints. He is especially fond of thwacking them with his billy club and utilizing the many conveniently placed thin, tall hallway lockers. His verbal plea of “don’t forget me” falls on soon deaf (and dead) ears. The guard’s desire for late-nighters may be intended to strike fear in the hardest working employees in the Japanese audience.

Unlike Kurosawa’s later endeavors (Bright Future, Charisma, Cure, Doppelgänger, Kairo) which are mysterious maps to bubble encapsulated smoke rings, like it’s right there before us, tangible yet so diaphanous and free, open-ended and complex, yet fun and exciting and light. Because of our automatic desire to comprehend, we are almost frustratingly relieved when he leaves us with his wonderful enigmas. But The Guard from Underground/Underworld has only a smidgen of that feeling. It often runs too slow even for a Kiyoshi Kurosawa film, which is usually languidly-paced. Thankfully, Kurosawa’s half-twisted humor is present, which saves Guard from being overly mediocre and dull. And because the killer is always calm and under control, it makes for a surreal aspect of “irrational victims”, which is humorous in its own right.

Because I watched this film after Kurosawa’s recent gems, I can clearly see the craft, the ingenuity in his simplistic combos, the honesty in the shadows and on the actors’ faces. The sliver of light on the guard’s cheek, illumating the dangly pearl earring he wears as a trophy and as a reminder is so revealing and also adds hilarity. His damaged psyche, like all slasher film antagonists, gains empowerment from and are birthed out of betrayal.

Guard is a movie designed to shock, but it is a reminder that everyone possesses the ability to shock one another. We are not who we seem, even though we are only doing what comes naturally. Perhaps this security guard kills because it comes naturally, after having previously been revered for violence and standoffishness as a sumo wrestler. This guard from the underground has nothing to hide, has let his guard down and is reacting to a life of being set apart, being different. It reminds us of what we all are guarding deep down inside, what we kill and keep everyday.