Imprint

Takashi Miike is probably the most prolific director of modern times. Back in 2006, Miike was commissioned, along with a number of other horror directors (eg. John Carpenter) to make a film for the MASTERS OF HORROR series. He was guaranteed full creative control with the conditions of a tight budget alone. However, after completing the film, the Showtime network which was supposed to air IMPRINT backed off due to the graphic content of the film. True, with IMPRINT Miike crafts a truly shocking horror film, complete with incest, pedophilia, aborted fetuses, mutation, and rape. Beginning with a dreary boat on murky waters, an American in the Victorian era coasts towards an island with deformed asians. The man, known as Christopher (Billy Drago), watches as the men bury a pregnant woman at sea. They land, and he walks off to a compound filled with whores. The mistress of the house, syphilitic, greats him, her nose deteriorating into fragments. Christopher is told he must stay the night, and picks out a whore from the back, whose hair is blue, her face deformed. He is on a search for a past flame named Komomo, a whore whom he had promised he would save and return to America. The mistress has feigned any knowledge, but the blue haired girl has a story to tell. This story is one that contains torture, and the before-mentioned incest, pedophilia, etc. The rest of the film, consisting of Christopher's prodding and mendings of the whore's story consists of some of the most disgusting and shocking images I have ever seen in a film. To match it is only Lars Von Trier's ANTICHRIST, and yet IMPRINT is more shocking in a universal and effusive way. There is a craft at work here, but also a winking gratuity which is occasionally alienating when it isn't horrifying. IMPRINT also works nicely as an introduction to Miike's work, but one starting here would be so disgusted by the content as to not appreciate the work.
Imprint: ★★1/2