MAREBITO
A Tartan Films Release
Story - $10.75
Acting - $9.75
Directing - $10.75
Production Design - $8.75
Special Effects - $9.75
Score/Music - $10.75
*"REEL" VALUE - $10.08 = A First Rate Scary
Good Time! MAREBITO earns the FEARSmag "scream" of approval!
SYNOPSIS: Masuoka is a cameraman who wanders the streets of
Tokyo, a voyeur, looking for clues to his obsession to understand fear,
what it is and where it eventually leads. Scrutinizing the haunted
expressions of the faces he has videotaped, he becomes obsessed with a
particular man who committed suicide on the subway.
He returns to the scene in hopes of understanding the dead man’s
reasoning. Searching where the man had been staring Masuoka finds a door
that leads to a bizarre cavernous underworld. Here among ghosts and
subterranean robots called DEROs he finds a beautiful young girl chained
to a rock. Believing that he is saving her, he frees her and takes her
home.
As he watches her from his web-cam while he is at work he begins to
suspect there is something inhuman about her. One day an accident by
chance reveals her horrifying secrets. Masuoka believes that she is the
key to answers of the terrible questions he has been searching for.
REVIEW: Screenwriter Chiaki Konaka has done an amazing job of
weaving a variety of fascinating elements together to tell an unsettling
and mesmerizing tale.
One of the ideas central to MAREBITO is borrowed from a tale by author
Richard Shaver. In the late forties he wrote a story that appeared in
Amazing Stories Magazine in which he claimed our world was honeycombed
with huge underground caverns built long ago by aliens from another
galaxy. When these aliens fled the radiation of our aging sun, their
castoffs evolved into evil dwarves Shaver called "dero,” short
for detrimental robots. These creatures survived to this day in cave
cities, abducting surface-dwelling people for food. They also utilized
these fantastic machines that this ancient races left behind to project
disturbing thoughts and voices into our minds. Shaver maintained he'd
visited these caverns and chronicled his adventures in a series of
stories.
According to Amazing Stories editor Ray Palmer, between 1945 and 1949,
tens of thousands of letters poured in supporting Shaver's claims. Even
some respectable folks supported Shaver’s claims:
- Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe, 17th century English astronomer Edmund
Halley and others wrote about how planet Earth is a hollow sphere.
- American authorities had prepared a special scientific mission in 18th
and 19th centuries to explore the Earth's hollow depth.
- The Nazis were very interested in the mysterious underground world. A
top-secret expedition was organized in 1942. Unfortunately, the outcome
is not known.
- In the late 1970’s, an American satellite took very interesting
photographs depicting a dark, regularly shaped spot on the North Pole.
Similar pictures depicting the same dark spot on the pole were taken
several years later.
- During the exploration of a cave in Idaho, anthropologist James
McKenna and other members of the expedition could hear screams as they
were moving hundreds meters deep into the cave. As they continued to
explore, the researchers found human skeletons but they had to stop
their quest: the smell of brimstone was unbearable.
Still, many respectable folks and sci-fi fans publicly condemn the
Shaver’s writings as "the Shaver Hoax."
Director Takashi Shimizu, the visionary filmmaker behind the cinematic
phenomenon Ju-on: The Grudge films, combines this classic pulp fiction
idea, and several other genre themes, into a contemporary-techno
Japanese setting to deliver a film that is reminiscent of a chilling
Lovecraft tale with Cronenberg’s nightmarish style. There are so many
little touches where we question their appearance as being either a
result of the main characters deteriorating sanity or because of the
supernatural forces he has allowed into his life. When we first meet
Masuoka we get the impression that he is walking a narrow line, but his
dialogue makes for a compelling argument. He is driven and consumed by
the questions that plague his thoughts. Finally, he is pushed to a point
beyond sanity and becomes a killer in pursuit of his personal truths.
Shimizu keeps the film clearly focused on Masuoka, which allows him to
envelop the viewer in a surreal nightmare you can't wake from, rendering
MAREBITO a truly disturbing horror film!
The production designs and special effects mostly are a manipulation of
the locations and in-camera effects. There is a bit of
computer-generated images, especially as Shimizu creates his version of
“The Mountains of Madness.” There is a touch of blood and gore, but
nothing too extreme. The film has this over look of guerilla-filmmaking,
as if much of the work was done on the fly without the proper permits or
clearances. However, this is more of an afterthought if you are draw
into the tale.
MAREBITO was shot 2004, and proceeds Shimizu’s work on “The
Grudge.” There is a definite feel of maturity in his work. This film
is by far the most compelling of all of his films that I’ve watched so
far. A genuinely strange film, with a touch of a David Lynch mixed into
his style, this is a scary treat that is worthy of a cinematic viewing.
CREW: Director - Takashi Shimizu; Screenplay - Chiaki Konaka;
Producers - Kenzo Horikoshi, Mikihiko Hirata, Yoichiro Onishi, and
Atsuko Ohno; Cinematography - Tsukasa Tanabe; Music - Toshiyuki Takine;
Production Design - Atsuo Hirai; Costume - Kuniko Hojo; Hair/Makeup -
Sachie Munemura.
CAST: SHINYA TSUKAMOTO… Masuoka; TOMOMI MIYASHITA… F;
KAZUHIRO NAKAHARA… Arei Furoki; MIHO NINAGAWA… Aya Fukumoto;
SHUN SUGATA… MIB.
* Based on the regular $10.75 ticket prices of a Manhattan
theater.
Reviewer: Joseph
B. Mauceri
Score: 
Related web link: MAREBITO
Language: eng