"Masters of Horror" Imprint (2006)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Takashi Miike

Writers:

Mick Garris (creator)
Daisuke Tengan (teleplay)
(more)

TV Series:

"Masters of Horror" (2005)

Original Air Date:

25 February 2006 (Season 1, Episode 13)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

In the Nineteenth Century, in Japan, the American journalist Christopher is traveling through the country searching Komomo...

Plot Keywords:

Prostitute | Saké | Childbirth | Incest | Flashback Sequence

Cast

Youki Kudoh	...	The Woman
Michie Itô	...	Komomo (as Michie)
Toshie Negishi	...	Madam of the House
Billy Drago	...	Christopher
Shiho Harumi	...	Laborer #1
Magy	...	Laborer #2
Shin'ichi Tokuhara	...	Laborer #3
Takao Handa	...	Yoshi, Laborer #4
Hiroshi Kuze	...	Boatman
Miyuki Konno	...	Dead Woman
Yutaka Matsuzaki	...	Gate Keeper #1
Hiroshi Fujita	...	Gate Keeper #2
Sachiko Matsuura	...	Shamisen Player
Noriko Eguchi	...	Whore #1
Megumu Takada	...	Whore #2
Yuno	...	Whore #3
Miho Harita	...	Whore #4
Mame Yamada	...	Touter
Tokitoshi Shiota	...	Elderly Woman
Risa Uehara	...	Girl with Blue Eyes
Kumiko Imai	...	The Mother
Houka Kinoshita	...	The Father
Miho Ninagawa	...	Pregnant Woman
Suzuno Nomura	...	Girl in Woman's Flashback
Seriyu Ichino	...	Buddist Priest
Shinichi Tanaka	...	Pimp
Yasushi Tomobe	...	Woman's Customer
Shimako Iwai	...	The Torturer
Katsuyuki Shimosugi	...	Boy #1
Haruo Fukuhara	...	Boy #2
Keita Murase	...	Boy #3
Dong Wook Min	...	Prison Guard #1
Takumi Matsumoto	...	Prison Guard #2

Directed by
Takashi Miike

Writing credits
Mick Garris		(creator)
Daisuke Tengan		(teleplay)
Shimako Iwai		(novel "Bokkê, kyôtê")

Produced by
Keith Addis	....	executive producer
Bo Altherr	....	producer: special materials
Rie Arikawa	....	associate producer
Morris Berger	....	executive producer
Ben Browning	....	co-producer
Stephen R. Brown	....	executive producer (as Steve Brown)
Andrew Deane	....	executive producer
Mick Garris	....	executive producer
Adam Goldworm	....	co-producer
John W. Hyde	....	executive producer
Fumio Inoue	....	producer
Takeo Kodera	....	associate producer
Elizabeth Kushman	....	associate producer
Jennie Lew Tugend	....	producer
Yosuke Nakamura	....	co-producer
Danielle Reardon	....	associate producer
Lisa Richardson	....	producer
Tom Rowe	....	producer
Lauren Weissman	....	producer (as Lauren C. Weissman)
Akira Yamamoto	....	line producer

Original Music by
Kôji Endô		(as Kozy Endo Jr.)

Cinematography by
Toyomichi Kurita		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Yasushi Shimamura

Casting by
Nancy Nayor		(as Nancy Nayor Battino)
Tsuyoshi Sugino
Kelly Wagner		(as Kelly Martin Wagner)

Production Design by
Takashi Sasaki
Hisashi Sasaki		(uncredited)

Costume Design by
Michiko Kitamura

Production Management
Margo Coughlin Zimmerman	....	production manager: IDT Entertainment (as Margo Zimmerman)
Tatsuya Mouri	....	production manager
Marie Norton	....	administrative manager: IDT Entertainment
Saida Rodriguez	....	assistant manager: IDT Entertainment (as Zaida Rodriguez)
Stacey Jade Smart	....	executive in charge of production

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Shinjiro Nishimura	....	third assistant director
Trevor Ralph	....	assistant director
Masato Tanno	....	first assistant director
Yoshitaka Yamaguchi	....	second assistant director

Art Department
Youji Daitoku	....	set constructor
Shinsuke Kojima	....	art designer
Kazuta Matsunaga	....	property master
Hitomi Nimura	....	set dresser
Satoko Saito	....	art designer
Jun Tsukane	....	set dresser

Sound Department
Anke Bakker	....	sound supervisor
Yukido Hotozuka	....	boom operator
Masaki Ikeda	....	boom operator
Minako Imai	....	cable person
Kenji Shibazaki	....	sound effects editor
Joshua Stevenson	....	assistant dialogue editor
Hitoshi Tsurumaki	....	sound mixer

Special Effects by
Yuuichi Matsui	....	special effects makeup (as Yuichi Matsui)
Akira Sakamoto	....	gun effects

Visual Effects by
Mladen Miholjcic	....	senior CGI artist: Anthem Visual Effects
Misako Saka	....	CGI producer

Stunts
Lauro Chartrand	....	additional stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Chris Cove	....	second assistant camera
Toshiki Fukase	....	third assistant camera
Seth Hettrick	....	key rigging grip
Michiaki Kamochi	....	electrician
Masao Kanazawa	....	gaffer
Masato Kaneko	....	first assistant camera
Kosuke Kasai	....	second assistant camera
Kohei Kato	....	fourth assistant camera
Daisuke Komada	....	electrician
Hidenori Nagate	....	best boy electric
Akihiro Shimura	....	electrician
Yoshinori Ueno	....	key grip

Editorial Department
Yuriko Hosono	....	assistant editor

Music Department
James Fogel	....	assistant score engineer
Jennifer Ross	....	music supervisor
Ed Shearmur	....	composer: theme music (as Edward Shearmur)

Transportation Department
Duane Shearer	....	office driver

Other crew
Alan Abrams	....	legal counsel
Kristi Blicharski	....	publicist
Kristin Harris	....	production coordinator: IDT Entertainment
Allison J. Mella	....	business and legal affairs
Golan Ramras	....	director of development: Kadokawa Pictures, USA
Christian Storms	....	on-set interpreter
Christian Storms	....	screenplay translator
Nadia Venesse	....	dialect coach

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Mick Garris		creator

Makeup Department
Grady Holder	....	dental prosthetics: K.N.B. EFX Group
Leanne Rae Podavin	....	special makeup effects artist
Sherry Van Gool	....	additional assistant makeup artist

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Raj Uppal	....	first assistant director: second unit

Art Department
Martin P. Blaine	....	lead carpenter
Bill Morrill	....	lead carpenter

Sound Department
Kris Casavant	....	assistant sound editor
Dario DiSanto	....	foley editor
Talvinder Gill	....	assistant sound editor
Shawn Miller	....	sound mixer: second unit

Special Effects by
Ozzy Alvarez	....	lab technician: K.N.B. EFX Group
Jenny Wallace	....	special effects runner

Stunts
Byron Briscoe	....	stunt double
Clint Carleton	....	stunt double: Ethan Embry
Janina Dall	....	stunt double
Jim Dunn	....	stunt coordinator (12 episodes)
Ashlea Earl	....	stunt double: Bree Turner
Lani Gelera	....	stunt double
Jon Kralt	....	stunt rider
James Ralph	....	stunt double: William Forsythe
Jeff Sanca	....	stunt driver
Sharon Simms	....	stunt double
Eli Zagoudakis	....	stunt double

Camera and Electrical Department
John Brown	....	rigging lamp operator
Jeff Cassidy	....	second assistant camera
T.C. Chapman	....	rigging gaffer
Glen A. Dickson	....	camera operator: "b" camera (episode: "Deer Woman")
David Gray	....	still photographer
Gary Stamford	....	gaffer: second unit

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Dawn Grey	....	dresser

Music Department
Amanda Sobeck	....	music coordinator

Transportation Department
John Sorenson	....	driver
Larry Tardif	....	driver: camera car and process trailer

Other crew
Ron Buck	....	technical advisor: military
Simon Chin	....	extras wrangler
Andrzej Dec	....	assistant location manager (odd episodes)
Krista Johnston	....	clearance
Darron Leiren-Young	....	assistant production coordinator
Nathan Lomax	....	key set production assistant (season 2)
Nathan Lomax	....	office production assistant (season 2)
Pancho Mansfield	....	network executive
Sandra Montgomery	....	script supervisor: second unit
Rainer Scheelisch	....	special equipment
Stephen Sobisky	....	interactive designer
Ryan Steacy	....	armorer

Production Companies

• IDT Entertainment
• Industry Entertainment
• Kadokawa Herald Pictures
• Kadokawa Pictures
• Nice Guy Productions
• Reunion Pictures

Distributors

• Kadokawa Herald Pictures (2006) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Bravo Television (2006) (UK) (TV) (original airing)
• IDT Home Entertainment (2007) (Australia) (DVD)
• Kadokawa Entertainment (2006) (Japan) (DVD)
• Paris Filmes (2006) (Brazil) (DVD)
• SBP (2008) (Argentina) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Costa Abrams & Coate  legal counsel

Runtime:

63 min

Country:

USA | Japan

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Hong Kong:III | France:-16 | USA:TV-MA | Australia:MA | Australia:R (2007) (DVD rating) | Italy:VM14 (DVD release) | Argentina:18

Filming Locations:

Ashiocho, Tochigi, Japan

Company:

IDT Entertainment

Trivia:

Shimako Iwai, the author of the novel on which the film is based, appears as the sadistic torturer.

Quotes:

The Woman: This island isn't in the human world; demons and whores are the only ones living here.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Imprinting: The Making of 'Imprint' (2006) (V)

a tale of a prostitute and her, uh, 'sister, and also a daring allegory on heaven & hell (more-so the latter)

It's not exactly as surprising really that the Showtime network decided not to pick up director Takashi Miike's entry into the Masters of Horror, Imprint, but rather why they chose him in the first place. Didn't they think after seeing Ichi the Killer and Audition and Gozu, among probably a dozen others I can't think of, that he would deliver something to the highest X-rated for violence &/or sex caliber? I'm guessing then they either decided to take a calculated risk, or maybe Mick Garris was such a huge fan of his he must've known what he was getting. Maybe no one did. Certainly not me, and I've already dug into a good few of Miike's movies. This one definitely ranks up there as one of the most shocking of the lot of the works he's made, matter of fact probably ever will. It's how really that the director approaches the subject matter, and how its presented, that really makes it so effective in the realm of real horror. This isn't for kids, make that perfectly clear; indeed I'd say if you've ever really been close to babies, or have had them, you might really feel disgusted by a few of the key scenes in Imprint.

At first Miike seems to be dealing with something that is intriguing, though in a familiar style. It's a Rashomon-style tale of the truth behind a grisly matter, in this case the death of a prostitute, Komomo (Michie Ito, pretty heart-wrenching when she gets time to be). Her one-true-love, Christopher (Billy Drago, in a performance that's somewhat like David Carradine but in a slightly different, not-as-magnificent key), is there to find her on an island run amock with prostitutes. He goes to pieces over the news, which he hears from a woman (Youki Kudoh, the most effective and shattering performance of the film) who has a scarred face. He then hears a 'story' of what happened to her, but through the woman's story as opposed to exactly Komomo's. The woman has to tell her own story, which starts off rough from when her mother sends her away as a child from their river-side house to the ring of 'whores' she becomes apart of, and where she meets Komomo. But this story, of which the first real rush of horror comes in following an interrogation/torture of Komomo, is only the first one, and not necessarily the 'truth'.

What comes out as the truth soon enough turns into something that not only did I not expect, but had me cringing and with eyebrows raised, but once or twice sort of laughing too. This isn't a very funny effort really, and unlike Visitor Q Miike doesn't combine satire with the more disturbing, bone-chilling elements. It's a straight-up no-holds barred look at the darkest side of human corruption and exploitation, with the surprises that come up really too hard to believe at times. For example when we finally do see the woman's ultimate 'secret', it borders on being a laughable, un-Godly sight gag. But it's dealt with in the utmost serious way, and meant as allegory- which it is without a doubt the case- is very powerful. What ends up being the most horrific, and horrific to a point that will make those in the US who seek out the DVD covering their eyes and feeling ripped to shreds, is stuff that isn't completely abstracted like with the ideas of 'the soul being in heaven or the body being in hell'.

It's in seeing how the woman came to be, from birth, and how seeing what she saw- her mother's 'occupation'- along with her certain 'ailment' involving her sibling, combine together into something that is much more potent than monsters or savage lunatic psychos. For Christopher, this is something that brings him to the brink of his own cognizance, and what his love for Komomo really meant. Seeing how Komomo had her final days on Earth is pretty staggering, but for the viewer its not exploitive in the sense that it's just shock-value for shock-value's sake (though I'm sure many would argue that, especially over notorious scenes in other Miike films). It's there for a purpose, and made purposeful through the style that is very unlike how typical TV mini-movies are shot. Sometimes we get the bloody, creepy shots, and sometimes not, adding to what horror is or isn't seen as part of the effect. In the end, all of it adds up to something that I might want to try to forget soon, but I probably won't be able to.

In short, if you're already a fan of Miike's, this should be like the treat of the season, with a mix of the director's bravura film-making technique (some shots are pretty incredible, like the tilt from the water to that tree, in tint of green, or the detail in how he shoots 'things' moving in backgrounds, and long-shots), and the no-punches-pulled sensibility of the subject matter. In this case a world of maybe the purest hell on earth with only the dire hopes and undermined will of getting to a heaven. It's one of the director's very best, albeit shortest, works in his very prolific career. A-