Uzumaki

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0244870/
Uzumaki is based on the manga from Itō Junji, the japanese mastermind of stories such as Tomie, Gyo and Falling. His most well known manga is on the other hand Uzumaki. The 3 volume masterpiece is simply the work of a genius. So, how does the 90 minute live action movie holds up?

In the small town Kurôzu-cho strange things starts to happen and we are guided by Kirie Goshima ( Hatsune Eriko ).
She runs to meet her friend Shuichi Saito ( Fhi Fan) on their daily ride to school, in an alley Kirie see Toshio ( Ren Ôsugi ) the father of Shuichi. He is more or less under a spell, videotaping an snail climbing the walls.

Toshios obsession













The eary feeling it gives holds on for more or less entire movie. It gives you the same feelings the most of us had after watching Twin Peaks (the cult show/series of David Lynch) for the first time. You know, eary and strange people walking by, unexplainable events, intensive scenes on absolutely nothing at all.

Toshio gets blindly fascinated by the uzumaki - the spirals - and collects everything he can find that reminds him of the spirals.
The spirals can be seen in everything and anything.

The spiral is an ice cream



The shape of the snails shell.
The shape of soft ice cream - wich has an significant story in the early life of Kirie.
Curly hair.
The scene from above in the spiral stairs at school.
On your fingertips, there are spirals to.

When Kirie rests in her bed to have a look at her old photoalbum, we are given a flashback and story about Kirie and Shuichi complex relationship. The pictures in the album becomes alive - or in motion - and I really like that scene a lot. Even in Kiries early life the spirals has a significant meaning in a strange way.

As if that wouldn´t be enough, Higuchinsky the ukranian director of Uzumaki bombards the viewers with subliminal messages in front of spiral nummers such as 6 and 9 to name a few things. Soon your mind starts to see things that maby is not even there in the first place, or are they?

As for example, CGI spirals are carefully placed into the movie in two early scenes;
When Shuichi and Kirie arrives at the park, a spiral can be seen in the sand for a brief while before it dissapears.
Or as when Kirie walks to the Saito resident at night to deliever a gift, we see in the brick walls a spiral follows her.

As much as this review or the movie itself will keep you wondering what you just have witnessed, believe me, it is nothing to what the manga will do to you.
It is as much a strenght as a weakness it might seems, but the less you understand, alltough hints are given both in the manga aswell as the movie, the scarier and earier it gets. Becouse if you don´t understand what is going around you, let´s face it, the scarier it gets.

If you are into bizarre, strange, odd movies or stories Uzumaki is a movie for you. Better yet, the manga will be your greatest obsession.

Trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fd8a6BJT2cc

Website
http://www.lhp.com.sg/uzumaki/

Fansite of Itō Junji
http://junjiito.trilete.net/

More on the manga
http://manga.about.com/od/uzumaki/p/Uzumaki.htm

Trivia
U zu ma ki is the correct spelling in japanese/romanji.

In the behind the scene on the dvd Hatsune Eriko is asked to describe in brief words what Uzumaki is about and she says ” I can not say anything”








Myself? I can not agree more. This is a movie that is hard to understand and maby even apriciate. As well as it is a horror story it is also a story about the danger in becoming obsessed with something and how it devours you, completely.

When Kirie and Shuichi cycle by the angry policeman a wanted sign is on the wall, it is on the creator Itō Junji.













The movie was shot before the manga was completed and they end in different ways.

Can you see the spiral sign in the picture?