Uzumaki (2000)

From http://www.new-video.de/co/uzumaki.jpg

Director: Higuchinsky

Screenplay: Kengo Kaji, Takao Nitta and Chika Yasuo

Based on a manga by Junji Ito

Cast: Eriko Hatsune as Kirie Goshima; Fhi Fan as Shuichi Saito; Hinako Saeki as Kyoko Sekino; Eun-Kyung Shin as Chie Marayama; Keiko Takahashi as Yukie Saito; Ren Ôsugi as Toshio Saito

A 1000 Anime Crossover

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) # 122

Not seen for many, many years the filmic adaptation of Uzumaki still retains a lot of its utterly odd power still. Between that time I've become acquitted with Junji Ito's original source material and all the other manga of his available in the United Kingdom finally. It's impossible to argue against his work being abstract on literal paper, cosmic horror in the Lovecraftian sense depicted through a streak of the openly absurd. But an absurdity that is nonetheless disturbing especially due to the incredibly quality of his own artwork. His world is that of simple, usually episodic tales of horror, only with the horrors not the conventional bogeymen but horrifying sights like people hung by the neck off balloons with their own faces over them, undead fish on robot legs, or in Uzumaki the symbol of the spiral and everything that contains it a cursed images that poisons and distorts people and reality. The tightrope walk between being utterly silly and how creepy is as much how the manga works in its power.

The adaptation, flaws and all, manages its hardest. Even if it's had to use a more conventional narrative, director Higuchinsky still embraced the surrealism of the material. He also, in a rare moment for an adaptation, turned it into something visually and tonally entirely different from said manga while paying immense respect to it. His technique heavy style never loses the original tone but is entirely different from Ito's original aesthetic, adding to the adaptation's weirdness in his use of everything from CGI manipulation to the colour scheme. For more detail, and why Uzumaki is sadly with flaws, follow the link HERE to the full review on my other blog 1001 Anime where it is a bonus review.

Abstract Spectrum: Grotesque/Surreal/Weird

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): Medium

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