| |
|
|
|
Carved
|
List Price: $19.95
Our Price: $17.99
Your Save: $ 1.96 ( 10% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Tartan Video
Starring: Eriko Sato, Haruhiko Katô, Miki Mizuno, Yûrei Yanagi
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 0842498030547
Format: Color
Label: Tartan Video
Manufacturer: Tartan Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Tartan Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: 2007-08-14
Running Time: 90
Studio: Tartan Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2007
|
|
|
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
Legend holds that 30 years ago, a suburban town was terrorized by the spirit of a woman whose beautiful face had been grotesquely disfigured by a jealous husband. Roaming the streets wearing a long coat and surgical mask, the spirit would approach her young victims and, while removing the mask, ask if she was pretty. The victim’s response would almost always lead to their violent death. Now, one by one, children are disappearing again. As teachers and officials desperately begin to investigate, a panic begins to build as the woman’s spirit returns for some unfinished business and the town's dark secrets are exposed.
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mediocre at best
Comment: In terms of special effects and effective moments of creepiness, it works fairly well. The depiction of Kuchisake Onna won't disappoint if you are familiar with the urban legend and have imagined her in your own mind's eye.
However, and because we get a pretty good look at her early on in the movie, she ceases to appear so menacing. In my opinion, the mask shouldn't have come off until much later in the film, allowing the audience to build a sense of dread as to what's beneath.
The pacing is uneven, sluggish at times, and the "twist" ending appears forced. In terms of running time, it could very well have ended 15 minutes earlier and wouldn't have made much of a difference.
Customer Rating:
Summary: suffer the little children
Comment: If one tales the time to pick up any good book on Japanese folklore, one would quickly learn that Japan is a country that possesses some of the most inventive and spooky stories concerning ghosts and monsters. One such creature is the Slit-Mouth Woman. Supposedly way back during the Heian era, 794-1185 A.D., there was a woman who was married to a warrior who was well known for her beauty. Haughty and brash, the woman cheated on her husband who then proceeded to split her mouth open from ear to ear. Deeply entrenched in the Japanese psyche, In 1979, tales spread of a woman who came out of foggy days sporting a surgical mask, which are common for Japanese to wear when they catch colds, and in a hoarse voice she would ask "Watashi kirei?" and if answered "yes" she would remove her mask revealing her horribly disfigured face and ask "and now?" Such a scene often ended with the slit-mouth woman killing her victims, mainly children, with a large, razor-sharp pair of sisters.
With his film Carved: A Slit-Mouth Woman, horror film director Shiraishi Koji revives the legend of the Slit-Mouth Woman in the figure of Matsuzaki Taeko, a sickly, horribly abusive mother who disappeared many years ago. With her long hair, trench coat, deathly pale skin, and deadpan eyes, Taeko's first victim is a young boy. Children are abuzz with info and rumors about the Slit-Mouth Woman, but are ignored by adults. At least they are ignored until one day the young teacher Yamashita Kyoko witnesses one of her students, a girl named Miki who suffers abuse inflicted upon her by her mother, being caught by the horrible apparition of Taeko.
Carved: A Slit-Mouth Woman is a disturbing film. The violence and gore are pretty tame because, like a good number of Japanese horror films, the violence takes place off screen, and the figure of Taeko is not as creepy as some other baddies in Japanese horror films. What makes Carved a disturbing film is that the victims are children and Taeko truly makes them suffer with the blades of her scissors and the repeated beatings she gives them. However, Taeko is not the only monster in the film. A few mothers, while not slicing and dicing their children, abuse them when their anger hits the apex and it is their negativity and hatred that summons Taeko, the epitome of hate and abuse into their town which although nice on the outside is rotten to the core with dark secrets within.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A good reason why I dislike most J-Horror now
Comment: I think this is the last J-Horror I am going to watch. They just get worse every time.
Like some of the other reviewers stated, this film is kind of sick in the way it portrays the brutality against children. I understand that most horror is brutal in some ways, but there really is something disturbing about it portrayed against children.
I can't say I found this movie that interesting. If you want good J-Horror, watch "Rampo Noir," that film definitely is something different.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Urban legend comes to life
Comment: The Kuchisake-onna, known in English as the Slit-mouthed woman, is a popular bogeyman and urban legend in Japan. Although an ancient legend, she still holds a powerful sway on the Japanese psyche, and as recent as 2004 there have been sightings reported in newspapers, and a mild panic back in 1980's had people running scared from a Kuchisake-onna who had been supposedly hunting down children. "Carved" (Japanese title "Kuchisake-onna") is the latest film to play on the fears of Japan, and manifest this folkloric monster onto the screen.
Almost a straight-forward monster/slasher movie, "Carved" does a good job updating the kuchisake-onna, making the most of her frightening appearance and equipping her with a signature weapon, a giant pair of scissors that make her even more fearsome. The plot holds along with the established legend, with the whisper of the appearance of a Kuchisake-onna spreading fear amongst the school children yet being dismissed by unbelieving adults. Some of the braver children try to catch a glimpse of her, with deadly results, and the plot thickens and the bodies pile up. Some of the story is unexplained, because every Japanese person would be aware of the legend and not need it pointed out to them, and this might be a little confusing, but these instances are rare.
Director Kôji Shiraishi has put out a number of B-ranked horror flicks, like "Ju-rei" and "Noroi", without ever scoring a really big hit. His films do the job on a dark cold night of sending some chills up your spine, but no one should expect any sort of masterpiece. With that in mind, I really enjoyed "Carved", more than I thought I was going to, and feel that he upped the ante over his previous films. The Kuchisake-onna has never looked better, and he managed to make a scary folklore figure even scarier. Most of the real horror of "Carved" comes from the cruel slaughter of children, something rarely seen in US horror flicks. You see a couple of scrappy kids get cornered by the beast, and wonder "How are they gonna get out of this one?" Well, they aren't. They are going to get a big ol' pair of scissors stabbed into their eyes.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Carved or Crazy?
Comment: I found the description on the back really interesting. Of course I want to see a woman have her face cut open by her husband! Unfortunately, it wasn't like that. This movie is about a woman who abuses her children in fits of madness and then starts kidnapping other kids years later... spooky basement, angry female black-haired ghost, but nothing really interesting. It's okay but it's not wonderful, you can live without seeing it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
