The new Blu-ray release of Uzumaki (2000) by director Higuchinsky is a startling reminder of the surreal power of cinema.
Based on a Manga by Junji Ito, it’s about a small Japanese village cursed by spirals.
A father becomes obsessed with round circular patterns and begins videotaping snails and stealing objects with spirals on them.
A schoolgirl, fixated on being noticed, suddenly has her hair reach high into the sky with giant, buoyant, circular curls.
A student comes to class late covered with slime, moving very slowly.
A man twists himself to death inside a washing machine.
People in the town begin to mutate into huge snails.
The film is seen through the eyes of Japanese schoolgirl Kirie (Eriko Hatsune), whose artist father begins to be hypnotized by the whirling clay spinning on the wheel of his pottery studio.
Kirie’s nerdy boyfriend Shuichi’s (Fhi Fan) distraught mother becomes so frightened of spirals she is hospitalized, snipping off the tips of her fingers with scissors to remove the circular fingerprints.
Smoke from the local crematorium becomes a whirling, grey vortex in the sky.
The film has a slightly green tint to it that sets up a mood of unease and strangeness. Scene after scene creeps you out as the town succumbs to madness and self-mutilation.
Uzumaki really stands out in the pantheon of J-horror as disturbingly original in every way, and I was relieved and pleased seeing it again after so many years to re-discover its unique weirdness.
