Kuchisake - Onna (CARVED) - Movie Review

CARVED (KUCHISAKE – ONNA)

Directed by Koji Shiraishi & Written by Naoyuki Yokota            

Eriko Sato as Kyoko Yamashita

Haruhiko Kato as Noboru Matsuzaki

Chiharu Kawai as Mayumi Sasaki

Rie Kuwana as Mika Sasaki

Release Date: August 14, 2007

Synopsis

In Japan Kuchisake – onna is an urban legend whereas, an evil spirit of a woman mutilated by her Samurai husband. As retribution for her infidelity he cuts her mouth open from one ear to the other. CARVED offers a contemporary staging based on this popular Japanese folklore of a slit – mouthed woman who kills and kidnaps children.

The Film starts with school children gossiping about the Kuchisake-onna. Apparently the slit-mouthed woman likes to show up at 5pm in the park. She has a huge pair of scissors and grabs children. A particular teacher at school named Noboru, often hears a mysterious voice saying “Am I Pretty?” and coincidentally he claims that whenever he heard that sound, a child is being kidnapped. The first victim is a schoolboy who was grabbed from the park while she was waiting for the disfigured woman to appear with his friend.

The next day after the rumors erupted, teachers accompanied their students to where there parents can meet them for safety measures. A girl named Mika does not want to go home because her mom’s beating her and she hopes that Kochisake onna gets her. So Kyoko, her teacher goes on a walk with her and asks her if she had a fight with her mother, and later Mika reveals her bruises, but her teacher defends her mother and gets upset with her (this reminded her of her own self being an abusive mother to her daughter). Mika then runs off with her teacher following but suddenly Kuchisake – onna shows up and grabs Mika, the girl then struggles and revealed her disfigured face. Kyoko is too terrified to save her student.The police did not believe Kyoko about Kuchisake – onna.

Kyoko is approached by a fellow teacher (Noboru) and showed a picture of a woman who looks just like Kuchisake – Onna only her face is not disfigured. Later, Noboru reveals that the woman is her own abusive mother who died a couple of years ago, He then tells Kyoko about whenever he hears the voice a child is attacked somewhere. The next time he heard the voice he decided to go to where it was coming to prevent a kidnapping, Kyoko went with him and they manage to save a boy. When Kyoko stabs Kuchisake – onna repeatedly they discovered that she possess innocent people (moms) to have a physical body to interact with the living. They followed some clues they learned from a gossip and ended up in Noboru’s old home, where they found Mika.Kyoko & Mika made it out alive but Noboru died. In the end, the curse seemed to continue ( as the ending scene is : kyoko started to cough while she was alone with her daughter).

REVIEW

Through a series of flashbacks I learned that Noboru’s mother was sort of a bipolar. She begs Noboru to aim at her neck or next time she might kill her but instead, Noboru slits her mouth and stabs her in the stomach. He then puts a surgical mask to cover her mouth and a long coat to cover her stab wound then hides her in the cabinet.

I like this movie better than Carved 2 because it is less dramatic but creepier. The looks of the slit mouthed woman is disturbing and the staging of how can she attack children is unique. There’s a possession involved. Mothers with bipolar liked conditions are prone to possession of the kuchisake onna and the symptom is that when they started coughing.

The not so good thing about this movie is that it sort of lacks that frightening aura I’ve seen in some J-Horror movies like Kairo and the Audition. And additional scary stuff and sound effects could have make this film creepier.