Uzumaki (2000)

Director:

Higuchinsky

Writers:

Junji Ito (manga)
Kengo Kaji (supervising screenwriter)

Release Date:

11 February 2000 (Japan)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

In a small town in Japan, Kirie comes upon her boyfriend's father silently videotaping a snail. He seems...

Plot Keywords:

Spiral | Snail | Suicide | Small Town | Obsession

Cast

Eriko Hatsune	...	Kirie Goshima
Fhi Fan	...	Shuichi Saito
Hinako Saeki	...	Kyoko Sekino
Eun-Kyung Shin	...	Chie Marayama
Keiko Takahashi	...	Yukie Saito
Ren Ôsugi	...	Toshio Saito
Denden	...	Officer Futada
Masami Horiuchi	...	Reporter Ichiro Tamura
Tarô Suwa	...	Yasuo Goshima
Tooru Teduka	...	Yokota Ikuo
Sadao Abe	...	Mitsuru Yamaguchi
Asumi Miwa	...	Shiho Ishikawa
Saori Nakane	...	Little Kirie
Yasuki Tanaka	...	Little Shuichi
Yuki Murakami	...	Yukky

Also Known As:

Spiral (USA)
Vortex (Hong Kong: English title) (subtitle)

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo | DTS-Stereo

Certification:

UK:15 | UK:18 (DVD release) | South Korea:15 (video rating) | South Korea:18 | Germany:16 | Singapore:PG

Company:

Omega Micott Inc.

Trivia:

A ghostly imprint of Kirie's face appears in the middle of the screen when she walks into Shuichi's house looking for his father, and is the same face as when she's watching his father's grisly video recording.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Jisatsu sâkuru (2001)

Soundtrack:

Raven

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel...

The residents of a small island community are slowly becoming obsessed with spirals. Young schoolgirl Kirie first notices this strange behavior when she comes across the father of her solemn boyfriend Shuichi videotaping a snail, lost in a reverie. Soon, other people begin to manifest the same strange obsession. A boy leaps to his death from a spiral staircase with a smile on his face. Shuichi's increasingly weird dad starts a spiral collection and throws a fit when they run out of spiral fishcakes for dinner. When he commits suicide by spinning himself to death in a washing machine, the investigation begins.

Don't waste your time trying to fathom the mystery behind Uzumaki, just enjoy it. Or, if you must, take the few vague clues that the movie provides and come up with your own theory behind the spiral madness. References are made to an ancient cult of serpent worshippers who spent a lot of time at Dragonfly Pond. Spiraling stormclouds are seen to touch down at said pond, where a beast-god may once have lived. Offerings of ancient mirrors are unearthed from the bottom of the pond...but none of these facts are ever tied together and handed to you with the words "Reasonable Explanation" printed on the wrapping paper. It doesn't really matter anyway. As the spirals consume the cursed island, the amazing visuals rule the film: bodies twisted into tight circles, hair coiled into gravity defying spirals, eyes spinning like whirlpools, people transformed into snails. It's as though Lovecraft penned a slightly disgusting comedy, and the film feels very much like the manga comic on which it was based - colorful, exaggerated and silly, but also sick and disturbing as well.

This is a beautifully shot and well acted film with some stunning effects. If you're not the type to concern yourself with sensible details and neat story lines, you may just enjoy the sheer weirdness of Uzumaki. It's a comic book come to life. Seven out of ten stars.