Haze (2005)

A man wakes up to find himself locked in a tiny, cramped concrete room, in which he can barely move. He doesn't remember why he is there and where he came from. He has a terrible stomach ... See full summary »

Director:

Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Writer:

Shin'ya Tsukamoto

Stars:

Shin'ya Tsukamoto, Takahiro Murase, Takahiro Kandaka

Cast

Cast overview:
Shin'ya Tsukamoto
Takahiro Murase
Takahiro Kandaka
Masato Tsujioka
Mao Saito	...	(as Mao Saitô)
Kaori Fujii

Storyline

A man wakes up to find himself locked in a tiny, cramped concrete room, in which he can barely move. He doesn't remember why he is there and where he came from. He has a terrible stomach injury and is slowly bleeding to death. He begins to explore the narrow confines of his prison and crawls around the maze-like room, only to see a horrible vision of hell waiting for him at each end of the room. Finally he gives up on the struggle and collapses in exhaustion. Then he begins to remember images from his past. Clinging to these images he creeps forward with the last ounces of his strength and meets a woman in a place that stinks of rotting corpses. The man and the woman both try to recall where they came from, but their memories are so uncertain that they are not even sure they want to return. The man is ready to give up but the woman insists on going forward. Neither of them can imagine the incredible end to the journey.

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Plot Keywords:

survival | maze | written and directed by cast member | surrealism | japanese shocker | 

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Taglines:

You will experience the palpable feeling of terror and all encompassing sense of claustrophobia as you watch this intense exercise in basic fear and dread...

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site [jp]

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

1 October 2005 (USA)

Also Known As:

Haze - Il Muro

Company Credits

Technical Specs

Runtime:

49 min 24 min 49 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The shooting of the film lasted only 13 days.

User Reviews

We are meat

This movie, although only 40 minutes long, sends Saw and Cube back to kindergarten, making it look stupid, shallow and pointless. Once again Shinya Tsukamoto proves that he is one of the most challenging, thought-provoking and original directors of today, absolutely not afraid of pushing boundaries in terms of what might be shown on celluloid. And he knows pretty well what scares us, oh yes. It's like your worst, fever-induced nightmares come surprisingly alive, and I'm not talking about waking up in a completely darkened, concrete maze. It might be a parallel for war, genocide or just totally painful, desperate loneliness... or just a statement that, after all, we are nothing more than a piece of meat which happened to have a tiny spark of life inside... This movie raises so many questions... and even if most of them remain unanswered, it is worth to feel really uncomfortable for this 40 minutes. Some people will probably start having nightmares like this, but for me it was more like a relief that Tsukamoto and his protagonist lived it for me...