Hana-Dama: The Origins

My week-long Hisayasu Sato birthday binge started on August 15th, and after revisiting some of his stuff, i gave a second chance to Hana-Dama: The Origins (2014). A lot of the die-hards hate it, but I thought it was better than Tokyo Stray Girls and a huge step up from his mediocre Shisei. This flick trades his old, grainy look for something cleaner, but it's still a full-on unhinged Sato in the end.

For a long time, the film is a quiet, felt like agonizing drag especially the first half is a miserable slog, a slow-burn coming-of-age story that's really just a drawn-out nightmare of high school bullying. It's the kind of cruelty that just permeates everything. It's a completely hopeless watch, where the line between student tormentors and apathetic teachers blurs into one single, uncaring force.

Sato frames the high school classroom as this oppressive hell where three students-Mizuki, Kirie, and Shibauchi-are backed into a corner by a group of bullies. The violence they endure is relentless, a horrifying, fetishistic display of high school sadism that bleeds into every part of their lives. The feeling of powerlessness is absolutely suffocating.

But that's when things get truly unhinged. When the tension hits a breaking point, a flower sprouts from Mizuki's head, and with its bloom comes a new supernatural power to enact her revenge. The final act is an insane, bloody spectacle of surreal violence, a complete departure from the film's earlier tone. It feels both ridiculous and deeply satisfying-a grotesque release of all that built-up rage. The climax is a chaotic explosion of gore, with a literal DICK-ectomy and geysers of blood, all driven by the characters' unhinged revenge.

This drastic shift is exactly why I both like and dislike the film. It's this abrupt metamorphosis where the old Sato-the king of gore and perversion-crashes into the new Sato, who's interested in psychological pain. It takes a sledgehammer to your patience and then rewards you with pure insanity. This film is a twisted, beautiful metaphor for how repressed trauma and suffering can lead to an explosive, horrifying metamorphosis. While it might not be the quintessential Sato film for his purist fans, for me, it's a testament to his willingness to push his nihilistic vision into new, completely unexpected territory.

I am as big a fan of bizarre Japanese horror as the next guy, but I did not know what to make of this one. First, imagine if the rape scene in I Spit on Your Grave lasted 75 minutes. The tormenting of these kids seemingly never ends. And yes, there is a rape scene in there (it IS Japanese, after all), two or three depending on your definition, as one of the many forms of abuse. No privates are blurred, pixelated, or cleverly obstructed. That was a surprise.

I've read this is supposed to be darkly humorous. The only "comic relief," as it were, comes in the form of Mizuki's parents, who have some sort of strange relationship and fetishes. Ok, this is supposed to be a revenge movie... Eventually... Mizuki, one of the bully-ees, sprouts a flower on top of her head, then blood starts to spill. How? You've got me. A couple scenes in this movie seemed very real to me, and are done in extreme close-up. One is the cigarette burn to the thigh, and two is the first cut in the blood oath. What, does this guy think he's making The Bunny Game? If you want to be baffled and shocked, I suppose this accomplishes that much.

Note: Check me out as the "Asian Movie Enthusiast" on YouTube, where I review tons of Asian movies.

Hana-Dama: The Origin (2014) (Japanese Horror/Drama).

A schoolgirl is relentlessly bullied in this film by Hisayasu Sato. The protagonist here is mentally tough, but decides to endure the bullying until she graduates. The first hour is a teen drama with some uncomfortable moments and nudity, but there is also a nice friendship dynamic between three bullied students. It does get pretty nasty though. The antagonists (which consist of students and teachers) are repugnant scumbags who will make the viewer's blood boil at times. The horror elements ramp up during the final half hour, and they are bizarre, bloody, and blackly humorous. Fans of oddball low budget stuff might want to check this out. It's definitely a bit different from the norm.

Recommended.