Inugami - Le divinità maligne

The summary could seem right hadn't I seen 12 movies this weekend at the Fantasporto film festival. And Inugami was quite frankly the most odd, slow, and incomprehensible of all. Don't ask me why, I came out like I stared at a wall for two hours. Even when I tried to make some sense of it, nothing worked. In its essence, the movie talks about a family whose women are cursed. But perhaps it's me, the story is quite difficult to follow. The people seem to wander around, I didn't understand any of it. But I respect it, afterall there are people who liked it. Anyway, luckily they won't catch me seeing this one again.

I can't really make a fair comment on this film as I wasn't giving it my full attention, and I gave up on it halfway through.

I liked the way it looked, the mystery, and the exploration of Japanese traditions, history and equivalent of karma. These are all rolled in quite nicely with the horror, in this movie.

Though it seemed like it had a lot of threads, I followed the main ones very easily. There were some threads which I couldn't follow at all, and that's probably why I gave up on it.

Again, I wasn't giving it my full attention, and I'm not a particular fan of horror, so it may not be the film's fault.

A mini-festival spared me the bother of buying this, and gave the opportunity of seeing it on a large screen. "Inugami" opens with an aerial shot of a two-lane following the low winding juncture of two lushly forested mountains. It's the kind of landscape that inspires Hayao Miyazaki. At the end of the line, find a small, insular, modern-day village, on whose outskirts a not-old old-maid follows generations-old traditions making very fine paper.

Our out-of-town protagonist falls in love with the paper-maker. Small town tensions, based both in the present and in the past, simmer, boil, explode.

Not great, but worth seeing for the scenery and paper-making alone. Put's me in mind of Mitsuo Yanagimachi's 1985 "Himatsuri."

INUGAMI is an interesting yet drawn out film. Though there are many wonderful aspects to the film (location, cinematography, directing) they just don't save the film from many bouts of tedium. The most overdone aspect being the Tomie character. However, for those who do give this film a chance they will surely be treated to an above par thriller set in a quiet village virtually disconnected from the rest of the world. Here, not only does everyone know each other's name but they know their secrets as well. This concept alone is easily fun to play with and we are treated to it quite nicely as we (the viewer) learn the secrets of the village along with Akira (a school teacher, and outsider) who has just arrived in the town.

Personally, I felt the film should have omitted a few of the middle scenes of the movie involving Takanao. He had a certain mystique about him near the beginning, but with each additional scene involving him I felt a lack of interest growing. Also, I couldn't help but feel bored around every group meeting which took place in the film (of which, there are many). For some reason, it just didn't feel like they were getting anything accomplished asides from re-stating the basic purpose of the Bonomiya. These scenes were just so disinteresting, especially nearing the end.

Also, from a western point of view, the whole idea of loyalty to a certain job, no matter what the cost, seems trying at times. This is basically a problem most westerners have with many Asian films. The sense of honour and commitment seems to also be a foreign thing to North American audiences. I have watched other Asian films, less engaging than this one. While watching the other films, I found myself very interested and downright intrigued by the "honour" aspect. But here, in INUGAMI, honour is certainly not essential. Even morality is utterly useless as the depraved truth is revealed.

I really wanted to love this film, as I mentioned before there were good things going for it. However, I'm to conflicted by so many other things about the movie. This film is definitely not for everyone especially those who are attracted to the film due to it's underlying "horror" theme.

You don't see any ugly demons strolling the streets, you only see the ugliness of human beings who have steeped themselves in tradition and the past. The two things which have been responsible for the downfall of so many organizations, societies, and people.

Oh, and the music was rank!

This is not the sort of film to watch when your in a pop corn kind of a mood. It's Beautifully shot strange slightly disturbing film. Not quite a horror film not quite a thriller more like a dark family slightly supernatural Saga. It's Buffy meets Eastenders

Set in a sleepy village one of the Japanese Islands Inugami is the story of the Boymaina Family headed by a feckless drunken womanizing hereditary Shinto priest Takanao, Miki Takanao quiet Spinster from the start you can see there is some dark dynamic between brother an sister. there the family burdened by guilt and honor to there shine and long and dark history as guardians of Inugami "Dog gods", it's slowly killing them. As in all sleepy villages the appearance of stranger the teacher Akira is the catalyst for sinister deaths and unnatural occurrences like miki suddenly looks 20 years younger. Miki & Akira are strongly attracted to each other things go bad.

Family secrets are revealed dark and unpleasant as is the nasty superstitions of the villages. each revelation adding to the plot and twisting it. It also ask's questions about morality, honor, tradition good & evil all are twisted. There confusing too like what do the dreams mean? what does the ending mean. It does give you enough clues to work out your own explanations. Personally I love oblique endings give you a chance to exercise your imagination.

There are some great characters Tomie Bonomia miki's mother watch her closely say no more, Takanao torn by his desires & Honor you can see he loose the will to live little by little as he becomes more and more detached. And Fusa the delivery girl who looks just like Sandy from Monkey.