Inugami, l'esprit du mal

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.

This is a drama-fantasy about two Bonomiya families in the computer age, shunned by villagers because of the legendary curse of the Inugami (wild dog deities), supposedly borne by the women. It focuses on gentle spinster Miki Bonomiya (Yuki Amami). Her mother Tomiè (Shiho Fujimura) quietly/firmly rules the 'lower home'. She and surly/Internet-wise brother Takanao (Kazuhiro Yamaji) are strong believers of the curse. Miki and her younger sister Rika (Myu Watase) refute the curse. Takanao's oft-battered wife Sonoko (Shion Machida) and their children are innocent bystanders. Seiji Doi (Eugene Harada), from the 'main home', firmly sides with Miki.

Dramatic changes occur after a new teacher Akira Nutahara (Atsuro Watabe) meets Miki. He is entranced by her skill in fine paper-making (for calligraphy) and her placid beauty. Miki becomes suddenly youthful and sensuous as they begin a passionate affair. Villagers begin to gossip about their affair. Then, tension mounts as tragedies in the village are blamed on the curse of Inugami and long-hidden secrets, involving Miki and Takanao, are slowly revealed. The culmination is the annual ancestral Shinto rites in which Takanao decides on Miki as the human sacrifice to appease the dog deities.

Yuki Amami played the male roles in the decades-famous all-women Takarazuka Revue.

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!

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."

This is a remarkable film and narrative, for a number of reasons.

First, the photography of the Japanese forests and mountains is exquisite. Some of the forest scenes, for example, are amazing in the way director Harada uses the camera, as though flying or drifting through upper branches, circling, swooping down and then around to focus on a young couple walking. Or, tracking along a pathway, coming up to large boulders, zooming up the face and then above and to look down directly upon a young man sitting on the top. Or, again, drifting through the mists of the forest, rising and falling as though traveling with the breeze. It was, for me, entrancing to watch and admire the skill of the shooting.

Then there is the soundtrack – a delightful combination of Western and Eastern pieces that suited every mood that the story attempts to convey. I didn't take note of the closing credits but there were many excerpts that were quite familiar, including some from Verdi.

And, having an interest in Japanese culture (I have taught Shotokan karate for nearly thirty years), it was also a delight to witness a lot of the process of making rice paper. I know that won't appeal to others as much as to me, but the practice is an integral part of the story also, acting as a counterpoint to the encroaching evil of modernity in the form of a planned harvesting of much of the forest to make way for the development of a golf course...

Add in now the actors, none of whom I'd seen before. Not that it mattered: they all performed their roles flawlessly, even though others might think some of the actors may have been overacting, particularly Kazurhiro Yamaji who played the belligerent husband and incestuous womanizer, Takanao. Yuki Amami who played Miki Bonomiya is just sublime as the main protagonist of this drama - one that surrounds the myth of the Dog Spirit that is a curse upon the Bonomiya family of the village of Omine. All of the village's troubles surface when the new teacher, Akira Nutahara (played by Atsuro Watabe) arrives to take up a new job at the school. He's much more than what he seems to be and unhappily for all, he falls in love with Miki, with startling and surprising results. And, in the background, lurks a local hunter who has killed 999 wild animals - and he's waiting for the right moment to bag number 1000...

It's a complex story that mixes ancient myth and ceremony, incestuous family ties, jealous and unrequited lovers, and a gradual descent into murderous horror. For those who enjoy the idea of ghosts or spirits, there is also the Dog Spirit, a loose translation of the title. Inugami, however, has a literal translation of 'god dog', which is a palindrome in English: looks and spells the same, either way. And that, I think, is curiously appropriate, considering the true nature of Miki and her mother, Tomie (played by Shiho Fuimura). So, for those who delve or dabble in Freudian psychology, this story is a treat; for others less inclined, it tends to be confusing especially if you pay little heed to the family connections. The subtitles, however, are up to scratch – but I did skip back a few times, just to make sure I was following the story okay.

Overall, however, the whole experience appears to move quite slowly, so some viewers will chomp at the bit, wondering why nothing much seems to be happening at various times. All I can say is: patience is a virtue.

My only real criticism is that the story ends ambiguously, appearing to remain rooted in fantasy, instead of psychology.

And finally, I was interested to note Harada had directed Kamikazi Taxi (1995), a thriller I saw ten years ago, now. I quite enjoyed that, as I have Inugami. The difference between the two in genre, pacing, narrative and mise-en-scene, however, is so great it amplifies the skill Harada shows as a director. I think Harada is, therefore, a director to watch (no pun intended) and monitor.

Not recommended for children of any age: the graphic sex scenes and violence are just too much for immature minds.