I will not go over plot points already covered in other reviews, but rather add another dimension to the discussion of the horror / gore aspect of the movie. Essentially I agree with the points point forward by the reviewer 'tedg' from Virginia Beach.
In my view, the horrific and gory scenes of Aoyama being drugged, dismembered and so on are all dreamt. That is, everything between Aoyama being covered with a sheet after entering the bed with Asami and his waking up to fetch a glass of water is a dream. The dream continues after he goes back to bed.
To put it simply, at the surface level, the movie is a psychologically acute and well acted drama about the growing relationship between Asami and Aoyama. Now, just as vintage horror fans will tell you, that which is implied is far more subtly terrifying than simple splatter and gore. The torture and punishment Aoyama undergoes at the hands of Asami is a nightmare firmly rooted in the narrative of the so-called boring build-up to these gut-wrenching scenes.
An attentive look at the first three quarters of the movie reveals how motifs, phrases, and the emotional 'baggage' brought by each protagonist to the relationship are reworked in Aoyama's subconscious into a terrifying nightmare.
It is to the writer's credit that this nightmare follows dream-logic in a way that is still cinematic and accessible. It is a dream which reveals much about the character of Aoyama, and nothing at all about Asami. (In fact, through the whole film, she is more an object of his gaze and interpretation than a subject narrating her own experience.)
Does this mean that this movie should not be classified as a horror film? In my view, it is better seen, any only makes sense, at the level of an insightful, character driven drama about the guilt-complex of a traditional middle-aged man decided upon marrying a younger woman with some baggage of her own. Her 'baggage' is, of course, only alluded to, but it is enough for Aoyama's imagination to work into a powerful expression of his own fears and sense of guilt. And, likeable as the character of Aoyama is, there is enough for his guilt to chew on: he has used the an artificial and deceptive 'audition' to find himself a wife. He was against the idea but talked into it by his coworker. Is it so strange that his subconscious should reproach him for it? He is remarrying after the death of his first wife through illness. Is it so strange that she should reappear in the dream sequence to warn him against Asami? And Asami herself is somewhat of a mysterious character. She is marrying a far older man. Why? And why isn't she already involved with someone. She has had a difficult upbringing. What emotional scars might it have left on her? The character herself, so brilliantly acted, also conveys a negative 'vibe' in the way some people just seem to do.
This is a movie in which the 'male' gaze is very much the primary one. The story is told from his point of view. But the female has her own revenge. She intrudes through the workings of his subconscious, complicated by his doubts and his repressed sense of guilt. If she must be objectified in the manner she is, an unattached female drawn out of a short-list of viable female candidates and turned into a dutiful wife, then she might just become, potentially a rather nasty object. In the strange, reverse world of the dream, she has become the active subject, and he is the drugged and immobile victim of her tortures and punishments. .
Why, then, is the movie always referred to as a horror film? In short, it needed to be promoted as such to get an audience. If the reviews here are anything to go by, it certainly seems to have been received as such.
But it is so much more than a horror flick, one-and-a-half hours more in fact. It is NOT a horror film with good characterization, but an insightful romantic drama with a violent undertone of personal and cultural repression. In fact, I would say that it is unique in standing between the two genres, linking the two and transgressing the bounds of both, for if horror films are so often characterless splatterfests, then romantic dramas are also often guilty of being superficial, sugary twaddle. To see it any other way is to overlook what the film achieves at once so brilliantly and so terrifyingly. Whether this was a fluke or intended as such, can only be answered by the director himself. I like to think, that like Asami, this movie can take on a life of its own in the viewer's mind.
In my view, the horrific and gory scenes of Aoyama being drugged, dismembered and so on are all dreamt. That is, everything between Aoyama being covered with a sheet after entering the bed with Asami and his waking up to fetch a glass of water is a dream. The dream continues after he goes back to bed.
To put it simply, at the surface level, the movie is a psychologically acute and well acted drama about the growing relationship between Asami and Aoyama. Now, just as vintage horror fans will tell you, that which is implied is far more subtly terrifying than simple splatter and gore. The torture and punishment Aoyama undergoes at the hands of Asami is a nightmare firmly rooted in the narrative of the so-called boring build-up to these gut-wrenching scenes.
An attentive look at the first three quarters of the movie reveals how motifs, phrases, and the emotional 'baggage' brought by each protagonist to the relationship are reworked in Aoyama's subconscious into a terrifying nightmare.
It is to the writer's credit that this nightmare follows dream-logic in a way that is still cinematic and accessible. It is a dream which reveals much about the character of Aoyama, and nothing at all about Asami. (In fact, through the whole film, she is more an object of his gaze and interpretation than a subject narrating her own experience.)
Does this mean that this movie should not be classified as a horror film? In my view, it is better seen, any only makes sense, at the level of an insightful, character driven drama about the guilt-complex of a traditional middle-aged man decided upon marrying a younger woman with some baggage of her own. Her 'baggage' is, of course, only alluded to, but it is enough for Aoyama's imagination to work into a powerful expression of his own fears and sense of guilt. And, likeable as the character of Aoyama is, there is enough for his guilt to chew on: he has used the an artificial and deceptive 'audition' to find himself a wife. He was against the idea but talked into it by his coworker. Is it so strange that his subconscious should reproach him for it? He is remarrying after the death of his first wife through illness. Is it so strange that she should reappear in the dream sequence to warn him against Asami? And Asami herself is somewhat of a mysterious character. She is marrying a far older man. Why? And why isn't she already involved with someone. She has had a difficult upbringing. What emotional scars might it have left on her? The character herself, so brilliantly acted, also conveys a negative 'vibe' in the way some people just seem to do.
This is a movie in which the 'male' gaze is very much the primary one. The story is told from his point of view. But the female has her own revenge. She intrudes through the workings of his subconscious, complicated by his doubts and his repressed sense of guilt. If she must be objectified in the manner she is, an unattached female drawn out of a short-list of viable female candidates and turned into a dutiful wife, then she might just become, potentially a rather nasty object. In the strange, reverse world of the dream, she has become the active subject, and he is the drugged and immobile victim of her tortures and punishments. .
Why, then, is the movie always referred to as a horror film? In short, it needed to be promoted as such to get an audience. If the reviews here are anything to go by, it certainly seems to have been received as such.
But it is so much more than a horror flick, one-and-a-half hours more in fact. It is NOT a horror film with good characterization, but an insightful romantic drama with a violent undertone of personal and cultural repression. In fact, I would say that it is unique in standing between the two genres, linking the two and transgressing the bounds of both, for if horror films are so often characterless splatterfests, then romantic dramas are also often guilty of being superficial, sugary twaddle. To see it any other way is to overlook what the film achieves at once so brilliantly and so terrifyingly. Whether this was a fluke or intended as such, can only be answered by the director himself. I like to think, that like Asami, this movie can take on a life of its own in the viewer's mind.