Hana-Dama: The Origins (2014) User Reviews

What in the F did I just watch?

[selfdestructo · 4/10 · 20 April 2023]

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.

Hisayasu Sato is still making nutty films.

[ebossert · 7/10 · 30 July 2014]

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.

Gives New Meaning to the Term Flower Power

[jfrentzen-942-204211 · 8/10 · 22 May 2020]

Hisayasu Sato takes on the themes of school bullies and Japanese family dysfunction (the latter one of his recurring subjects) in this solidly made and audacious movie. Transfer student Mizuki (Rina Sakuragi) is bullied ruthlessly by a phalanx of sadistic classmates. While she is determined to sustain a calm composure against the threats, her new passive and sycophantic friend Kirie (Maika Shimamura) is more seriously traumatized by the bullies and the teachers, as well. These two form an alliance with Shibanai (Syun Asada), who is also tormented by teachers that have sexual sadism on their minds. Likewise, Muzuki's home life is a despairing situation in which she maintains more of a zombie-like state, absorbing her parents' relentless recriminations and privately putting out burning cigarettes on her legs in order to feel anything. It does take Sato quite a while to bring the intensity of the beatings, humiliations and rape to a boil.

In the final act, though, instead of following audience expectations the film veers off into a surprisingly effective abstraction of revenge, in which Mizuki becomes possessed by an evil spirit in the form of a glowing, oversized flower that attaches itself to her and turns her into a sort of avenging angel. The penultimate sequence in Mizuki's classroom is a brilliantly shot montage of crazed children exacting her revenge for her, by their own hands against one another. Sato even turns the violence against the audience -- at one point Mizuki's insane gaze becomes transfixed on Sato's camera which she slashes at bloodily with a box cutter. Concurrently, back at home Mizuki's insane parents clutch and scream at each other in a grotesque sexual frenzy while rolling around in garbage.

HANA DAMA: THE ORIGINS is further proof that Sato has continued to mature as a filmmaker and is also still willing to take viewers to places they never dreamed a movie would go. The production values in his movies have also improved dramatically, with good staging, photography and an excellent music score by Yoshihide Ôtomo. In addition, Rina Sakuragi gives an exceptional performance in the very difficult role of Mizuki.