Synopsis
Watch your mouth.
An American journalist travels through 19th-century Japan to find the prostitute he fell in love with but instead learns of the physical and existential horror that befell her after he left.
Imprint
2006 ‘インプリント〜ぼっけえ、きょうてえ〜’ Directed by Takashi Miike
Cast
Director
Writer
Original Writer
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Cinematography
Executive Producer
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Studios
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Primary Language
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Alternative Titles
La Maison des Sévices, Sulle tracce del terrore - Imprint, Отпечаток, Masters of Horror: Imprint, インプリント ～ぼっけえ、きょうてえ～, Inpurinto ~bokke kyote~, 鬼妓回忆录, インプリント ぼっけえ、きょうてえ, Huella, 마스터즈 오브 호러 에피소드 13 - 임프린트, A Horror Mesterei: Rémkép, La Maison des sévices, インプリント〜ぼっけえ、きょうてえ〜, 鬼妓回憶錄
Releases by Date
Theatrical
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Germany18
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Japan
TV
07 Apr 2006
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UK
Releases by Country
Germany
27 May 2006
- Theatrical18
Japan
27 May 2006
- Theatrical
UK
07 Apr 2006
- TV Bravo
Popular reviews
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This one is so intense! Hard to watch at times but I still greatly enjoy it! Seems almost silly at times even almost absurd but it still doesn’t ruin it! Directed by Takeshita Miike and seen in Masters of Horror. If you think you can handle it check it out!
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I feel closer to the dead than the living. The living are the ones who really scare me.
🪡Hoping to reconnect with his long lost love, Christopher travels to Japan and meets a scarred prostitute who holds the key to discovering his beloved’s fate, she tells him Komomo is deceased and is told the misfortunes his love had to endure awaiting his arrival back to her.
Imprint is a pretty short— not so sweet— twisted tale, an utterly messed up hour long venture into the massively cruel mind that is Takashi Miike, it mainly suffers because—let’s be honest Billy Drago’s performance is so over-the-top and fucking piss poor it’s pretty clear he didn’t want any part in this! On the…
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Hoop-Tober, Film 6 of 31:
Here's what I want to know - did Takashi Miike really look back on the raw footage from shooting this episode and think, "damn, Billy's acting is on point!" Cause if he did, then he's even more insane than I already imagined, haha. If I was directing this episode, I would have had to stop the shoot multiple times to inform good ol' Mr. Drago to tone his shit down... like a lot. I can usually handle strange or unorthodox styles of line delivery, but his performance here was just poor, in my opinion, and it seems like many of you are in agreement.
With that being said, some of the shots in Imprint are…
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Like the Showtime people were like, "This was too disturbing for TV." and I was like, "Yeah, sure, okay, you weenies." But it turns out, I was the weenie all along.
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In all of Takashi Miike's filmography, or even in the history of horror films, I cannot think of anything as unsettling, as disturbing, as terrifying as Billy Drago's line readings.
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Imprint looks exquisite, from its elaborate traditional interiors, to its mountainous landscapes, to the rogue corpse floating in the river.
The striking visuals are suplemented by creative body horror elements and distinctive makeup fx. Imprint's grisly torture scene contains some really chilling sound effects but is more restraint than some would lead you to believe. Having said that, this film was made with the initial intent of being broadcasted on tv. Nevertheless, Miike decided to throw caution to the wind and fling fetuses at children. Always a pleasure to watch his mind at work (starting to get slightly concerned with his obsession with incest though).
Effective little twists are packed into a short 1 hour runtime. Despite being slow off the mark and poorly acted (which can massively be attributed to the tortured English dialogue), Imprint is a hugely entertaining, grim little outing.
History of Horror 2021: Week 10: Japan
Original list: here
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MICK GARRIS: You gotta do the show, Takashi. There are no content restrictions. You can show anything.
TAKASHI MIIKE: Everything, you say?
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There's something wonderful about the mountainous lack of understanding Miike clearly has of American TV audiences
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Well...Masters of Horror certainly saved it's most extreme episode for last! The first thing that hits home with this is the aesthetic; Audition director Takeshi Miike augments his tale with some beautiful colours that give Imprint a real other-worldly feel. The story focuses on an American man who travels to Japan in search of his lost love, but ultimately finds more than he bargained for! The torture scenes in this are extreme and gruelling, and they exist alongside further themes such as abortion, rape and child abuse! Billy Drago is totally over the top in the lead role. Certain scenes towards the end are frankly ridiculous...but yet somehow it works. The final revelation falls somewhere between smart and totally insane but I kind of loved it? All the themes seem a bit crammed into one hour and not quite everything works; but it's nothing if not memorable and easily one of the best episodes of the first series.
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Oh wow, this is bad.
Poor dialogue. Poor acting. Gratuitous physical assault of a woman - just because. Gratuitous torture porn scene (not my bag, I fast forwarded), as Miike is wont to do. Overall, far more goofy (and generally awful) than scary. I seriously cackled at the "twist" because it's so laughable.
Obviously, all film is subjective. There are plenty of movies that I dislike that others love, and vice versa. Still, this is one of those rare cases where I personally can't even begin to comprehend how or why this movie's so well-received. But that's me. I'm glad it works for a lot of people. I wish it had for me as well.
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Takashi Miike does what Takashi Miike does best in Imprint, but its subtle lead in lulls the viewer into a false sense of security, and only when its mythical dream state flicks to blood soaked nightmare do we truly experience a director with trouble on his mind.
A man searches for his long-lost love, arriving at an island with a strange beauty. Strange beauties everywhere, trading their services for coins and seeking comfort. Komomo has moved on though. Racked with pain. Plundered by a vicious horde. Damaged, every one.
Dressed up in a messed up Japanenglish cocktail of language and smeared with a vivid palette of colour, this film initially made for TV maintains its theme of beauty, and while the narrative is simple and its performances largely unmemorable, the theme digs deep. Nestling in the far reaches of our consciousness.
This is stylish dread.
This is Takashi Miike. -
