Masuoka is a camera man who wants nothing more than to feel the deepest fear possible. When he on video witnesses another man commit suicide in the train station, he realizes that the man has seen something that made him kill himself and goes to the train station in search for what the man could've seen. There he enters the netherworld, and after walking deep under the city of Tokyo for some time, he finds a naked girl in chains. He takes the girl home but soon realizes that she's not human and that she doesn't want to drink or eat. When Masuoka later gets cut by accident, the girl that he calls "F" drinks the blood from his cut. What is she and was it a wise decision to bring her up to his world?
A lot of people seem to diss this movie, while a lot seem to be really impressed and adore it. Marebito truly separates itself from the general Asian horrors, being a totally different experience and that is just one of many things that makes Marebito great. Because it's truly a great movie that has an eerie feel to it from start to finish, and has a story that is really something else. I'm happy that the movie didn't have any ghosts with long black hair or any other of those elements that has become somewhat of a routine when it comes to new Asian horror. Instead Marebito is more of a psychological horror that has no scares that will make you jump out of your seat, but that has a really creepy feel to it.
This man, Masuoka, is constantly filming, is searching and wants to experience real fear. His search leads him to a world beneath Tokyo where he finds a girl that does not seem to be completely human. He takes her home and studies her, has a camera on that tapes her when he goes out, but it doesn't make him any wiser to what she is. One day when out filming, Masuoka gets beaten up by a man who does not like him taping him and breaks his camera. Masuoka then cuts himself on the broken lens which leads him to find out that the only thing the girl craves is blood. He then starts taking home animals but she only seems completely satisfied when she gets to feed on human blood. He cuts himself and lets her drink his blood but figures that he needs more blood, and that leads him into deeper trouble.
 
Marebito comes out feeling extremely fresh and original. The movie was shot in only 8 days and even though it's shaky and does not look that great at times, those are just minor things that won't stop you from enjoying this fine piece of Japanese cinema. Another thing that makes Marebito great is that it's very unpreditable, you have no idea what's gonna happen next and where things eventually are gonna lead to.
The best thing though is that while watching the movie and after finished watching it, I actually didn't think it was very scary. Sure it was eerie and creepy as hell at times but it wasn't as scary as I first had thought it would be. But much later on it kinda hit me just how unsettling Marebito really was, just like what happened when watching Ringu for the first time. It sticks in your mind, and that creepy feeling is really hard to shake off. So it gets a lot of credit for that accomplishment, it's truly rare with movies that can do that to you.
"F" herself is not the most creepy character in this movie like you at first might have thought she would be. It's actually Masuoka, the camera man, who's the creepy character here considering everything the man is doing. Tomomi Miyashita who stars as "F" is truly great in the role, she walk on all four and it makes her look more like some kind of creature than a human being. Because after all, she looks like a human being, and not a blood drinking monster of any kind. In the special features on the DVD, there's an interview with director Takashi Shimizu (Ju-on: The Grudge 1-2) who had heard that she walked around like that naked in her apartment before the shooting of the film to get into the role. It's a fun fact and she manages to do a great job looking really creepy walking like that.
The star of the movie though is Shinya Tsukamoto who does an excellent job starring as Masuoka. It's belivable, feels real and without a performance like that, I don't know how Marebito would have looked like. The atmosphere is just fantastic and even though there's not much music in the movie, there are a number of unsettling sounds that works really well.
Marebito is sick, twisted, original, eerie, but in the end an awesome unsettling movie that stays with you long after it's over and that I'm really happy I got to see. It's not fast-paced neither slow-paced, but moves forward in a really good tempo that lets every little thing sink in while it's running. It's hard to recommend since I know there are a lot of people who sure won't like it. Personally, I think it's one of the better Japanese movies I've seen in a very long time.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: The Stranger from Afar
MOVIE YEAR: 2004
DIRECTOR: Takashi Shimizu
WRITING CREDITS: Chiaki Konaka
GENRE: Horror, Drama, Fantasy
CAST: Shinya Tsukamoto, Tomomi Miyashita, Kazuhiro Nakahara
COUNTRY: Japan
RUNTIME: 92 min
RATING: 10/10
Marebito Website/IMDB Click here
Marebito Trailer Click here
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