It's the mid 1800s and a young American named Christopher ventures to Japan in search for a prostitute he loved and left behind years earlier. His search leads him to an island where demons and whores rule the night and where he meets a deformed courtesan who tells him a tale of extreme cruelty and perverse vengeance.
Imprint has it all - well, at least when it comes to sick stuff. I can definitely see why Showtime didn't want to air Miike's contribution to the Masters of Horror series, but at the same time, if your familiar with Miike's work, Imprint won't come as a complete shock either. It is quite shocking though and this sadistic little film has some stuff in it that'll make even the most hardcore fans of gore and horror cringe, I know I sure did. It touches on the concept of the dreaded Guinea Pig films, dealing with torture and a helluva lot of other nasty stuff, but at the same time, it tells an interesting story. So it's not just being shocking for the sake of being shocking, it has something to back it up with - something that is both clever and good.
Miike knows how to make movies, and furthermore, he knows how to make different movies - films that are like nothing else and that's why it's always so darn interesting to see his work. That doesn't mean that all that he do is outstanding, or even very good at all times for that matter. There seems to be a lot of people out there who likes him just because you're "supposed" to like him, and that's just plain stupid. I've watched most of his stuff that I've been able to get my hands on, and while some movies has been utterly amazing, some other stuff has just not been that great at all. Although, I'd have to admit that it's always very interesting to watch his films for the fact that they're always very different from what else is out there.
Imprint is a hard film to write about due to the fact that I'm somewhat indecisive to where I stand. While there were things that I really liked in the film, there were also a bunch of things that I didn't like. That's usually the case when it comes to most movies, but it feels harder to put a rating on this one, for different kinds of reasons. It's a good film, but that of course have positive as well as negative sides to it. Let's break it down shall we and maybe it's best to start with the complaints to get that over with..
 
First off, I wish they would've been speaking Japanese in the film, because that would've felt a helluva lot more genuine since the movie takes place in Japan, and everyone in it is Japanese, except for Billy Drago. He should've learned a few sentences in Japanese instead of everyone else speaking English. Why? Because like I said, it doesn't feel genuine - the language doesn't come natural to them and therefore the lines sometimes feels forced. Other than that, it's every now and then very hard to hear what they say. What else, well, too much focus on torture, at least when it comes to one scene when a whore is being tortured for about 5 minutes straight - it was hell to sit through that. I mean, the film obviously needs elements of torture, but I felt that the story was good/strong enough anyway, so with that scene being as (hyper) graphic as it was, wasn't really necessary. It's a matter of taste though, and I guess some people will like it for that reason.
Another thing that I felt didn't fit was the performance of Billy Drago. Simply put, it just didn't do the film justice and it felt like he was trying too hard which I guess made everything have the opposite effect to what it was supposed to have. This on the other hand is no major complaint and the film still remained more than watchable, but if I'm gonna be honest I didn't feel that his performance was very good - or that is, belivable enough. Ok, that's it, no more complaints. 30 minutes or so into the movie, I wasn't as caught up in it as I thought I would be and was, for a short while, afraid that it wasn't gonna deliver. It did deliver though, and started doing so around the time when the whore told Billy Drago her 3rd version of a story. When she did that, things got nasty as well as interesting and more clear as well as at the same time it remained somewhat mysterious. You can also add sick, horrific, repulsive, smart and spooky to that list and I'm still sure that I've forgotten about ten more words or so to describe it with. Either way, Imprint will leave a mark on you, that's for sure.
While Miike's contribution to Mick Garris' Masters of Horror series maybe wasn't the best episode that season 1 had to offer, it is definitely the most controversial one. I've only seen it one time so far and will be watching it again real soon, because I'm quite sure that this is one of those movies that'll grow on ya. A word of warning though: Imprint is not for the weak of heart of those easily offended either. The film features severe torture, extreme scenes of abortion, incest and a whole heap of other nasty and scary things, so beware of some strong content.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE: Imprint
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Takashi Miike
WRITING CREDITS: Shimako Iwai, Daisuke Tengan
GENRE: Horror
CAST: Billy Drago, Michie Itô, Youki Kudoh
COUNTRY: USA, Japan
RUNTIME: 63 min
RATING: 8/10
Masters of Horror (S01E13): Imprint Website/IMDB Click here
Masters of Horror (S01E13): Imprint Trailer Click here
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