TORMENTED (2011)

 

I originally wrote this review in 2016 for a "zine" called HARA-KIRI: EXTREME ASIAN FILMS. The zine was a project masterminded by my good friend Dave Koenig, known to his friends and fans on Youtube and Facebook as A Fiend On Film. Dave is a guy filled with creative energy who has published other one-shot zines, some of which I have been privileged to participate in. I was honored when Dave asked me to take part in this project as well.

It must be said at the outset that one man's Extreme Asian Cinema is another man's Julie Andrews Film Festival. As someone who tends to avoid films loaded down with graphic violence and buckets of (hopefully fake) blood, my concept of "extreme" is no doubt quite different than someone with a higher tolerance for the glories of gore. That certainly proved to be true when I read some of the other reviews included in this zine! However, in the last several years, I've begun to appreciate horror films from Japan, such as Takashi Shimizu's JU-ON aka THE GRUDGE, and Kiyoshi Kurosawa's KAIRO aka PULSE. Although these films contain a certain amount of violence, they tend to rely more on mood, atmosphere and dark imagery to provide viewers with chills and thrills. With his 2011 3D release TORMENTED, Shimizu continues his legacy with a dark mystery that  has children as the central characters.

The story concerns Kiriko (Hikari Mitsushima), a young girl who lives with her father, Kohei (Teruyuki Kagawa), and her little half-brother, Daigo (Takeru Shibuya). Kohei is a creator of pop-up books for children. Kiriko has suffered some sort of trauma that has left her unable to speak. She is very protective toward Daigo and is worried about his behavior. Daigo killed a rabbit that was being raised by the children at their school. Kohei seems too preoccupied to share Kiriko's concern for her brother. One night, Kiriko takes Daigo to see the 3D horror movie THE SHOCK LABYRINTH, and a stuffed rabbit comes out of the screen and into Daigo's arms. Daigo begins having strange dreams where he is taken to an amusement park by a giant rabbit. At first, the rabbit is friendly and they have fun at the park. But soon the rabbit's appearance changes, becoming menacing and threatening. The rabbit leads Daigo into an abandoned hospital where he sees a vision of a woman bleeding and dying on a gurney.

Kiriko tries desperately to communicate with her father about Daigo's nightmares. Her father reacts in anger and tells her to stop her delusions. After this, Kiriko begins to remember events that she had repressed. A few years ago, her father brought home a new wife, Kyoko, who was very pregnant. Kiriko was unable to accept her new stepmother and became increasingly angry and agitated. One day her father took her to an amusement park. While riding on the carousel, she was surprised by Kyoko, dressed up as a giant rabbit. Kyoko gave her stepdaughter a stuffed rabbit as a gift. Kiriko pushed Kyoko off of the carousel, causing her to go into premature labor. At a nearby hospital, Kyoko died, along with her infant son. Kiriko, in her guilt and grief, had imagined that the baby had lived. Daigo was a creation of her delusional mind. It was she who was having the nightmares, and she who killed the rabbit at her school. She has been living in terror of Kyoko coming back from the dead for revenge.

Hikari Mitsushima

In spite of regaining her memory, Kiriko continues to see and interact with Daigo. One day he leads her to the abandoned hospital where Kyoko and her baby died. Daigo stabs Kiriko and pushes her down a stairwell to her death. At the film's end, Kohei is seen walking hand in hand with his little son, Daigo.

This film is graced with an outstanding performance by actress Hikari Mitsushima, and the other actors are also very talented, making the surreal, somewhat convoluted plot believable. There is such a palpable feeling of sadness and dread throughout the film, and it rarely lets up. Also worth mentioning are the cinematography and the set designs. Our first look at the amusement park in Daigo's dream is a vision of dazzling beauty, which is soon replaced by a vision of unrelenting darkness, and an apprehension of danger waiting for the child. Shimizu uses scenes from his own film THE SHOCK LABYRINTH as the movie-within-the-movie. No doubt the giant rabbit will call to mind the image of Frank the rabbit in DONNIE DARKO. The Darko Cult members will have to decide for themselves which cinematic hare is more disturbing.

Violence is minimal in TORMENTED. But the shocking death of Kiriko is, in my opinion, worthy of the term "extreme". Many horror fans would probably disagree. In any case, the film is worth seeing. You will be haunted by its imagery, and by the marvelous acting of Hikari Mitsushima.