A Slit-Mouthed Woman

Kuchisake-onna (2005), Japanese

Director: Kôji Shiraishi

Synopsis

A rumor about a slit-mouthed woman starts spreading all over a small town, particularly among young children. Following a violent earthquake, which appears to open its tomb, an evil spirit appears only to randomly start kidnapping and attacking defenseless children.

Review

After penning Noroi: The Curse, one of the scariest J-horror movies of the last decade, Kôji Shiraishi decided, two years later, to focus on the Japanese urban myth of the slit mouth lady, which has been known in Japan for several generations. The legend has survived and has spread as any other urban myth, with the story of a woman asking the ones who cross her path if she is pretty and consequently showing them the hideous scar on her face and thus either killing them or disfiguring their face in a similar way. Among other terrifying (and sometimes hilarious) details, the slit-mouthed woman is supposed to carry with her a pair of scissors as her weapon, being able to run up to 100 km/h and having a bizarre interest in special Japanese candies. Interestingly enough, the director has however decided to distance from the urban myth, although one character refers the fact that the rumors of the slit mouth lady have been heard for decades. The appearance of the evil entity is, as always, explained on the basis of a cruel vengeful spirit that comes back for revenge, as it became a cliché in the J-horror panorama for the last few years. The plot lacks consistency, and even though the history of the slit-mouthed woman is well explained and detailed during the movie, bottom line, her initial appearance appears to be left to interpretation although a few possibilities may come to mind – the result of an earthquake and the opening of her own tomb, the result of a critical mass of believers sharing the rumors of the story of an evil entity, or simply the fact that her appearance may seem to symbolize an explanation for adult’s cruelty towards children.

Unfortunately during the movie, events simply seem to carelessly pile up, with a few scenes being particularly dumb to say the least. No effort is put into creating an atmosphere of intrigue. The repressed memories of professor Matsuzaki simply came back off a sudden when he visited his old home. No crescendos were registered, no increasing tension or hype were observed before each appearance of the slit mouth lady. Something could have been said regarding the abusive treatment and negligence towards children during the film, as well as the consequences of violence and these abuses. Unfortunately, the number of abusive or neglecting mothers would just serve as a way to keep the evil spirit coming back. In fact, violence is somehow excused in these cases as a result of insanity or an abrupt change of the familiar background.

Apart from the female teacher, the remaining characters were particularly uninteresting. The majority of the scenes lacked credibility, the abductions were always particularly random, and no patterns were observed with the slit-mouthed woman usually coming out of nowhere. Contrarily to what is usually common, the present ghost entity exhibited a physical body. For some reason however, the characters would not be able to fight back, being hilariously knocked down unconscious after being slapped by the slit mouth lady herself. Which is usually used to explore supernatural powers, was in this case a sequence of characters staring at the ghost, gasping, screaming and crawling, as the slit-mouthed woman, wearing heels, would continually kick each one of them.

The making-of suggested Kôji Shiraishi didn't put a particular effort or thought into the plot, with the movie being shot in a considerably short period of time. Probably as a result, the film seems to lack consistency and interest for the most part, with a few elements of interest being nonetheless terribly explored.