Rating: NR
Genre:
Horror
Release Date: 10/13/2009
SubTitles: English
Dubbed: Japanese
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 90 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations
Distributor/Studio: Eastern Star
Based on the phenomenally popular
horror manga by
Junji Ito,
Uzumaki is the debut feature of Japanese music video director
Higuchinsky (born
Akirhiro Higuchi). Something strange is going on in the small town of Kurozu-cho.
Kirie Goshima (
Ericko Hatsune) notices
Toshio Saito (popular character actor
Ren Osugi), the father of her longtime friend,
Shuichi (
Fhi Fan), videotaping an extreme close-up of the spiral pattern on a snail's shell.
Shuichi explains that his father is acting strangely, and impulsively asks
Kirie to elope with him. She shyly demurs. Later,
Toshio asks
Kirie's father, a potter, to make him a plate with an uzumaki, or spiral, pattern.
Shuichi and his mother,
Yukie (
Keiko Takahashi), are increasingly alarmed by
Toshio's obsession with all things spiral. When
Shuichi throws away his father's collection of spiral objects,
Toshio is unconcerned. "The idea's enough," he tells his family, "One brings forth one's own uzumaki." He then proceeds to do just that, in bizarre and disturbing ways. At school,
Kirie sees a boy gleefully hurl himself to his death at the bottom of a spiral staircase. Another boy shows up to class late, moving suspiciously slowly, and covered in slime. A popular girl,
Kyoko (
Hinako Saeki), curls her hair into
Medusa-like spiral patterns that eventually engulf the entire hallway. As the town slips deeper into madness, a reporter,
Ichiro Tamura (
Masami Horiuchi), shows up to help
Kirie and
Shuichi search for the reason, which seems connected to a strange occurrence years ago at nearby Dragonfly Pond.
Uzumaki is not to be confused with
Joji Iida's
Rasen, the sequel to
Ringu, which also featured
Saeki.
~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
;)
