Imprint
Imprint
| 27 May 2006 (USA)
Imprint Trailers

An American journalist travels through 19th-century Japan to find the prostitute he fell in love with but instead learns of the physical and existential horror that befell her after he left.

Reviews
Kattiera Nana I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.
Rio Hayward All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.
Sarita Rafferty There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.
Skyler Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.
Smoreni Zmaj Even if the story doesn't take place in Japan, it is clear at first glance that this is a Japanese director. Takashi Miike did an excellent job. The film is slow and gradually brings you into the story, building an extremely strong atmosphere. On the visual side it is perhaps the best episode so far, and the scenes of violence will freeze the blood in your veins. But it seems to me that the scriptwriters did not devise the whole story in time, and the end gives the impression of over-the-top improvisation, which brings this horror drama to the edge of absurd comedy, similar to Henenlotter's B horrors. That's why I can not go over7/10
sorinapha After starting my out-of-sequence watch through of the Masters of Horror series with Jenifer (which was a bit of a disappointment), I decided to go all out and watch Imprint next. Having just seen Audition (1999) last night, I guess you could say I was feeling ambitious.And just...wow.Wow.I would be lying if I didn't admit that I had to pause this a few times and come back to it. It was visceral and uncomfortable and wild, with a torture scene that, in my opinion, was a little harsher than the notorious acupuncture scene in Audition. The plot was surprisingly solid for an hour-long television episode (would-be television episode, I guess I should say), but then I think a great deal of that has to do with the fact that this was based on a preexisting written work; I would be interested in reading the source material sometime.Billy Drago's performance was a bit lackluster, and it seemed clear that he was cast because of his looks and reputation rather than talent. That did take away from the outermost part of the frame tale, but all of the flashbacks were sound, and I was especially intrigued by Miike's use of colors. It was admittedly a bit ham-handed at times, but an interesting choice nonetheless.I would rate this higher, but it does lack the cinematic finery of Miike's previous work, Audition, but scaled up on the shock value, which did feel out of balance and a little forced. However, despite its flaws, I liked it, and between this and Audition (1999), I nervously await the opportunity to see more of Miike's work.
George Roots (GeorgeRoots) If there's anything that holds Takashi Miike back, aside from being banned from American Television. Is that had they got a more competent Western actor, and the Japanese cast spoke Japanese. "Imprint" could have easily received a higher rating and set a new "benchmark" for TV horror.Sadly censorship from air has hindered it, but the fans can find it part of the "Masters of Horror" home release. Miike thought he was working well within the limits, but I do admit seeing foetuses being chucked down a river is pretty vivid stuff that we've come to expect from this director. All I really wanted to say is that Mr. Takashi gets his 60 minutes and doesn't waste a single one. Fans of his films can expect these ridiculous levels of violence, and though it somewhat lacks a moral statement or representing theme. A little more polish could have instantly made this all the more memorable.Final Verdict: If you're a fan definitely seek it out, it's pretty fun to gross people out when discussing it. 7/10.
super marauder The story itself is about an American returning to an island in Japan to rescue his true love from a life of prostitution only to find out she's dead. He listens to the story from another prostitute to find out what happened.I myself can't go into too much detail because the story is all over the place. I think it would have been better if for one thing if with the exception of the prostitute telling the story to Billy Drago it should have been in Japanese with subtitles. You can tell the rest of the cast didn't have a good grasp of English. Billy Drago is a much better actor than he is here because he really over acts. And there are too many images that are a little too disturbing for me, oddly it is not the famous torture scene. But I can see it as true horror is not monsters in the dark, but what people really do to each other. One more thing, the reveal at the end was really cheesy! So to some it up I gave it a 6 because there is a good story here somewhere. And I have to give a shout out to the actress who was being tortured because she really sold me on that! On the DVD extras she said she really enjoyed filming that and the only injury that she got was a headache from being hung upside down. So that took some of the edge off of this to remind this is a movie. The Godzilla movies aside, this is my first taste of J-horror and I think I'll be back for more.